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Which bibliography you need
Bibliography is the word Chicago uses for its list of sources, and the word many teachers use for any list of sources. Check which style your assignment names, then set the style menu to match:
- Chicago, notesA Bibliography after the footnoted text. This page starts here.
- Chicago, author-dateA list titled References, with the year straight after the author.
- MLAWorks Cited, which the Works Cited generator covers.
- APAReferences, which the reference list generator covers.
Your whole list changes when you change the style, so nothing needs typing twice.
Order and layout in Chicago
A Chicago bibliography is in alphabetical order by the first author’s last name. Each entry is single-spaced with a blank line between entries and a half-inch hanging indent, under the centered title Bibliography. Four sources as the generator sorts them:
Bernstein, Mark. “10 Tips on Writing the Living Web.” A List Apart, August 16, 2002. https://alistapart.com/article/writeliving/.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “About Sleep.” May 15, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about/index.html.
Hershner, Shelley D., and Ronald D. Chervin. “Causes and Consequences of Sleepiness Among College Students.” Nature and Science of Sleep 6 (2014): 73–84. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S62907.
Walker, Matthew. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Scribner, 2017.
Chicago lets a bibliography include works you consulted but did not cite in a note. Your instructor may want only cited works; the assignment usually says.
Build it as you research
- Keep a list per project. Add each source when you first take notes from it, by its title, DOI, ISBN or link.
- Use its notes as you write. Each entry has Copy note, the full first footnote, to paste into Word or Google Docs with Insert footnote.
- Finish with Copy all or Download .docx, a Bibliography page single-spaced with blank lines between entries, ready to add after your last page.
Writing an annotated bibliography
An annotated bibliography adds a short paragraph under each entry. The generator makes the entries; the annotations are yours to write, because they are your judgment of each source.
- Summarize the source’s argument or findings in two or three sentences.
- Assess it: who wrote it, for whom, and how strong its evidence is.
- Say how it serves your project: what you will use it for, or why it disagrees with your other sources.
Start each annotation on the line under its entry, indented to match the hanging indent. Length, and whether to include the assessment, are set by your instructor, so check the assignment. More on the entries is in the Chicago bibliography guide.
No ads. No sign-up. Your list stays in your browser.
You are writing your own paper, and the tool that formats your sources should not compete with it for your attention. So there are no ads here, nothing to sign up for, and your lists are kept in this browser instead of on our server.
The generator is paid for by the Format app, which some students choose to pay for, not by ads.
Questions
What is the difference between a bibliography and Works Cited?
Works Cited is MLA’s list and has only sources you cited. A Chicago bibliography may also include works you consulted. Both are alphabetical with a hanging indent; MLA double-spaces, while Chicago single-spaces entries with a blank line between.
Can it write the annotations for an annotated bibliography?
No. It formats the entries; the annotations are your own reading of each source, which is what your instructor is grading.
Do footnotes replace the bibliography?
Chicago allows a paper with full footnotes and no bibliography, but most instructors ask for both. The generator gives you the notes and the bibliography from the same list.
Is the citation generator free?
Yes, every style, with no account and no limit on citations you type in. Looking up a link, DOI or ISBN is free too; a network that looks up a lot in a short time is asked for a quick human check.
Are the citations accurate?
The generator formats exactly what is in the form, by the rules of the style’s current manual, with the same code the Format app uses for every paper. A lookup is only as good as the record it reads, so check author names, the title’s capitals and the date against the source itself.
Are there ads?
No. The generator shows no ads and needs no sign-up. Your lists are kept in this browser, not on our server, and what you look up is used only to find the source.