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The Chicago Manual of Style is most commonly used in the humanities, particularly history. It involves the general format of a paper, footnotes and/or endnotes within the body of a paper, and the bibliography at the end. It is important to note that every reference should have a footnote and/or endnote. Inversely, every footnote and/or endnote should correspond to a reference in the bibliography.

General Formatting

Chicago Manual of Style provides the following formatting rules for writing assignments:

  • Text should be double-spaced with the following exceptions:
    • Block quotes, table titles, and figure captions are single-spaced
      • A quote of five or more lines should be made a block quote
      • A block quote is not enclosed in quotation marks
      • After a block quote, insert an extra line of space before writing again
      • The entire block quote should be indented an additional .5″
    • Notes and bibliographies should be single-spaced internally. Leave an extra line space between notes and bibliographic entries
  • The margins should be no less than 1″ and no greater than 1.5″
  • The font size should be no less than 10-point, with 12-point being preferred
  • The font should be readable, such as Times New Roman or Arial
  • The title page:
    • Depending on the professor, either include a title page or put the title on the first page of the paper itself. Ask your professor for clarification as to what they want
    • Title of paper
      • Centered
      • All letters capitalized
      • One-third of the way down the page
    • Your name
      • First name, last name
      • Several lines below the title
    • Course code: Name of class
  • The header:
    • Page number
    • First page of text (not title page)
    • Right-hand side
    • Arabic numeral 1
  • When mentioning a title within the text, capitalize it “headline-style”. That is, capitalize the first word as well as any important words thereafter
  • For titles within the text as well as within notes and bibliographies, use quotation marks or italics based on the type of work:
    • Books and periodical titles (titles of journals) are italicized
    • Article or chapter titles should be placed within quotes

Endnotes/Footnotes

Chicago Manual of Style handles in-text citations differently than APA or MLA. You should include a note (endnote or footnote) each time a source is used, regardless of whether it’s a direct quote or has been paraphrased. Footnotes are located at the end of the page in which the source is used. Endnotes are compiled at the end of each chapter or at the end of the entire document. Be sure to read the assignment or ask your professor to know which style you should use.

The following formatting rules apply to both endnotes and footnotes.

  • Note numbers should begin with “1” and follow consecutively throughout the paper
  • Within the paper, note numbers are superscripted
    • Place note numbers at the end of the sentence in which the information was used
    • Placed note numbers after the period at the end of the sentence
  • In the note itself, numbers are full-sized and followed by a period
  • Indent the first line of a footnote .5″ from the left margin. Subsequent lines should be flush left
  • Leave a blank line between footnotes

Examples of superscript numbers within the body of a paper

A single source at the end of a sentence

admitting you need help is the first step.2

Multiple sources at the end of a sentence

admitting you need help is the first step.2-3

Books

One author

1. Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes (New York: Penguin Books, 1983), 192.

Multiple authors

2. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, The Challenge of Teamwork (Cleveland OH: Cavaliers Foundation, 2015), 156.

Author and editor

3. Stephen Curry, Practice Makes Perfect, ed. Steve Kerr (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), 32.

Article, chapter, section in an edited collection

4. Peter Chilson, “The Border,” in The Best American Travel Writing 2008, ed. Anthony Bourdain (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 23.

Journal Article, Magazine, Newspaper

An article in a scholarly journal with issue numbers but no volume numbers

1. Bonnie Cheuk, “Delivering Business Value Through Information Literacy in the Workplace,” Libri, no. 3 (2008): 141.

An article in a scholarly journal with volume and issue numbers

2. Edwina Thomas Washington, “An Overview of Cyberbullying in Higher Education,” Adult Learning 26, no. 1 (2015): 23.

A magazine article

3. Emily Macel, “Beijing’s Modern Movement,” Dance Magazine, February 2009, 35.

A newspaper article

4. Matt Schirano, “Vidal Vows to Crack Down on Crime,” The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), Jun. 19, 2012.

Website

Website with known author and date

1. Tom Smith, “Copy Cataloging for the Digital Era,” last modified May 13, 2015, http://copycataloging.org.

Website with known date but with no known author

2. “Illinois Governor Wants to ‘Fumigate’ State’s Government,” CNN.com, last modified January 30, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.

Website with no known date and no known author

3. “How to Camp Safely With as Little Equipment as Possible,” accessed October 23, 2013, http://campingsafely.com/min_equipment/.

Bibliography

Format the bibliography using the following rules:

  • “Bibliography” or “References” is written at the top-center of the page. Do not include the quotation marks
  • Start at the top of the following page after the paper ends
  • Leave two blank spaces between “Bibliography” or “References” and the first entry
  • Leave one blank line between entries
  • Order entries alphabetically by the first word in each entry
  • Use “and” and not an ampersand (&) for entries with multiple authors

Below are examples of sources commonly used. When creating a reference pay attention to all of the details. What needs to be italicized? How should things be capitalized? When and where do you need a period? All of this important to creating a properly formatted reference.

Journal, Magazine, and Newspaper Articles

If you’re missing information for a reference don’t assume it doesn’t exist. A Google search for the title of the article can locate missing information or verify it doesn’t exist.

An article in a scholarly journal with issue numbers but no volume numbers

Cheuk, Bonnie. “Delivering Business Value Through Information Literacy in the Workplace.” Libri, no. 3 (2008): 137-143.

An article in a scholarly journal with volume and issue numbers

Washington, Edwina Thomas. “An Overview of Cyberbullying in Higher Education.” Adult Learning 26, no. 1 (2015): 21-27.

A magazine article

Macel, Emily. “Beijing’s Modern Movement.” Dance Magazine, February 2009.

A newspaper article

Schirano, Matt. “Vidal Vows to Crack Down on Crime.” The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), Jun. 19, 2012.

Books

When referencing books be sure to know whether someone is an author or editor. The differentiation can be unclear when looking at the cover of a book. Again, Google can be a great place to confirm the information you have or find missing information.

One author

Bradbury, Ray. Something Wicked This Way Comes. New York: Penguin Books, 1983.

Multiple authors

James, LeBron, and Irving, Kyrie. The Challenge of Teamwork. Cleveland OH: Cavaliers Foundation, 2015.

Author and editor

Curry, Stephen. Practice Makes Perfect, Edited by Steve Kerr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.

Article, chapter, section in an edited collection

Chilson, Peter. “The Border”. In The Best American Travel Writing 2008, edited by Anthony Bourdain, 27-42. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.

Website

When using multiple pages from a single website, create one reference for the homepage of the website. Do not create separate references for each page used.

Website with known author and date

Tom Smith. “Copy Cataloging for the Digital Era.” Last modified May 13, 2015. http://copycataloging.org.

Website with known date but with no known author

“Illinois Governor Wants to ‘Fumigate’ State’s Government.” CNN.com. Last modified January 30, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.

Website with no known date and no known author

“How to Camp Safely With as Little Equipment as Possible.” Accessed October 23, 2013. http://campingsafely.com/min_equipment/.
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