Which system does your course use?
- Notes and bibliography: superscript numbers in the text, footnotes at the page bottom, bibliography at the end - standard for history
- Author-date: parenthetical (Author year, page) plus a reference list - common in the sciences and some social sciences
- If the syllabus only says 'Chicago', assume notes and bibliography in a humanities course, and confirm with your instructor
Footnotes: full and shortened
First (full) note:
1. Amara Sesay, Empire and Railways in East Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018), 142.
Subsequent (shortened) note:
4. Sesay, Empire and Railways, 155.
Journal article note:
2. Daniel Roth, "Freight and Famine," Journal of African History 59, no. 3 (2018): 401.Bibliography entries
Bibliography entries invert the author name and use periods where notes use commas.
Sesay, Amara. Empire and Railways in East Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018.
Roth, Daniel. "Freight and Famine." Journal of African History 59, no. 3 (2018): 395-420.
Ministry of Lands. "Survey Records, 1921-1934." National Archives, Nairobi.Author-date form
In text: (Sesay 2018, 142)
Reference list: Sesay, Amara. 2018. Empire and Railways in East Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Citing primary sources
Archival material, government records and newspapers are cited in notes with as much locating detail as you have: collection, box, folder, date. Consistency across your notes matters more than perfect uniformity when a source is unusual.
Key takeaways
- Confirm whether your course wants notes-bibliography or author-date
- Use a full first note, then shortened notes afterwards
- Bibliography entries invert the author name and use periods
- Give archival sources full locating detail in the note