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Writing Tips

How to Write and Format a Chicago Style Paper [With Examples]

3-minute read
18th August 2023

Are you working on a Chicago style project but struggling with the question, “just what is it?!”

Fear not, this post will walk you through Chicago style basics.

What Is Chicago Style?

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) is a comprehensive style guide primarily used by professional writers, publishers, and researchers. It covers various forms of writing, including books, journals, magazines, and other publications. It’s often the go-to style for publishers and editors. CMoS is also known for its emphasis on scholarly writing and is suitable for a wide range of disciplines, including history, literature, the arts, and social sciences.

However, there’s an important distinction between Chicago style and Turabian style , which is essentially a simplified version of CMoS used in scholarly writing. Turabian omits some of the complexities and focuses on the needs of academic writers, especially those in the humanities and social sciences.

With either style, it’s essential to consult the relevant edition of the style guide specified by your institution or publication: either The Chicago Manual of Style or A Manual for Writers by Kate L. Turabian (currently in its ninth edition).

How Are Chicago Style Citations Formatted?

CMoS emphasizes two primary documentation systems : the notes and bibliography system (often used in the humanities) and the author–date system (preferred in the sciences and social sciences). When formatting a CMoS/Turabian paper, you’ll need to adhere to the guidelines associated with your chosen documentation system.

Notes and Bibliography System:

● In this system, you’ll use footnotes or endnotes to cite sources within the text.

● A corresponding bibliography is included at the end of the paper, listing all sources in alphabetical order.

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● Citations typically include author names, titles, publication details, and page numbers.

Author–Date System:

● In the author–date system, you’ll incorporate in-text citations within parentheses.

● A reference list is included at the end of the document, providing full details for each cited source.

● Citations include author’s last names, publication year, and page numbers (if applicable).

What Does Turabian Style Formatting Look Like?

A well-structured Turabian Style paper should adhere to the following formatting guidelines :

Title page : Include the title of your paper, your name, the course name/number, instructor’s name, and the date on a separate page, starting a third of the page down. Alternatively, write the title on the first page.
Margins : Apply one-inch margins on all sides.
Indentation and spacing : Indent paragraphs and double-space the main text.
Font : Use a legible 12-point font (e.g., Times New Roman).
Page numbers : Number all pages consecutively in the top right corner, starting with the first page. Alternatively, page numbers may be placed at the bottom center of the page.
Headings and subheadings : Use headline-style capitalization for headings and subheadings, with different levels distinguished.
Footnotes or in-text citations: Implement your chosen citation system consistently throughout the paper.
Bibliography or reference list : Include a comprehensive list of all sources used, following Chicago style citation guidelines for your chosen system.

How Should I Choose Which Chicago Style Documentation to Use?

It’s crucial to find out which specific CMoS system is preferred by your institution, publisher, or field of study. Always consult your assignment guidelines or style manual to determine whether you should use the notes and bibliography system or the author–date system. This choice will significantly impact how you format your citations and references.

Remember that mastering CMoS takes practice. By following these guidelines, you’ll be well on your way to crafting polished, professionally formatted papers that meet the expectations of your academic or professional audience.

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Please note that although these resources reflect the most recent updates in the The Chicago Manual of Style (17 th edition) concerning documentation practices, you can review a full list of updates concerning usage, technology, professional practice, etc. at The Chicago Manual of Style Online .

Introduction

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) covers a variety of topics from manuscript preparation and publication to grammar, usage, and documentation, and as such, it has been lovingly dubbed the “editor's bible.”

The material on this page focuses primarily on one of the two CMOS documentation styles: the Notes-Bibliography System (NB) , which is used by those working in literature, history, and the arts. The other documentation style, the Author-Date System, is nearly identical in content but slightly different in form and is preferred by those working in the social sciences.

Though the two systems both convey all of the important information about each source, they differ not only in terms of the way they direct readers to these sources, but also in terms of their formatting (e.g., the position of dates in citation entries). For examples of how these citation styles work in research papers, consult our sample papers:

Author-Date Sample Paper

NB Sample Paper

In addition to consulting The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) for more information, students may also find it useful to consult Kate L. Turabian's Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (8th edition). This manual, which presents what is commonly known as the "Turabian" citation style, follows the two CMOS patterns of documentation but offers slight modifications suited to student texts.

