Q. If one wished to refer to a particular published article a number of times in one’s own writing, how
would one abbreviate the title, since titles can be lengthy? For example, I see an article: “To Dissect
or Not: Student Choice-in-Dissection Laws Ensure the Freedom to Choose,” published in volume 37, number
2, of the April 2008 edition of Journal of Law & Education, from the University of South Carolina. How would one concisely refer to said title?
A. The first few words should do it: “To Dissect or Not.”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
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.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. In a self-published novel, do you need the permission of a certain company to mention a product name/brand or other trademarked
title?
A. You don’t need permission. Fortunately, we are all free to speak and write about Porsches and Jimmy
Choos whether or not we can afford to buy them.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am editing a nonfiction manuscript of interviews with several fiction writers. The author uses ellipses (fairly often) to indicate a long pause in speech or thought. Is this a correct use of ellipses? How do you differentiate between long pauses and omissions of some lines within the transcribed conversation?
A. Yes, ellipses are properly used to indicate long pauses. If you also use them to indicate omissions, then you need to differentiate them and explain in a note how you do so. One way is to use a plain ellipsis for a pause . . . and a bracketed ellipsis [. . .] for an omission.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. This has become a huge issue with our professors. I am the thesis processor for the school and have stated that “Ibid.” should not be the first footnote on a page. The cited work could be two or more pages back. Does Chicago have a rule on this? The academics state that they have never heard of this, but to me it makes perfect sense for the reader to not have to go back to see what the source was. Please help!
A. CMOS doesn’t address this issue, since it doesn’t arise in preparing manuscripts for typesetting. (That’s because there’s no way to know in advance of typesetting whether text that begins a page in a manuscript will begin a page in the typeset version. It’s not likely.) However, the standard reference for preparing theses, Kate L. Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (which is based on Chicago style), does say to “avoid using ibid. to refer to footnotes that do not appear on the same page” (16.4.2). Note that the use of “avoid” suggests that there may be times when it would be more awkward to avoid it than to do it.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. My book has three parts, and each part contains several chapters. Here is the question: do I need to give full publishing
information in each new chapter for items cited earlier in the same part, or can I use the short version of citing (as I do
within each chapter)?
A. If you have a bibliography, you can put short citations everywhere—there’s no
need to give the full information in the notes. If you don’t have a bibliography, readers are best served
by your starting over in every chapter with a full citation upon first mention (parts are irrelevant). Otherwise, they will
go mad trying to find the original citation.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I want to cite one of George Orwell’s books in my bibliography. Given that we are dealing with a pseudonym,
does the citation go under “Orwell, George” or “Blair, Eric
Arthur [George Orwell]”?
A. Put the citation where you think your readers will look first, and use a cross- reference at the other name—e.g.,
“Blair, Eric Arthur. See Orwell, George.” Or, if you’re citing only one work, you could put the title
in both places and save the reader a detour.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. If a book I am citing is in its second edition but was originally translated from German, do I combine all the editions in
the bibliography, or do I list all three separately?
A. Cite in full the edition you are using. It’s usually not necessary to add a book’s
publishing history to a citation, but if details concerning the first edition or German edition of this book are important
or would be useful to your intended reader, by all means include them, either as separate items or as an annotation to the
one you used. It’s not practical to make separate listings for all editions of all the books in a bibliography,
but depending on your work’s level of scholarship, it might be warranted for books central to your thesis.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. How does one create a reference for a work currently at press? I know the title, journal, volume, and number, but not the
pages.
A. Use the word “forthcoming” instead of the year; that will make it obvious why
you don’t have page numbers. Until a work has actually been published, it should be listed as forthcoming,
since publications are routinely delayed.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am using Bible passages in an essay and I cannot seem to understand how to properly cite. What do I do about page numbers,
as the professor will not likely use the same edition as me?
A. That’s right: in Bibles, the book, chapter, and verse numbers are for the most part the same in all
editions, whereas the page numbers are not. It’s a good idea to note somewhere in your essay which version
of the Bible you are using, and then simply cite book, chapter, and verse. In Chicago style, for example, that would be Genesis
3:1.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]