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Cite in Chicago Style AD: In-text citation

Every in-text citation must correspond with a full citation on the References page, and vice versa. You can't include a source in your references list if you don't also cite it in your paper.

In-text citations appear at the end of the sentence before the period.

Parenthetical Citations

Parenthetical in-text citations (author date) appear in parentheses at the end of a sentence before the period. A page number may be added, following a comma (author date, page number).

  • One author: (Brown 2018, 30)
  • Two authors: (Grazer and Fishman 2015, 12)
  • Three authors: (Berkman, Bauer, and Nold 2011)
  • Four or more authors: (Banksy et al. 2016) Note: You list up to ten authors on the reference list.
  • No author:
    • Website or corporate author: (Center for American Women and Politics 2022)
    • Or if not applicable, use the title instead of an author name.
  • No date: (Nevins n.d.)
  • Two or more citations in a row: (Esarey and Wood 2018; Brown 2018)

Narrative Citations

If the author's name is included in the text, you only include the publication year and the page numbers in parentheses after the author's name. Compare the examples below:

  • Despite observations to the contrary in popular media, many continue to believe that the United States is a nation of political moderates (Brown 2018, 30).
  • According to Brown (2018, 30), despite observations to the contrary in popular media, many continue to believe that the United States is a nation of political moderates.

Direct Quotations

For short quotations of fewer than 100 words, add quotation marks around the words and incorporate the quote into your own text. Include the date and the page number with the parenthetical citation.

  • Frederick M. Dolan (2018, 15) states that "...deconstructionists point to the way in which the allegedly serious, literal discourses of everyday life are in fact permeated with symbolic, fictional constructs and conventional, ritualized meanings" which can be interpreted as...

Block Quotations

Block quotations are when the quote is set off in a separate paragraph and indented 1/2". The Chicago manual section 13.10 provides guidance on various criteria that would require use of block quotes:

  • Over 100 words long
  • Quoting from 2+ paragraphs
  • Quoting from correspondence or unusually formatted items such as lists
  • Two or more lines of poetry (section 13.25)

For example, if you wished to quote from two paragraphs of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, that would be formatted as a block quote: 

When the rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket, and looked at it and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat pocket or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again (Carroll 10)

Notice that the block quote has no punctuation mark after the parenthetical citation.

Citing Sources Inside Other Sources

It is always better to cite the original source, but if that's not possible, give information about the original source in the text and include "quoted in" in your in-text citation for the secondary source. Include only the secondary source in your reference list.

In his 1844 book Thoughts on the Proposed Annexation of Texas to the United States, Theodore Sedgwick opines "The annexation of Texas instead of strengthening the Union, weakens it" (quoted in Rathbun 2001, 479).