Citing Primary Sources

Citation Guides

The conventional practice among historians is to use the footnotes (or endnotes) and bibliography formats outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition, published in 2017).

Purdue Online Writing Lab: Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition is an abridged but excellent, in-depth guide to citing both primary and secondary sources.

The purpose of footnoting or citing the sources is to allow your reader to verify the accuracy of your quotations, citations, and assertions.

Parts of a Citation

There is a set of four basic categories you should always keep in mind when taking notes. They will help you decide what information to include in citations of your documentation:

• Authorship
• Title
• Location
• Date.