Chicago Style How To Cite A Blog

How to Cite a Blog Post in Chicago Footnote Referencing

Blogs can be a great source of information when researching an essay. But how do you cite a blog post in Chicago footnote referencing? In this post, we explain the basic formats for footnote citations and the bibliography entry.

How to Cite a Blog Post in Chicago Footnotes

In Chicago footnote referencing, you cite sources with a number in the text:

Typically, this will go at the end of the relevant passage.¹

This will then point to a footnote at the bottom of the page, where you will provide source information. For a blog post, the standard footnote format is:

n. Author Name, "Title of Blog Post," Title of Blog (blog), Name of Publishing Organization (if relevant), Date of Publication, URL.

The publishing organization here is only required if the blog is hosted by a larger publication (e.g., the Notes & Theories science blog on the Guardian website). And it may be difficult to find all the information in some cases (e.g., some posts may be missing a date of publication). However, try to provide as much relevant information as possible the first time you cite a blog post.

In practice, for instance, footnote citations for blog posts would look like this:

1. Jamie Flook, "Can't Stand the Rain? How Wet Weather Affects Human Behaviour," Notes & Theories (blog), Guardian, March 6, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2019/mar/06/cant-stand-the-rain-how-wet-weather-affects-human-behaviour.
2. David Livingston Smith, "Are 'Human' Embryos Human?", Philosophy Talk (blog), December 17, 2020, https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/are-human-embryos-human.

If you cite a source more than once, use a shortened citation format for each subsequent citation. For a blog post, this will typically just be the author's surname and a shortened title (or the minimum detail needed to identify the source).

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Blog Posts in a Chicago Bibliography

The format for a blog post in a Chicago bibliography is similar to the first footnote. However, the exact format differs in a few ways:

Surname, First Name. "Title of Blog Post." Title of Blog (blog). Name of Publishing Organization (if relevant). Date of Publication. URL.

In practice, then, we would reference the posts cited above like this:

Flook, Jamie. "Can't Stand the Rain? How Wet Weather Affects Human Behaviour." Notes & Theories (blog). Guardian. March 6, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2019/mar/06/cant-stand-the-rain-how-wet-weather-affects-human-behaviour.

Livingston Smith, David. "Are 'Human' Embryos Human?" Philosophy Talk (blog). December 17, 2020. https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/are-human-embryos-human.

The key in all cases is making sure your reader can find the post you've cited.

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