Documentation, part 2:
The University of Chicago
Style
The University of Chicago style is one
of the two standard ones used for art history. The notes and bibliography form of the Chicago style
is particularly well-suited to the scholarship of art history
because the numbered footnotes allow for full citations and also
plenty of room for additional notes that in your judgment don't
belong in the main text of your paper. It works best for your
reader to put the footnotes at the bottom of each page rather
than at the end of your paper. And Microsoft Word manages footnotes
beautifully, re-numbering all them automatically if you add or
remove a footnote. Different editions of Microsoft Word have
different methods of inserting footnotes, so if you're not sure
how to insert a footnote use the "Help" function in
Microsoft Word.
Remember that footnotes and bibliographies
have different formats, and there
are appropriate formats for different types of publications.
For example, citations for a book and a journal article have
different formats.
Listed below are some guides to the Chicago
Manual of Style. Remember that in art history we use the notes
and bibliography format rather than
the less informative method of putting the author's name and
the date in parentheses in the text:
Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing About Art includes a good overview
of the basics of the University of Chicago style. In the 11th
edition the page numbers are 335-344. Instructions for citing
electronic materials are on pages 289-92.
The Chicago Manual of Style
Online gives an overview that is
brief and helpful for quick reference--so long as you keep in
mind that in art history we use the notes and bibliography style
rather than author's name and the date in parentheses in the
text.
The Citation Machine
allows you to fill out an online form, and then generates a citation
in the Chicago Style:
Citation Machine NEW
VERSION: bibliographic entry only
Citation Machine OLD VERSION:
footnote & bibliography
DIGITAL MATERIALS:
When using resources in digital form, when
possible consult the facsimile of the hard copy so that your page references will be correct. There
are a number of electronic databases that feature the same publications,
and a traditional citation is more informative than (for example)
a Jstor URL. Imagine a reader who wants to snowball from your
work, but has no access to the database you used, or may be trying
to find the source in hard copy. It follows that there's no reason
to use the word "Print" at the end of a citation of
a source that you happened to consult in hard copy.
For a work that was developed as
a digital source, or in the absence of page numbers as they appear
in the print version, use the citation
format for an electronic source. Instructions for citing electronic
sources are on pages 289-93 of the 11th edition of Barnet's
A Short Guide to Writing About Art You can also use this online guide published by Purdue
University.
IMAGES
To cite images: The
Library at Dickenson College, Carlisle PA has a good online guide
An extensive and detailed guide that you probably won't use right away is: Kate L.
Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses,
and Dissertations--which is constantly going into
new editions. So don't go out and buy this until you really need
it.
© Jan Mainzer |