Style guides
The media studies
program has decided to adopt the Chicago styles as the recommended
style for staff and students within the program. These styles allow
you to use either in-text citation or notes (endnotes or footnotes).
These are very similar to the styles called "Cambridge" and "Harvard"
respectively in the old Media Studies Style Guide.
The most authoritative
source of information on the style is:
Turabian, Kate
L. 1996. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations.
Sixth ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [The library
has a copy in the reference section, and the Media Studies Program
is acquiring a copy you will be able to borrow for short term use.]
Some useful
online sources are:
As always begin with our library's web site, there is a page dedicated
to various citation styles at
http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/reference/mb-style.html
You will find a good guide to the "Notes" version of Chicago system
at the Screening the past web site. Go to
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/style.html
University of Wisconson-Madison writing center -- The Chicago or
Turabian style, sometimes called documentary note or humanities
style:
http://.www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChicago.html
ONLINE! :Using italics and underlining in Chicago style.
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite7.html
The Chicago Manual of Style FAQ
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/ cmosfaq/cmosfaq.html
Chicago Citation Style Chicago Manual of Style Documentation ...
:http://www.apsu.edu/~lesterj/CYBER5.HTM
Whichever of
the two options you choose to use:
- You must
use your preferred style accurately.
- You must
use it consistently.
- you are the
researcher, so it is up to you, not your tutors, to be responsible
for making sure that you are using it accurately. This may mean
that you will have to find manuals or web sites which deal with
different types of citation in your preferred style.
We believe that
the the Chicago styles are consistent, and deal with most of the different
types of citation you will be required to use. However in citation
common sense must prevail, so where you are not able -- after diligent
research -- to find the correct form of citation for an individual
instance, then remember that good citation is based on the following
principles:
- You should
supply as much information about your reference to your reader as
possible.
- You should
do so as concisely as possible.
- You should
try to ensure that any citation is consistent with the rest of the
system. This may mean that you should use the style for the closest
analogous type of reference as a model.
The Media Studies
Program will no longer produce the Media Studies Style Guide.
However there are some sections of the 'Style Guide' we want to retain,
so these will, in future, be added to the Survival Guide. For
the time being, if you have a copy of the Media Studies Style Guide
you should certainly continue to follow the rules laid down there
concerning presentation of assignments (pages 1-12 in the 2001 'edition'
of the Style Guide).
Further reading
Department of
finance and administration: Australia. Style Manual for Authors,
Editors and Printers. 6th ed: John Wiley and Sons, 2002. This
book deals with citation, spelling, grammar, page layout and many
other issues of importance in this course.
