Citation Guide: Discussion Posts

Online courses, like those offered at Meadville Lombard Theological School, often require students to type responses onto online discussion boards. While an online discussion can be relatively less formal than course paper, a good discussion post still benefits from evidence. Therefore, if you quote, paraphrase, or draw ideas or facts from an in-class reading or an outside source in your discussion post, you must cite it!

The word processing software for online discussion posts as set up by Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Populi and Canvas do not make adding footnotes very easy or straightforward. Therefore, while you should use Notes-Bibliography style footnotes for papers, it is easier and recommended to use Chicago Style's Author-Date style for citations in discussion posts. As Populi and other LMSs also don't make hanging indentations easy, it is okay to skip those for discussion posts.

Chicago Style's Author-Date Style uses parenthetical references instead of footnotes and as such appears more like APA and MLA style.

To convert a Chicago Style Notes-Bibliography Style bibliographic entry (as is used in the templates in the other tabs), simply move the year of publication (which typically appears towards the end of the bibliographic entry) to right after the author's name and before the work's title:

Bibliographic entries for a standard paper in Notes-Bibliography Style:

Bigelow, Anna. Sharing the Sacred: Practicing Pluralism in Muslim North India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Gumo, Sussy, Simon O. Gisege, Evans Raballah, and Collins Ouma. “Communicating African Spirituality through Ecology: Challenges and Prospects for the 21st Century.”  Religions 3, no. 2 (2012): 523–543. https://www.doi.org/10.3390/rel3020523.

Those same bibliographic entries in Author-Date Style:

Bigelow, Anna. 2010. Sharing the Sacred: Practicing Pluralism in Muslim North India. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gumo, Sussy, Simon O. Gisege, Evans Raballah, and Collins Ouma. 2012. “Communicating African Spirituality through Ecology: Challenges and Prospects for the 21st Century.”  Religions 3, no. 2: 523–543. https://www.doi.org/10.3390/rel3020523.

When citing something in the body of your work, instead of a footnote, use a parenthetical reference, made up of the author's last name the publication year a comma and the page number(s) being cited. The parenthetical reference goes after the thing being cited—after the end quotes mark—but before a period ending a sentence:

“The moral force of the imagined past is generated through repetition in these writings and narratives, adding weight to the ethical imperative to maintain peaceful interreligious relations…We were always like this; this is fundamentally who we are, and it cannot be otherwise” (Bigelow 2010, 64-65).

If the work you are citing has two or three authors, list their last names in the parenthetical reference. If the work you are citing has four or more authors, just give the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” (Latin for “and others”):

As Gumo et al. (2012, 524) emphasize, African traditional spirituality has both a long history and is still very much relevant to Africans today.

OR

Scholars emphasize that African traditional spirituality has both a long history and is still very much relevant to Africans today (Gumo et al. 2012, 524).

In the above examples, note that the parenthetical reference can be broken up: if the author’s name is mentioned in the flow of the text, a parenthetical reference of just the date and page number(s) goes afterwards.

If the work you are citing as no author, put the date of publication after the title in the bibliographic entry and use the main title instead of the author’s last name in your parenthetical reference. If the work has an editor or translator but no named author, you can also put the editor or translator in the author’s spot, followed by ed. or trans.:

The Epic of Gilgamesh. 1999. Translated by Andrew George. New York: Penguin Press.

OR

George, Andrew, trans. 1999. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York: Penguin Press.

The tavern-keeper Shiduri explains that because humans—unlike gods—are mortal, they should live each day to the fullest: “But you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full, / enjoy yourself always by day and by night! / Make merry each day, / dance and play day and night! / Let your clothes be clean, / let your head be washed, may you bathe in water! / Gaze on to the child who holds your hand, / let your wife enjoy your repeated embrace!” (The Epic of Gilgamesh 1999, 124).

OR

The tavern-keeper Shiduri explains that because humans—unlike gods—are mortal, they should live each day to the fullest: “But you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full, / enjoy yourself always by day and by night! / Make merry each day, / dance and play day and night! / Let your clothes be clean, / let your head be washed, may you bathe in water! / Gaze on to the child who holds your hand, / let your wife enjoy your repeated embrace!” (George 1999, 124).