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Citing Sources: Chicago/ Turabian

How is the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style different from the 16th?

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  • Websites that have print counterparts (New York Times) are italicized. Websites that exist in digital format only are not (Buzzfeed News).
  • In previous editions "Ibid" was used to indicate a source had already been cited.  Now you should use a shortened citation when you are citing a citation for the second or third time.

16th ed. example:  

1. Bill Cunningham, Fashion Climbing (New York: Penguin Press, 2018), 19.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid., 30.

17th ed. example:

1. Bill Cunningham, Fashion Climbing (New York: Penguin Press, 2018), 19.

2. Cunningham, 19.

3. Cunningham, 30.

  • For Author-Date style, you can list the publication date in a citation twice for a journal or website.

eg.

Calahan, April. 2018. "Egyptian Elegance: Youssef Rizkallah." Material Mode (blog). Fashion Institute of Technology, October 18, 2018. https://blog.fitnyc.edu/materialmode/2018/10/18/egyptian-elegance-youssef-rizkallah/

Why do I need to cite?

Citations allow us to give credit when we borrow from the words and ideas of author and artists.When you forget to cite or purposely try to pass off someone else's work or ideas as your own, it's considered plagiarism. Besides being dishonest, plagiarism is a violation of the FIT Academic Honor Code. Check out this infographic from Turnitin.com to see how you can avoid the most common types of plagiarism.

Can you recommend some online citation tools?

Just FYI: Our library catalog as well as many of our databases have a built in citation generator tool!

Here are some other popular ones:

Can a librarian help me with my citations?

Yes, we certainly can! Here are a couple of ways to reach us:

For help with in-depth writing and proofreading you can contact the FIT Writing Studio (It's free!)

How do I cite something that's already citing someone else?

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Also known as an indirect or secondary citation. The best way to handle this is to try and access the original source. For example, if you read a news article that cites a market report, you should try to find the market report and cite directly from that. This can also be helpful to make sure you understand the context of the original report.

Sometimes however, you may not have access to the original source. In that case cite the secondary source (i.e. what you have in front of you) using the phrase "quoted in" and mention the original source within the footnote.

According to a Mintel report, consumers are more likely to purchase athletic shoes (65%) over dress shoes (34%) as the trend for comfortable shoes continues.1

1. Mintel Group, "Executive Summary: Men's and Women's Footwear US," May 2018, http://libproxy.fitsuny.edu:2151/display/860397/. quoted in Elizabeth Doupnik, "Athletic Footwear Cash Cow for Brands," Women's Wear Daily, August 2, 2018, https://libproxy.fitsuny.edu:2319/business-news/marketing-promotion/athletic-footwear-cash-cow-for-brands-targeting-u-s-consumers-1202767775/

*In the above example, Mintel is the original source and Doupnik is the secondary source.

How often should I cite?

Q. When doing footnotes, do you put a footnote after every sentence, even if two or more consecutive sentences are from the same source and same page? Or can it be assumed that, regardless of the punctuation (as long as it is in the same paragraph), all that came after the last citation and before the footnote you just inserted is part of the same source and same page?

A. Footnotes should be placed where you need them, not according to a rule. Whenever you can imagine the reader asking “Says who?” you should add a note. It’s not true that the reader can assume that everything between one footnote and the next is attributable to the first source, since most writers interject their own arguments or conclusions between the borrowed materials. If everything in a paragraph is from the same source, however, it’s enough to put one note at the end of the paragraph.

From https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0113.html

What sources did you use for this research guide?

This guide incorporates work from the MLA guide created at St. Francis College. Sources consulted include Plagiarism.orgChicago Manual of Style and OWL at Purdue. Icon made by Freepik and Pixel Perfect from flaticon.com