Chicago style, done for you.

Chicago, Turabian and which system

The Chicago Manual of Style, now in its 18th edition, sets the rules for citations. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, is the student version of Chicago. It uses the same citations and adds the page layout for class papers. If your teacher says "Chicago" or "Turabian," this guide covers both.

Chicago has two ways to cite. Notes and bibliography uses numbered footnotes and is the usual choice in history and the humanities. Author-date puts the author and year in parentheses, closer to APA. Most of this guide is about notes. Author-date has its own short section below.

Chicago rules at a glance

Margins

At least 1 inch on all four sides.

Font

A readable font such as Times New Roman, at 12 point. Notes can be a little smaller, often 10 point.

Spacing

Double-space the text. Single-space block quotes, notes and bibliography entries, with a blank line between one note or entry and the next.

Page numbers

Top right or bottom center. Most title pages show no number. Your school decides whether the first page of text is 1 or 2.

Title page

The title about a third of the way down, centered. Your name, course, instructor and date lower on the page.

Paragraphs

Indent the first line half an inch.

Citations

A superscript number in the text. The matching note at the foot of the page or on a Notes page at the end.

Bibliography

On a new page, titled Bibliography. Entries in alphabetical order, each with a half-inch hanging indent.

Some teachers want everything double-spaced, notes and bibliography included. That is fine in Chicago. Do whatever your assignment sheet says.

The title page

Class papers in Chicago usually have a title page. Center the title about a third of the way down the page. If it has a subtitle, end the title line with a colon and put the subtitle on the next line. Several lines lower, center your name, the course, your instructor and the date, each on its own line.

If your teacher says to skip the title page, put the title centered at the top of the first page and your details where they ask.

Footnotes

Each time you use a source, put a small raised number in your sentence. It goes after the punctuation, usually at the end of the sentence: ones.¹ The matching note gives the source.

• Number notes 1, 2, 3 through the whole paper. Never start over on a new page, and never reuse a number.
• In the note, the number is full size and followed by a period. Indent the first line half an inch.
• Notes put the author's first name first and use commas, with publication details in parentheses.
• The first note for a source is a full note. Every note after that for the same source is a short note.
• End with the page you used, when there is one.

Here are full notes for a book, a journal article with a DOI, and a web page:

Short notes, and ibid.

After the first full note, use a short one: the author's last name, a short title of up to four words, and the page.

The 18th edition prefers these short notes to ibid., even when you cite the same source twice in a row. Ibid. is still allowed, so use it if your teacher wants it. With three or more authors, a note names the first author and adds "et al."

The bibliography

• Start it on a new page at the end, titled Bibliography and centered. Leave two blank lines before the first entry.
• List entries in alphabetical order by the first word, usually the author's last name.
• Give every entry a half-inch hanging indent.
• Entries put the first author's last name first and use periods between parts. Articles show their full page range.
• List up to six authors. With more than six, list the first three and add "et al."
• The city of publication is no longer needed for books.

Compare the note and the entry for the same book. The note reads like a phrase, with commas and the publisher in parentheses. The entry reads like a list, last name first, with periods.

Quotes, headings and author-date

Block quotes

Set a quote of five or more lines as a block. Indent the whole block half an inch, single-space it, and leave a blank line above and below. Leave out the quotation marks. The note number goes at the end of the block.

Headings

Chicago does not require one heading style. Turabian suggests centered headings in bold or italics for main sections and flush-left headings for smaller ones. Use title case, and make each level look the same everywhere.

Author-date

If your teacher wants author-date, cite in parentheses with the last name, year and page: (Walker 2017, 112). The list at the end is called References, and the year comes right after the author:

A Chicago paper, start to finish

What you type

formatwriter.com/write The app

What you get

A real PDF exported from Format in Chicago notes and bibliography. In a PDF the notes are listed on a Notes page before the bibliography. In a Word file they sit at the foot of each page as real footnotes.

The mistakes teachers mark down

1. Note numbers before the punctuation. They go after the period or comma.
2. Numbers that start over. Notes count up through the whole paper.
3. A full note every time. After the first one, shorten it.
4. Notes written like bibliography entries. Or the other way around. They use different order and punctuation.
5. A bibliography without a hanging indent. Or one that is not in alphabetical order.
6. Mixing systems. Footnotes and (Author Year) citations in the same paper.

Questions