Chicago Style Formatting and Citation Guidelines

Follow these guidelines to format your academic papers and cite sources correctly using Chicago style, ensuring clarity and professionalism in your writing.

Format and Punctuation

  • Use Times New Roman, 12 pt. font for body text and 10 pt. font for footnotes and endnotes.
  • Left-justify text with 1-inch margins on all sides.
  • Avoid Sans Serif fonts.
  • For titles ending in a question mark or exclamation point, add a comma if required by sentence grammar, source citation, or index.
  • Form plurals of words in quotation marks by adding -s or -es within the quotation marks.
  • Break long URLs in printed works before a slash (/).

Headings and Subheadings

  • Headings:
    • Align flush with the left margin.
    • Capitalize the first and last words and major words (proper nouns).
    • Use lowercase for articles (a, an, the) and prepositions, unless stressed (e.g., A River Runs Through It), used adjectivally or adverbially (e.g., Look Up, Look Down), or part of a Latin expression (e.g., De Facto, In Vitro).
  • Subheadings:
    • Place all but the lowest level on a separate line above the body text.
    • Use run-in headings for the lowest level, on the same line as the body text, often in italics, in sentence style (first word capitalized, ending with a period).
    • Distinguish multiple subheading levels with type styles (e.g., italics vs. regular or bold), avoiding all capitals.
    • Do not end non-run-in headings with a period.
    • Ensure the first sentence after a subheading does not refer syntactically to it.

Quotations

  • Use block quotations for text of 8 or more lines (100+ words), multiple paragraphs, letters with salutations/signatures, lists, specially formatted material, or poetry.
  • Block quotations start on a new line, are not enclosed in quotation marks, and are indented 1 inch from regular margins unless specified otherwise.
  • Reflect the original paragraphing in block quotations. If the quoted paragraph’s opening is omitted, start flush left with subsequent paragraphs indented. Maintain flush formatting if original.
  • Use run-in quotations only when text intervenes with the remainder of the quote.
  • Text following a block quotation continues flush left if part of the same paragraph, or indented if a new paragraph.

Citation

Chicago style offers two citation methods: Notes and Bibliography (using footnotes/endnotes) and Author-Date (using in-text citations). Cite all non-original ideas with a footnote, endnote, or in-text citation.

Footnotes and Endnotes
  • Footnotes appear at the page bottom, endnotes at the chapter/section end, both indicated by superscript numbers corresponding to bibliography-style notes.1
  • Use a dagger (†) or asterisk (*) for footnotes if endnotes are also used in the same section; endnotes use numbers.
  • Assign a new footnote number for each citation, even for repeated sources. Reference prior notes (e.g., 5 see footnote 3) instead of reusing numbers.

Sample Citations

Below are examples for Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date styles:

Book
  • One Author:
    • Footnote: 1 Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), 25.
    • In-text: (Pollan 2006, 25)
    • Bibliography: Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.
  • Two or More Authors:
    • Footnote: 1 Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945 (New York: Knopf, 2007), 52.
    • In-text: (Ward and Burns 2007, 52)
    • Bibliography: Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf, 2007.
  • Four or More Authors:
    • Footnote: 1 James Irving et al., I Hate (New York: Angry Works, 2010), 119.
    • In-text: (Irving et al. 2010, 119)
    • Bibliography: List all authors in the bibliography.
  • Editor/Translator Instead of Author:
    • Footnote: 1 Richmond Lattimore, trans., The Iliad of Homer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 45.
    • In-text: (Lattimore 1951, 45)
    • Bibliography: Lattimore, Richmond, trans. The Iliad of Homer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
  • Chapter in a Book:
    • Footnote: 1 John D. Kelly, “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War,” in Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, ed. John D. Kelly et al. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 67–83.
    • In-text: (Kelly 2010, 67–83)
    • Bibliography: Kelly, John D. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
  • E-book:
    • Footnote: 1 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2007), Kindle edition.
    • In-text: (Austen 2007)
    • Bibliography: Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Kindle edition.
Journal Article
  • Print Journal:
    • Footnote: 1 Joshua I. Weinstein, “The Market in Plato’s Republic,” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 439–58.
    • In-text: (Weinstein 2009, 439–58)
    • Bibliography: Weinstein, Joshua I. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 439–58.
  • Online Journal:
    • Footnote: 1 Gueorgi Kossinets and Duncan J. Watts, “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network,” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 405–50, accessed February 28, 2010, doi:10.1086/599247.
    • In-text: (Kossinets and Watts 2009, 405–50)
    • Bibliography: Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 405–50. Accessed February 28, 2010. doi:10.1086/599247.
Newspaper/Magazine Article
  • Example:
    • Footnote: 1 Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear, “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote,” New York Times, February 27, 2010, accessed February 28, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
    • In-text: (Stolberg and Pear 2010)
    • Bibliography: Typically omitted; cite in text or notes.
Website
  • Example:
    • Footnote: 1 Google, “Google Privacy Policy,” last modified March 11, 2009, http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.
    • In-text: (Google 2009)
    • Bibliography: Google. “Google Privacy Policy.” Last modified March 11, 2009. http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.
Other Sources
  • Thesis/Dissertation:
    • Footnote: 1 Mihwa Choi, “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty,” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2008, ProQuest (AAT 3300426).
    • In-text: (Choi 2008)
    • Bibliography: Choi, Mihwa. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2008. ProQuest (AAT 3300426).
  • Personal Communication:
    • Footnote: 1 Jimmy Brisket, email to author, November 16, 2006.
    • In-text: (Brisket 2006)
    • Bibliography: Typically omitted; cite in text or notes.