Skip to Main Content

Citing Sources, With Link to Chicago, DO NOT USE: Citing websites, online videos, blog posts, and tweets

Lisa's Citing Sources with expanded Chicago

General Tips

Citing websites and online resources:

  • If there is no date, write n.d. If there is no author, begin with the Title of the web page and follow with the date.
  • If a URL must be divided between two lines, break it only after a slash. Do not add a hyphen.

    Examples

    GENERAL FORMAT FOR WEBSITES

    Author(s). (Year, Month Day). Title of web page. Retrieved from <insert web URL>

    ONLINE REPORTS

    Author(s). (Year). Title of work (Report No. xxx). Retrieved from Agency name

    website:  URL

    ONLINE VIDEO

    Producer name. (Producer), & Director name (Director). (Year). Title of video [Video]. 

    Retrieved from Website name: URL

    ONLINE MESSAGE BOARDS, BLOG POSTS, AND TWEETS

    Author name. (Date). Title of post [Format]. Retrieved from URL

    • Format may include Web log message, Online forum comment, Twitter post


    Examples

    Items in green indicate variations in the citation based on the format.


    Basic Web site

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2009, June 18). Cell phones. Retrieved from

    http://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/ RadiationEmittingProductsandProcedures/

    HomeBusinessandEntertainment/ CellPhones/default.htm


    Web site with no author or date

    International adoption: Getting started with international adoption. (n.d.) Retrieved from

    http://international.adoption.com/


    On-line Technical or Research Report

    Jones, S., & Fox, S. (2009, Jan 28). Generations online in 2009. Retrieved from Pew Research Center,

    Pew Internet & American Life Project site: http://www.pewinternet.org/topics/Generations.aspx

    • Note that the web address is preceded by a colon.


    Online Video

    PearsonFdtn (Director). (2009, July 16). Teacher Education and 21st Century Skills [Video].

    Retrieved June 22, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eGHAuV5yLo


    Blog entry

    Nielson, L. (2012, June 22). Bringing history to life by leaving classrooms & textbooks behind

    [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/

    2012/06/bringing-history-to-life-by-leaving.html


    Tweet

    BarackObama. (2009a, July 15). Launched American Graduation Initiative to help additional 5 mill.

    Americans graduate college by 2020: http://bit.ly/gcTX7 [Twitter post]. Retrieved from

    http://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/2651151366