Posted: April 15th, 2015

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A Quick Guide to Chicago Referencing for Computer Law Assignments

 

Candida Harris

Plymouth Law School (2013)

 

 

For full details on format, presentation and referencing of Law assignments, please see the Law Coursework Manual.

 

Chicago referencing is the preferred system of referencing sources in Law, using endnotes or footnotes (where there is a word limit, either would be acceptable, just be consistent all the way through).

 

Give a reference wherever you are backing up your argument by use of a supporting source – e.g. where quoting an academic text, citing a case, or referring to a report, survey or other evidence.

 

How to do it in Word 10

To Insert references, first set your preferences: go to: Menu bar>references and click the right bottom corner to open the dialog box –

 

 

Set your preferences to either endnote or footnote, and the other variables as below, and click apply:

 

 

You are now ready to insert your reference whenever you need to.

 

To insert an endnote or footnote:

 

When you cite a piece of information in your text which needs further acknowledgement, click the cursor immediately after the information or quote.

 

With the cursor in place, go up to the references menu and click insert endnote. This will insert the correct number in the text [1] and bring up the references window at the end of the document or the bottom of the page.

 

 

For example: if your text states that Harris says “referencing is important”[2] the endnote number is inserted immediately after the quote. The full reference or ‘citation’ is added in the references window.

 

If you want to change the order of material in your text, you can cut and paste, add and delete. Word will keep track of your references and keep them in order.

 

What goes in a Chicago-style reference?

 

The information you put in the endnote window at the bottom of the page varies slightly depending on the nature of the source, but as a rough guide, the format for Chicago referencing is:

 

Author, Title, Additional ID information such as book edition or name of journal, Date, Page(s).

 

Some sources such as reports, surveys, conference papers etc. may not fit the format perfectly, in which case simply include whatever relevant identifying information you have, in a roughly similar order to the above.

 

News reports or broadcasts often do not have a named author. The format is title, source, date.

 

If the material is from a website, use the above format and add the URL + date accessed at the end of the reference.

 

If you are a non-law student, don’t get bogged down in technicalities. The key point is that sources must be acknowledged in a consistent and professional manner, and that there should be enough information in your reference for a reader to find the original source if they want to.

 

Examples of different kinds of references:

 

A book would be referenced in this format: Partington, M., Introduction to the English Legal System, (2004), p.5

 

For a journal article, the format is: Goodhart, A., ‘The ratio decidendii in a case’, (1959) 22 Modern Law Review 128 at p. 132

 

A newpaper article – ‘Young people at a centre for the disturbed are being subject to a “behaviour modification programme” which includes rewards of cigarettes,’ The Guardian, 22 May 1984

 

An online news source: ‘Archbishops’ Iraq letter in full’ BBC News, 30 June 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3852559.stm (accessed 20/02/13)

 

Other online source: Civil and human rights bulletin board, ‘One out of three children born each day are at risk’, http://lawlounge.com/setup.hts 8 July 1998

 

Case citations: Cases have their own form of referencing, whereby the name of the case is used in the text, and a legal form of citation is given in the endnote. Full details of how to decode case citations are given in the Law Coursework Manual. Most academic sources will give the citation after the name of the case so you just need to copy it into your endnote.

 

e.g. R v Fellows (1997) 1 Cr App R 244

 

If you are a law student, you must get to grips with case citation. Technology students must at least give the name and date of the case but will be forgiven if they do not give detailed citations.

 

Statutory provisions: Statutes are self-referencing. You need to give at least –

 

(a) the name of the statute (which can be abbreviated) and

(b) the section where relevant

 

e.g. section 2 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 or s.2 CMA90.

 

If you have given this information in your text, you do not need an endnote unless you want to add additional information.

 

If in doubt, consult the references section of the Law Coursework Manual.

[1] Add reference details here…

[2] Harris C, Title, Edition, Date, Page