Citations 101: What Goes In Your Book’s Bibliography?

In college, I took my papers to the writing center solely to have my bibliographies checked. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what goes in a citation within the text, what goes in the bibliography, or the proper punctuation within the two. I was always amazed at the students who worked in the writing center who could, with one look, tell me if I had correctly placed a period or semicolon within a citation.

Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think the person who knew the proper way to cite a source with just one look would be me.

Yet here I am, with a guide on how to make a bibliography for a book, and source citation according to the Chicago Manual of Style—the “Bible” of the publishing world. Please refer to this as a template; fill in the blanks with your resource’s specific information. Here are the most commonly cited sources within books:

How to Cite A Book with One Author:

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher City: Publisher Name, Year Published.

How to Cite a Book with Two or More Authors:

Last name, First Name, First Name Last Name, and First Name Last Name. Title of Book. Publisher City: Publisher Name, Year Published.

How to Cite an Article from a Hard Copy Magazine:

Last Name, First Name. Article title. Magazine Title, Month Date, Year of publication.

How to Cite an Article from a Magazine Published Online:

Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Magazine Title, date of publication. Website location of article (date you accessed the article).

How to Cite an Article from a Newspaper Published Online:

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Name of Newspaper, issue date of newspaper. Web address of the article (accessed date you accessed article).

How to Cite a Website (non-newspaper/magazine/book):

Last Name, First Name. “Page Title.” Website Title. Web Address (Date Accessed).

How to Cite an Encyclopedia: (note: Wikipedia is NOT considered a credible or valid encyclopedia, so please do not cite it.)

Last Name, First Name. Encyclopedia/Dictionary name, Edition ed., s.v. “Article Title.” Publication City: Publisher Name, Year Published.

For additional information, or for a Chicago Manual of Style citation generator (!), please see the following websites:

http://www.bibme.org/chicago/book-citation

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html