Melissa
New member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2026
- Messages
- 8
I just had one of those magical academic moments where everything clicks, and I have to share it with people who will understand! 
I'm a fourth-year in religious studies, and for years, I've been faking it when it comes to the Chicago style writing. Like, I would just copy citations from other bibliographies and hope my professors wouldn't look too closely. It was stressful, and I always felt like a fraud.
But this semester, I have this amazing professor who doesn't just assign papers—she teaches us how to write them. She spent an entire class just on Chicago style writing. And she explained it in a way that finally made sense.
The key for me was understanding the logic behind it. The footnote is for the reader who wants to know right now where you got that amazing quote. It's immediate gratification. The bibliography is for the researcher who wants to find all your sources at once. They work together as a team!
Once I understood that, the rules stopped feeling arbitrary. I started seeing patterns. Book citations always have parentheses around the publication info. Article citations always have the volume number after the title in italics. It's like learning a code, and now I can crack it every time.
I just finished a 12-page paper on ancient Greek religious rituals, and my bibliography is flawless. I'm actually proud of it. I'm proud of a list of sources! Who even am I anymore?
I'm a fourth-year in religious studies, and for years, I've been faking it when it comes to the Chicago style writing. Like, I would just copy citations from other bibliographies and hope my professors wouldn't look too closely. It was stressful, and I always felt like a fraud.
But this semester, I have this amazing professor who doesn't just assign papers—she teaches us how to write them. She spent an entire class just on Chicago style writing. And she explained it in a way that finally made sense.
The key for me was understanding the logic behind it. The footnote is for the reader who wants to know right now where you got that amazing quote. It's immediate gratification. The bibliography is for the researcher who wants to find all your sources at once. They work together as a team!
Once I understood that, the rules stopped feeling arbitrary. I started seeing patterns. Book citations always have parentheses around the publication info. Article citations always have the volume number after the title in italics. It's like learning a code, and now I can crack it every time.
I just finished a 12-page paper on ancient Greek religious rituals, and my bibliography is flawless. I'm actually proud of it. I'm proud of a list of sources! Who even am I anymore?
I'm still out here using citation generators and praying they didn't mess up the punctuation. Chicago style is BRUTAL with all those commas and periods in weird places. The fact that you understand the logic? That's PhD energy right there. Also, "proud of a list of sources" is the most humanities-major thing I've ever read and I LOVE IT. Protect this energy through your senior year!