Notes and Bibliography (NB) in Chicago style

The Chicago Notes and Bibliography (NB) system is often used in the humanities to provide writers with a system for referencing their sources through the use of footnotes, endnotes, and through the use of a bibliography. This offers writers a flexible option for citation and provides an outlet for commenting on those sources, if needed. Proper use of the Notes and Bibliography system builds a writer’s credibility by demonstrating their accountability to source material. In addition, it can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the intentional or accidental uncredited use of source material created by others.

Introduction to Notes

In the Notes and Bibliography system, you should include a note (endnote or footnote) each time you use a source, whether through a direct quote, paraphrase, or summary. Footnotes are added at the end of the page on which the source is referenced, while endnotes are compiled at the end of each chapter or at the end of the entire document.

In either case, a superscript number corresponding to a note, along with the bibliographic information for that source, should be placed in the text following the end of the sentence or clause in which the source is referenced.

If a work includes a bibliography, which is typically preferred, then it is not necessary to provide full publication details in notes. However, if a bibliography is not included with a work, the first note for each source should include all relevant information about the source: author’s full name, source title, and facts of publication. If you cite the same source again, or if a bibliography is included in the work, the note only needs to include the surname of the author, a shortened form of the title (if more than four words), and the page number(s). However, in a work that does not include a bibliography, it is recommended that the full citation be repeated when it is first used in a new chapter.

In contrast to earlier editions of CMOS, if you cite the same source two or more times consecutively, CMOS recommends using shortened citations. In a work with a bibliography, the first reference should use a shortened citation which includes the author’s name, the source title, and the page number(s), and consecutive references to the same work may omit the source title and simply include the author and page number. Although discouraged by CMOS, if you cite the same source and page number(s) from a single source two or more times consecutively, it is also possible to utilize the word “Ibid.,” ( from the Latin ibidem, which means “in the same place,”) as the corresponding note. If you use the same source but a draw from different new page, the corresponding note should use “Ibid.” followed by a comma and the new page number(s).

In the NB system, the footnote or endnote itself begins with the appropriate full-sized number, followed by a period and then a space.

Introduction to Bibliographies

In the NB system, the bibliography provides an alphabetical list of all sources used in a given work. This page, most often titled Bibliography, is usually placed at the end of the work preceding the index. It should include all sources cited within the work and may sometimes include other relevant sources that were not cited but provide further reading.

Although bibliographic entries for various sources may be formatted differently, all included sources (books, articles, websites, etc.) are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name. If no author or editor is listed, the title or, as a last resort, a descriptive phrase may be used.

Though useful, a bibliography is not required in works that provide full bibliographic information in the notes.

Common Elements

All entries in the bibliography will include the author (or editor, compiler, translator), title, and publication information.

Author Names

The author’s name is inverted in the bibliography, placing the last name first and separating the last name and first name with a comma; for example, John Smith becomes Smith, John.

Titles of books and journals are italicized. Titles of articles, chapters, poems, etc. are placed in quotation marks .

Publication Information

The year of publication is listed after the publisher or journal name .

Punctuation

In a bibliography, all major elements are separated by periods.

For more information and specific examples, see the sections on Books and Periodicals .

Please note that this OWL resource provides basic information regarding the formatting of entries used in the bibliography. For more information about Selected Bibliographies, Annotated Bibliographies, and Bibliographic Essays, please consult Chapter 14.61 of The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition).

Chicago style sample papers

Published March 8, 2021. Updated August 15, 2021.

In general, the following formatting guidelines apply for all Chicago/Turabian-style papers (based on Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, which adapts The Chicago Manual of Style ’s guidelines for articles and papers):

