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GDES 445: Senior Capstone Research Studio: Chicago Style Citations

Some helpful tips

For any research assignment, please consider the following tips about citations:

  • You must include a citation for each resource you use in your assignment. Follow this link for more information about how to know when to cite a source. 
  • Different types of resources (article, book, website, etc.) have different formats of citations. See the examples below and on the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) website for examples.
  • The CMOS requires both footnotes/endnotes and a bibliography page. Consult the CMOS and the examples below to see the differences between the two types of citations. 
  • It is fine to use a citation generator tool to help you create your citations (Zbib is a good one to use), but it is always a good idea to check your citations against the CMOS to be sure that they are correct. All citation tools make mistakes! 
  • The CMOS provides guidance on both citation style and how to format your paper. Be sure to read over the "Paper Formatting Tip Sheets" and follow their style guides. 

Annotated Bibliographies in CMOS

What is an annotated bibliography?

Annotated bibliographies go beyond just listing your research sources. They give detail about the sources you have chosen and help you think about each source individually before you begin writing your research paper. 

What should an annotation include?

Annotations can include any of the following three things:
  1. A description of your source. Give a brief summary of the content. 
  2. An evaluation. This is the space for you to share your thoughts on the source you've chosen. Do you think the author has strong arguments? How is the quality of their supporting evidence? Do they achieve the goals they set in their thesis/premise? Your reviews can be positive, negative, or a mix. 
  3. Given an explanation of why (or why not) you are including this source in your final research project. What part of the author's argument supports your research question? How is this resource furthering your project? 
All annotations should include a description of your source. You may choose to also include an evaluation and/or an explanation. Ask your professor if you need guidance on what you should include. 

How long should each annotation be?

Annotations can vary in length depending on what information you're including. A good rule of thumb is to aim for between 50 and 200 words for each annotation. 

How do I format an annotated bibliography?

Your sources should be in alphabetical order, with the annotations in paragraph form below each source. The annotations should be double-spaced, flush with the left margin, and the first line of each paragraph indented. 

How does writing an annotated bibliography help me?

Writing annotations for your sources can help you clarify both to yourself and to your professor why you have chosen those particular sources. After picking your research question(s), finding and evaluating your sources, this is the next step of the research process. You must have read at least part of a source in order to describe and evaluate it. 

Examples:

Eastern Nazarene College

Purdue Online Writing Lab 

Red Deer College Library

An introduction to Chicago Manual of Style citations

This video is from the Wilfrid Laurier University Library and is a good introduction to how Chicago Manual of Style (sometimes also called Chicago Turabian) is structured. 

Please note: this video describes both the notes/bibliography method and the in-text author/date method. For ART 106, we are using the notes/bibliography method only. 

Chicago Manual of Style - 17th Edition