Sources and Citations

Reliability of Sources

Reliable or Questionable?Official government websites (.gov)Blogs Web forumsYouTubeWikipediaTextbooks Individual or business websitesPeer-reviewed journalsNews sourcesUniversities or Educational Institution sites (.edu)

What citation style does History most commonly use?

Chicago Manual Style

Chicago Manual StyleCitation Appears in Two Places:

Chicago requires that you cite sources consulted in the body of your paper (“in-text citations” or footnotes/endnotes) and in the bibliography.

Why Cite? When Cite?You need to cite all sources that you have

consulted, even if you present the ideas from these sources in your own words.

Summarizing, paraphrasing and direct quotations

Footnotes/EndnotesWherever you incorporate another person’s words,

facts, or ideas, insert a footnote or endnote. Footnotes are numbered citations listed at the bottom of

each page within your paper. Endnotes are numbered citations listed on a separate page

at the end of the research paper (before the bibliography). Short form notes may be used if all sources are

included in the bibliography The information and proper format needed in the

footnotes/endnotes are included in your handout or can be found online.

Online citation machines?

Footnotes/EndnotesIbid If you cite the exact same resource multiple

times, one immediately after the other, you can replace the normal note format with ‘Ibid’ and the page number/s.

Example: Ibid., 121.

BibliographyThe bibliography appears at the end of your paper –

it is a list of all sources cited within your paper.List entries in alphabetical order according to the

authors’ last names. If no author is provided, then use the title instead.

Single space each entry in the bibliography and double space between entries.

Indent the second and subsequent lines of the entry (tab once to indent).

Separate Primary and Secondary sources

FormattingTitle PageSpacingPage numbersItalics / Quotations

Title PageInclude the title, author, teacher’s name and dateThe title should be centered a third of the way

down the page. Your name, the date and teacher’s name should follow several lines later

Do not include a page number on the title pageWhat is the purpose of a title?

SpacingDouble-space the body of the paper. 12 point

font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins. Single space footnotes/endnotes Single space bibliographies, leaving a blank line

between entries.

Page NumbersEvery page of your paper must be assigned a

page number, except the title page. Insert page numbers on the far right at the top

of the page.

Italics and QuotationsItalics: Titles of books and journals in the body of

the paper should be in italics. Quotations: Articles, chapters and poems etc

should be in quotation marks.