How do I cite this semi-published curriculum?

November 21, 2014 5:33 AM

I'm doing final edits to my thesis and can't figure out how to cite a certain document. It is a Bible study curriculum intended for family use, but with no evident publisher. Thesis format: Turabian.

Part of what I am studying is the religious formation practices of a small Christian subsect that rejected Sunday School models on doctrinal grounds. In the 1970s, one of their leaders wrote a Bible study curriculum to be used by families. It's loose-leaf format, but was professionally printed and sold as a bundle with an introduction and a guide for using the studies. Several hundred copies, at least, were sold to families in this subsect. I've looked all through the Turabian handbook and I can't quite figure out how to cite this thing. I've got author, title, and date, but no publisher/location.

posted by Pater Aletheias to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

Best answer: P. 175:"When the publisher is unknown, use just the place (if known) and date of publication. "
P. 174: "When the place of publication is not known, you may use the abbreviation n.p. in a note ( or N.p. in a bibliography entry) before the publisher's name. If the place can be surmised, include it with a question mark, in brackets."

From Turabian's 7th Edition.

So, my advice would be to use the N.p. for no place.
posted by mareli at 6:02 AM on November 21, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks! I knew it would probably be something easy--just having intermittent brain freezes this week.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:36 AM on November 21, 2014

More thoughts on this: is it owned by any libraries? Check on worldcat.org. See how they deal with lack of info.
posted by mareli at 6:41 AM on November 21, 2014

Response by poster: No, it wouldn't be in any libraries. It's unheard of outside of this little sect, and I'm 99.9% certain that I am the only person who has ever written about it for academia.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:45 AM on November 21, 2014