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Libraries Indiana University Bloomington

M501 Proseminar in Music History

This guide will assist M501 students with finding resources they need for their research projects.

Citing Unusual Sources

CITING UNUSUAL SOURCES IN CHICAGO STYLE:

General rules of thumb:

  1. Bigger works are in italics, smaller parts of a work go in quotations:

Name of webpage

“Name of website”

Name of blog

“Name of blog post”

Name of podcast

“Name of podcast episode”

  1.  “Note” and “Bibliography” in this document
    1. “Note” refers to a footnote or endnote and will appear each time you quote, paraphrase, or cite a source in your writing. (They are represented by a small superscript number.)
    2. “Bibliography” refers to a bibliographical entry, which will go in your bibliography at the end of your paper.
    3. In most cases, you will have a note and a bibliographical entry for each source you cite.

CITING WEBSITES:

General Guidelines from the Purdue OWL:

Note:
  1. Firstname Lastname, “Title of Web Page,” Name of Website, Publishing Organization, publication or revision date if available, access date if no other date is available, URL.

Bibliography:

Lastname, Firstname. “Title of Web Page.” Name of Website. Publishing organization, publication or revision date if available. Access date if no other date is available. URL.

Example Website Citation:

Note:
  1. Emily Abrams Ansari, “Music Helps Us Remember Who We Are and How We Belong During Difficult and Traumatic Times,” The Conversation, May 7, 2020, http://theconversation.com/music-helps-us-remember-who-we-are-and-how-we-belong- during-difficult-and-traumatic-times-136324.

Bibliography:

Ansari, Emily Abrams. “Music Helps Us Remember Who We Are and How We Belong During Difficult and Traumatic Times.” The Conversation. May 7, 2020. http://theconversation.com/music-helps-us-remember-who-we-are-and-how-we-belong- during-difficult-and-traumatic-times-136324.

No author listed? No problem! You can skip the author’s name and start your citation with “Title of Web Page.” If the webpage from the example above did not list an author, my citation might look something like this instead:

Note:
  1. “Music Helps Us Remember Who We Are and How We Belong During Difficult and Traumatic Times,” The Conversation, May 7, 2020, http://theconversation.com/music-helps-us-remember-who-we-are-and-how-we-belong- during-difficult-and-traumatic-times-136324.

Bibliography:

“Music Helps Us Remember Who We Are and How We Belong During Difficult and Traumatic Times.” The Conversation. May 7, 2020. http://theconversation.com/music-helps-us-remember-who-we-are-and-how-we-belong- during-difficult-and-traumatic-times-136324.

No date listed? Also not a problem! You can replace a website’s publication date with the date that you accessed it. If I did not have the date of publication for the website above, my citation might look something like this:

Note:
  1. Emily Abrams Ansari, “Music Helps Us Remember Who We Are and How We Belong During Difficult and Traumatic Times,” The Conversation, accessed September 14, 2022, http://theconversation.com/music-helps-us-remember-who-we-are-and-how-we-belong- during-difficult-and-traumatic-times-136324.

Bibliography:

Ansari, Emily Abrams. “Music Helps Us Remember Who We Are and How We Belong During Difficult and Traumatic Times.” The Conversation. Accessed September 14, 2022. http://theconversation.com/music-helps-us-remember-who-we-are-and-how-we-belong- during-difficult-and-traumatic-times-136324.

CITING BLOG POSTS

Citing a blog post is very similar to citing a webpage:

  • The title of the blog post will be in quotation marks
  • The name of the blog as a whole will be in italics.
  • After the name of the blog, you will specify that it is a blog by writing: (blog)

Example Blog Post Citation:

Note:
  1. Elizabeth Frickey, “What Is Ecomusicology?” Classical Music Indy (blog), September 9, 2021, https://classicalmusicindy.org/what-is-ecomusicology/.

Bibliography:

Frickey, Elizabeth. “What is Ecomusicology?” Classical Music Indy (blog). September 9, 2021. https://classicalmusicindy.org/what-is-ecomusicology/.

CITING PODCAST EPISODES

Citing podcasts is also very similar to citing a webpage:

  • The podcast episode will be in quotation marks
  • The name of the podcast as a whole will be in italics.
  • After the name of the podcast, you will specify that it is a podcast

Example Podcast Citation (adapted from Purdue OWL):

Note:
  1. Sean Cole and Ira Glass, “622: Who You Gonna Call?” August 4, 2017, This American Life, produced by WBEZ, podcast, 1:00:27, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/622/who-you-gonna-call.

Bibliography:

Cole, Sean and Ira Glass. “622: Who You Gonna Call?” Produced by WBEZ. This American Life. August 4, 2017. Podcast, 1:00:27. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/622/who-you-gonna-call.

CITING SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Citing social media posts is also similar to citing a webpage, with some exceptions:

  • Author’s name vs. username: Ideally, include both the author’s name and their handle/username. If you do not have access to both, that is okay—just use what you have.
  • Titles: Since most social media posts do not have titles, you will replace the “title” part of your citation with the text of the post in quotation marks. For longer posts, just include the first 160 characters.
  • Media formats: If you are citing a text post, you can skip this bit. If you are citing something like a video or audio clip, you will need to include an “indication of format/medium” as well as a time stamp, if appropriate. See the examples below for more information.

General Guidelines (from Purdue OWL):

Note:
  1. Firstname Lastname (Screen name), “Post text”, social media service, indication of format/medium, publication date, time stamp, URL

Bibliography:

Lastname, Firstname (Screen name). “Post text”. Social media service, indication of format/medium, publication date, time stamp. URL.

Example Social Media Citation (Text) from the Purdue OWL:

Note:
  1. Bill Nye (@BillNye), “While I’m not much for skipping school, I sure am in favor of calling attention to the seriousness of climate change. Our students can see the problem…,” Twitter, March 14, 2019, https://twitter.com/BillNye/status/1106242216123486209.

Bibliography:

Nye, Bill (@BillNye). “While I’m not much for skipping school, I sure am in favor of calling attention to the seriousness of climate change. Our students can see the problem….” Twitter, March 14, 2019. https://twitter.com/BillNye/status/1106242216123486209.

Example Social Media Citation (Multimedia)

Note:
  1. Olivia Rodrigo (@livbedumb), TikTok, online video, March 14, 2019, https://www.tiktok.com/@livbedumb/video/6915631405984763141/.

Bibliography:

Olivia Rodrigo (@livbedumb). TikTok, online video, January 9, 2021. https://www.tiktok.com/@livbedumb/video/6915631405984763141/.