Paper size: The paper should be written on a standard 8.5” x 11” page.
Margins : The margins should be set to at least 1” and no more than 1.5” on all sides for all pages including the title page.
Font: The paper should be written in a readable font that is accessible to all readers, such as 12-point Times New Roman, Calibri, or Courier, or 11-point Arial. Use one font consistently throughout the entire text. The font size should be no smaller than 10-point.
Line spacing: The title page, body, and headings should be double-spaced. Block quotations (with a blank line before and after the block), bibliographies, reference lists, endnotes, and footnotes should be single-spaced (with a blank line between notes and reference list entries).
First page: Papers should either begin with a title page or include a title on the first page of text.
Indentation : The first line of each new paragraph of the main text should be indented 0.5” from the left.
Quotations: Quotations of five or more lines should be indented as a block. Block quotations should be indented 0.5” from the left margin and do not use beginning or ending quotation marks.
Page numbers: Every page except the title page should include a page number in an Arabic numeral. If there is no title page, the paper’s first page of body text should begin with an Arabic numeral “1.” If there is a title page, the paper’s first page of main text should begin with an Arabic numeral “2.” Place the page number either at the bottom center in the footer or the top right in the header. (Though theses or dissertations once called for page numbers to be placed in the footer for front matter, main text, and back matter, and for page numbers to be placed in the header for all other text, most schools now require consistent page number placement throughout a paper.)

For help writing your essay, research paper , or other project, check out these writing tips .

Paper order

In general, your paper should be put together in this order:

Table of Contents (optional)
List of Tables and Figures (optional)
Introduction (optional)
Body (with footnotes or in-text citations)
Conclusion (optional)
Appendixes (optional)
Endnotes (optional)
Bibliography or Reference List

Formatting for the title page

From the top of the page, find a line about 1/3 of the way down the page and set the title (and subtitle) of the paper in bold.
Capitalize each significant word using headline-style capitalization.
Use the same font as the main text.
When using subtitles, end the main title with a colon and start the subtitle on the following line.
Double-space all text on the title page.

For student papers ONLY:

Include course information several lines after the title and subtitle.
course name and number
due date of the assignment

For more information, visit this page on Chicago title pages.

Formatting for the abstract

Chicago rarely requires abstracts, which generally appear in scientific papers and journals.

For more information, visit this page on Chicago abstracts .

Formatting for the body of the paper

When a title page is not required, write the title at the top of your first page of main text.
Begin every new paragraph in the body of the paper on its own line with a 0.5” indentation; do this by pressing the Tab key once.
Double-space the main text (except when using block quotations).
Use only one space after a period, not two spaces.
Start page numbering with the first page of body text, not the title page, and use Arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.). When there is a title page, start the first page of body text with page “2.” When there is no separate title page, start the first page of body text with page “1.”

Notes-Bibliography vs. Author-Date format

To cite references in the body of the paper, Chicago style follows either the author-date format (preferred for science and social science) or the notes-bibliography format (preferred for humanities) . Choose one format and use it consistently throughout the paper.

Author-Date

When using the author-date format, use in-text citations. To create an in-text citation, place the author’s last name and the publication year of the cited work in parentheses at the end of the quote or paraphrase. Do not separate the author’s last name and the publication year with a comma.

(Sato 2020)

If you quote a specific part of a text, you’ll also provide a specific page number or another location identifier in the in-text citation.

(Sato 2020, 203)

For author-date citations, include a reference list at the end of the paper with full source information.

For more author-date information, visit these pages on Chicago style in-text citations and Chicago style reference lists.

When using the notes-bibliography format, add a note (endnote or footnote) after each quotation, paraphrase, or summary. To create a note, insert a superscript number after any punctuation marks except the dash. Use the same number in the endnote or footnote providing full source information. The first note provides all source information while any subsequent notes may use a shortened citation with the author’s name, a shortened form of the title (if more than four words), and the page number(s).

For notes-bibliography citations, include a bibliography at the end of the paper with full source information.

For more information, visit these pages on Chicago style footnotes and Chicago style bibliographies .

Bibliography or reference list formatting

Both Chicago formats include a full list of sources at the end of a paper. Author-date format requires a reference list while notes-bibliography encourages (but does not require) a bibliography.

Here are formatting guidelines that apply to both lists:

Begin the bibliography (Notes-Bib) or reference list (Author-Date) on a new page immediately following the last page of main text.
Center the word “Bibliography” or “References” on the first line of the page. Add two blank lines after the title.
Single-space each entry and add a blank line between entries.
Begin each reference entry with a hanging indentation so that the first line of the reference touches the left margin while all subsequent lines have a 0.5” indent.
Order reference list entries alphabetically by the author’s last name, followed by the first name(s) (last name, first name).

Apart from the guidelines above, there are some differences between creating a Chicago bibliography and reference list. For more information, visit these pages on styling a Chicago bibliography and Chicago reference list.