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Chicago (17th ed.) Citation Style Guide: Further Examples

Personal Communications (14.214)

1.  Karen Klips, email message to author, June 21, 2018.

"References to conversations (whether face-to-face or by telephone) or to letters, email or text messages, or direct or private messages shared through social media and received by the author are usually run in to the text or given in a note. They are rarely listed in a bibliography. Most such information can be referred to simply as a conversation, message, or the like; the medium may be mentioned if relevant." (Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. p. 850)

Pamphlets (14.220)

Bibliographic Form

Outsmarting Crime: A Guide to Safer Living. Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, 1990.

 

Footnote Form

42. Outsmarting Crime: A Guide to Safer Living (Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, 1990), 3.

 

Shortened Note

43. Outsmarting, 2.

Treat a pamphlet as you would a book. Give as much information as you can to identify the pamphlet/document. (Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. p. 853)

Images

Bibliographic Form

Heward, Prudence. In Bermuda. 1939. Painting (63.6x56cm), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/in-bermuda

Footnote Form

2. Prudence Heward, In Bermuda, 1939, painting, (63.6x56cm), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Shortened Note

3. Heward, In Bermuda

In the Chicago Manual of Style, images are referred to as illustrations, figures, artwork, art, photographs, maps and charts (Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. p. 126). 

Unless illustrations/images are presented separately...each should appear as soon as possible after the first text reference to it (Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. p.130).

Images are typically captioned immediately below (but sometimes above or to the side). A caption is explanatory material about the image; it can be as simple as a word or two, or can be several sentences (Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., p.136).

If you directly insert an image into your paper, (as opposed to just referring to it) put the citation information in a caption under the image instead of a footnote. Start the caption with a figure number (e.g. Figure 1.). Refer to this help sheet from the Chicago Manual of Style Website to see an example of an image placed in a paper.

Photographs or Images in a Journal Article

Bibliographic Form

Cooper-Cunningham, Dean. 2019. “Seeing (in)Security, Gender and Silencing: Posters in and about the British Women’s Suffrage Movement.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 21 (3): 383–408. doi:10.1080/14616742.2018.1561203.

Footnote Form

3. Eustace Watkins, Is your Wife a Suffragette?, photograph, 1918/1907, reproduced in Dean Cooper-Cunningham, "Seeing (in)Security, Gender and Silencing: Posters in and about the British Women’s Suffrage Movement.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 21 (3): 397, fig.2. (Photo: LSE Library Collections).

Shortened Form

4. Watkins, Suffragette?, in Cooper-Cunningham, "Seeing (in) Security," 397, fig.2

Photographs from a website

Bibliographic Form

Saint-Jacques, David. Canadarm2. 2019, photograph, Canadian Space Agency, International Space Station, https://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/multimedia/search/Image/Watch/12348?search=ISS

Footnote Form

6. David Saint-Jacques, Canadarm2, 2019, photograph, Canadian Space Agency, International Space Station, https://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/multimedia/search/Image/Watch/12348?search=ISS

Shortened Form

7. David Saint-Jacques, Canadarm2

Citing Elders and Indigenous Knowledge Keepers

The recommended adaptations below allow for Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers to be cited not only in-text but in the reference list as well.  Your instructor will expect Chicago Notes-Bibliography style which does not cite personal communications in the reference list so check with your instructor first when following these examples. 

Footnote template: 

1. First Name Last Name, Elder/Knowledge Keeper, Nation, Topic/subject of communication if appropriate, Personal communication, Territorial acknowledgment of where the information was shared, Month Date, Year.

 

Footnote examples:

1. Lekeyten (Elder), Kwantlen First Nation, Community Justice, Personal communication, Shared on the traditional unceded territory of the Kwantlen, Musqueam, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt, and Kwikwetlem Peoples, April 9, 2019.

2. Rhonda Larrabee, (Knowledge Keeper), QayQyat First Nation, Oral Teaching and Memories, Personal communication, Shared on the traditional unceded territory and ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the Katzie, Kwantlen, Kwikwetlem, Musqueam, and Qayqayt First Nations, November 21, 2023. 

 

Bibliography template:

Last Name, First Name, Elder/Knowledge Keeper, Nation. Topic/subject of communication if appropriate. Personal communication. Territorial acknowledgment of where the information was shared. Month Date, Year.

Bibliography examples:

Lekeyten (Elder), Kwantlen First Nation. Community Justice. Personal communication. Shared on the traditional unceded territory of the Kwantlen, Musqueam, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt, and Kwikwetlem Peoples. April 9, 2019.

Larrabee, Rhonda (Knowledge Keeper), Qayqayt First Nation.  Oral teachings and memories. Personal communication.  Shared on the traditional unceded territory and ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the Katzie, Kwantlen, Kwikwetlem, Musqueam, and Qayqayt First Nations.  November 21, 2023.  

 

Author/Date in-text examples

Parenthetical

(First Name Last Name, nature or format of communication, Month Day, Year).

(Rhonda Larrabee, personal communication, November 21, 2023).

(Lekeyten, Elder, personal communication, April 9, 2019).

Narrative

In an interview, Rhonda Larrabee (personal communication, Nov 21, 2023) described QayQayt history in the area as ...

In an interview, Elder Lekeyten (personal communication, April 9, 2019) explained that ...

More information on efforts to decolonize citation can be found here

Citing content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) tools

Many instructors will not allow the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools (i.e. ChatGPT, et cetera) in assignments. If you do use tools like this, it is important that you check with your instructors first and then that you include citations in your assignment.

The Chicago Manual of Style Online recently released some information about citing artificial intelligence tools.

Unlike other citation styles, Chicago requires you to "acknowledge the AI tool in your text" but not to credit it for the text. AI tools should be cited in footnotes or endnotes but not in a bibliography or reference list. The example given for a footnote or endnote in a student paper is:

1. Text generated by ChatGPT, March 7, 2023, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com/chat

In this citation, ChatGPT is the author, OpenAI acts as the publisher/sponsor of the contentBecause readers cannot access content created in ChatGPT (and other AI tools), Chicago does not require the URL. 

You can also include the prompt in the footnote or endnote if it wasn't mentioned in the body of the paper. An example of this (and without the URL) is given as follows:

1. ChatGPT, response to "Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients," March 7, 2023, OpenAI.