- HoursHours
- EventsEvents
- Study RoomsStudy Rooms
- Library AccountLibrary Account
- AppointmentsAppointments
- Ask Us!Ask Us!
Library
If you use information from another source, that source must be cited. This includes:
You don't need to cite information that is considered "common knowledge." Common knowledge includes facts that are known by a lot of people and can be found in many sources. For example, you do not need to cite:
What is considered "common knowledge" can change based on a person's culture, academic discipline, or peer group.
To decide whether information is "common knowledge," consider:
When in doubt, cite the source! Citation adds credibility to your writing and highlights the accuracy of your information.
You’ve done your research, collected your arguments, and are ready to start writing your assignment. How do you add this information to your assignment? There are three ways.
You can:
Using the works of others, you can put their main ideas or findings into your own words and expressions. This is a great approach for when you need to synthesize big ideas or multiple points of a broader concept.
You can use this approach to reword a concept or passage from a work into your own words. This approach helps ensure your writing has a proper flow.
You can directly quote an author’s passage by placing it in quotations. You should use this approach when the author has expressed the idea in a way that would lose its impact if you rephrased it. The words in your quotation must directly match the original source.
Any time you use a source—whether you summarize, paraphrase, or use a quotation—the author's ideas must be properly attributed.
Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in The Chicago Manual (17th ed.)
Note numbers in text are set as superscript numbers (p. 751).
At the bottom of the page, the note numbers are normally full size and followed by a period (p. 755).
Notes should be numbered consecutively, beginning with 1 (p. 756).
Tip: Use your word processor's "footnote" feature to assist with formatting.
The first note referring to a work must be a full note, but subsequent citations for that same work can be shortened. The shortened form should include just enough information to remind readers of the full title or lead them to the Bibliography; usually the last name of the author(s), the key words of the main title, and the page number. Check with your instructor to determine whether this shortened form is acceptable. (pp. 757-61)
When citing the same source in multiple footnotes one after the other, cite the source in full the first time, and then use the abbreviated form for all subsequent citations until another source is cited (pp. 759-60).
When the note entry includes a URL that must be broken at the end of a line, the break should be made after a colon of double slash (//); before a single slash (/), a tilde (~), a period, a comma, a hyphen, an underline (_), a question mark, a number sign, or a percent symbol; or before or after an equal sign or an ampersand (p. 750).
Even if you put information in your own words by summarizing or paraphrasing, you must still use a footnote just as you would with a direct quotation. All the information required in the footnote for a paraphrased sentence is the same as if you were using a direct quotation.
Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in The Chicago Manual (17th ed.)
Chapter 13 (pp. 708-38) of The Chicago Manual offers recommendations and guidelines for incorporating words quoted from other sources.
In incorporating quotations into a text, phrase the surrounding sentence in such a way that the quoted words fit logically and grammatically. Run in quotes are incorporated into the surrounding text and enclosed in quotation marks, "like this."
A quotation of a hundred words of more (at least 6-8 lines of text) can generally be set off as a block quotation. Block quotations are not enclosed by quotation marks, begin on a new line, and are indented.
A quotation of 2 or more paragraphs should be set off as a block quotation.
Chicago style allows minor changes to quotations in specific situations. Most notably, and different than other citation styles, obvious typographic errors may be corrected silently (without comment or sic - see p. 733), unless the passage quoted is from an older work where idiosyncrasies of spelling are generally preserved.
Red Deer Polytechnic recognizes that our campus is situated on Treaty 7 land, the traditional territory of the Blackfoot, Tsuu T’ina and Stoney Nakoda peoples, and that the central Alberta region we serve falls under Treaty 6, traditional Métis, Cree and Saulteaux territory. We honour the First Peoples who have lived here since time immemorial, and we give thanks for the land where RDP sits. This is where we will strive to honour and transform our relationships with one another.