Put Your Best Footnote Forward

To some of our readers, “Chicago style” is synonymous with a conventional system of numbered notes supported by a bibliography. That’s the subject of chapter 14, the longest chapter in CMOS. (Chapter 15, on the author-date system, will be covered in a future quiz.)

But this quiz isn’t going to test whether you can cite a chapter in an academic monograph or a book review in a major periodical (for that you can refer either to CMOS or to our Citation Quick Guide). Instead, we’ll focus on the basics: Why do you cite sources in the first place? What’s the difference between a footnote and an endnote? What is “ibid.”?

Whether you’re an academic writer (or someone who edits them) or a student (or an instructor), anyone can benefit from a refresher. (We also offer a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online.)

Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual (cited in the answers). (For a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online, click here.)

Note: Style guides and dictionaries sometimes disagree. This quiz is designed to test your knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition.

Chicago Style Workout 49: Source Citations, Part 1

1. The main reason writers should cite their sources is

to show others how much reading they did

to allow others to follow their research

2. The most important difference between footnotes and endnotes is

footnotes are at the bottom of the page, whereas endnotes are at the end of the text

footnotes can contain commentary in addition to source citations

3. A source citation should always end with a URL, even if the source is a printed book and the URL links to the record in a university library’s online catalog.

True

False

4. An access date is required in a Chicago-style citation for a source consulted online.

True

False

5. To avoid repetition and save space, a note that cites Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots, by Morgan Jerkins, would best be shortened to

Jerkins, The Great Migration

Jerkins, Wandering in Strange Lands

6. The abbreviation “ibid.” means

“in the same place” (from Latin ibidem)

“acquired at auction” (literally, “I bid on this source [and won]”)

7. A footnote can contain a mix of source citations and commentary.

True

False

8. The main purpose of a bibliography is to list sources that have not been cited in the notes or in the text.

True

False

9. In a bibliography, a 3-em dash (———) stands in for the name of one or more authors

whose names are protected by a confidentiality agreement

as a means of saving space and avoiding repetition

10. A source cited in the notes is formatted and punctuated differently from a source cited in a bibliography

to keep editors busy

to fit the two different contexts

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