Author-Date Citation System: Chicago Manual of Style | Writing Tips

Citation is one of the most confusing things in documentation. At the same time that it is quite easy, it is also quite difficult, how ironic and contradictory. Part of the problem stems from there being dozens of systems to choose from, and they all seem to contradict one another, mostly because they generally do. My personal preference is the author-date system outlined in chapter 15 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., which is also often called the Harvard system, and this is what I will cover today.

In-Text Citation

With author-date citation, as the name would suggest, in-text citations follow the format of including the author’s surname followed by the date. Check out the following examples. (These are dummy examples, not referencing anything.)

• For a general reference, put the author’s name and the date of publication: (Smith 2014).
• If making a direct quote, then put the page number: (Smith 2014, 90).
• When referring directly to an author’s idea, state the author’s name in the text and reference the publication date in parentheses: According to Smith (2014), applications….
• When referring directly to an author’s quote, state the author’s name in the text and reference the publication date and page number in parentheses: According to Smith (2014, 90), applications of “some kind of a direct quote....”
• Separate multiple cited works with a semicolon; the authors’ names could be alphabetical: (Jones 2019; Smith 2014). As an alternative, they can be listed chronologically: (Smith 2014; Jones 2019).
• If citing a work by multiple authors, list them in the order they appear on the copyright page: (Smith, Jones, and Baker 2014). And if there four or more authors, then list only the first named author and follow with et al. Yes, with the punctuation: (Smith et al. 2014). It is important to note that some publications prefer using et al. with a list of just three or even two authors.
• When citing multiple sources by a single author in the same year, add a and b to distinguish between the two sources: (Smith 2014a; Smith 2014b).

On Listing References

At the end of your work, you need a list of references, commonly under the heading References, fittingly enough. Other headers include Works Cited and Bibliography. If you are working on a publication with multiple chapters and each of them have their own references, ensure that all citation sections have the same heading for consistency.

Before getting to the examples, it is important to make a few notes. The examples show around 90 percent of the situations most writers will come across. Also, the reference section is usually formatted with hanging indents; however, LinkedIn doesn’t allow that sort of formatting—just something to keep in mind. The image preceding the examples shows a hanging indent. Finally, the Daum and Gould examples were lifted directly from CMOS, pages 896 and 897, respectively.

Aarts, Bas, et al. 2021. The Handbook of English Linguistics. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

Agelo, John. 2010. The Origins and Development of the English Language. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth.

Brumberger, Eva. 2003a. “The Rhetoric of Typography: The Persona of Typeface and Text.” Technical Communication 50, no. 2: 206–23.

———. 2003b. “The Rhetoric of Typography: The Awareness and Impact of Typeface Appropriateness.” Technical Communication 50, no. 2: 224–31.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 2022. “Tetanus.” https://www.cdc.gov/dotw/tetanus/index.html.

The Chicago Manual of Style.?17th ed. 2017.?Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Daum, Meghan, ed. 2015. Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids. New York: Picador.

Fowler, H. W., and R. W. Burchfield. 2000. New Fowler’s Modern English Usage. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Garner, Bryan A. 2001. Legal Writing in Plain English: A Text with Exercises. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

———. 2003. Garner’s Modern American Usage. New York: Oxford University Press.

———. 2017.“Grammar and Usage.” In The Chicago Manual of Style. 17th ed., 223–362. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Google. n.d. “Definitions.” https://policies.google.com/terms/definitions?hl=en-US. Accessed August 9, 2022.

Gould, Glenn. 1984. “Streisand as Schwarzkopf.” In The Glenn Gould Reader, edited by Tim Page, 308–11. New York: Vintage Books.

“Russia Halts US Inspections of Nuclear Arsenal under New START Treaty.” 2022. BBC News, August 9. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62466998.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). 2003. Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. 2020 ed. Paris: Living Heritage Entity, Culture Sector, UNESCO.

____________

Concerning the UNESCO reference above, it is an interpretation adapted for an author-date style. If using proper legal citation, then the format would be a little different. Consult with The Bluebook, chapter 21. But regardless of what system you use, international treaties and conventions should not be in quotes or italics. Instead, they are set in headline style.

References

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. 20th ed. 2015. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law Review Association.

The Chicago Manual of Style.?17th ed. 2017.?Chicago: University of Chicago Press.