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Chicago Formatting Style

The Chicago Manual of Style presents two basic documentation systems: (1) notes and
bibliography and (2) author-date. This presentation is dedicated to the first system since it is
more often used in our company.

General Points

 Chicago style is recommended for the papers in the humanities and some social sciences.
 Margins should be set at 1”.
 The font should be Times New Roman.
 Font size should be 12 pt.
 Text should be double-spaced. The exceptions are block quotations, table titles, and figure
captions, which should be single-spaced.
 Notes and bibliographies should be singled-spaced internally; however, leave an extra line space
between note and bibliographic entries.
 Page numbers begin in the header of the first page (not the title page) with Arabic number 1,
flush right.
 If there is no title page, just place a page number on the first page.

Title Page

1. There is no page number on the title page.

2. The title should be centered a third of the way down the page. Divide your page into three parts
and type in the title below the upper one-third of the paper.
3. The title should be in CAPS.
4. If there is a subtitle, end the title line with a colon and place the subtitle on the line below the
title. Subtitle should also be in CAPS.
5. Type in the student’s name, class information and the date of the paper below the middle one-
third of the paper. Do not include any other information unless it is required by the customer.
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Note: Sometimes, the title page is not required by the customer. In such a case, include the title

on the first page of the text, in CAPS

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First Page

1. Arabic page numbers begin in the header of the first page of text, flush right.
2. If there is a title page, do not duplicate the title of the paper on the first page.
3. Just begin the text of the paper with a new line, indented 0.5”.

Note: Please, do not mix the title page with the first page.
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Footnotes

1. Chicago requires using notes to cite sources and/or providing relevant commentary.
2. You should include a footnote each time you use a source, no matter whether you quote the
author directly or just paraphrase.
3. Footnotes should be added at the end of the page on which the source is referenced, and endnotes
are to be listed at the end of each chapter or at the end of the entire document.
4. Note numbers should be placed at the end of the clause or sentence to which they refer and
should be placed after any punctuation mark except the dash.
5. Note numbers should begin with “1” and follow consecutively throughout a given paper, article,
or chapter.
6. In the text, note numbers are superscripted.To make the number superscript, select it and on the
Home tab, in the Font group, click Superscript. Or press CTRL+SHIFT+=.
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1. In the notes themselves, note numbers are full sized (not raised) and followed by a period and a
space.
2. The first line of a footnote is indented 0.5” from the left margin (=1.27 cm).
3. Subsequent lines within a footnote should be formatted flush left.
4. Leave an extra line space between footnotes.
5. Place commentary after documentation if needed separated by a period.
6. The first note for each source should include all relevant information about the source.
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7. If you cite the same source somewhere in the paper again (but not consecutively), the note
should include only the surname of the author followed by a comma (,), a shortened form of the
title (if more than four words) followed by a comma (,), and page number(s).Do not forget to put
a period after it.
8. If you cite the same source and page number(s) from a single source two or more times
consecutively, the corresponding note should use the word “Ibid.” Do not forget to put a period
after it.
9. If you use the same source but a different page number, the corresponding note should use
“Ibid.” followed by a comma (,) and the new page number(s). Do not forget to put a period after
it.
10. When a page range is cited, the hundreds digit need not be repeated if it does not change from
the beginning to the end of the range (e.g. 122-23). See the example marked orange on the
sreenshot.

 If you cite a book, the note (for the first time) should include the following information: author’s
full name (not inverted) followed by a comma (,), book title (italicized, title case), facts of
publication (in parentheses), and page number (s).
 Facts of publication include the city of publication followed by a colon (:), a publisher followed
by a comma (,), and a year of publication.
 Do not forget to put a period at the end of the note.
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Pay attention: when a page range is cited, the hundreds digit (if any) does not have to be
repeated.
 For online books, just add the URL after facts of publication instead of page number(s).
 If you cite a periodical, the note (for the first time) should include the following information:
author’s full name (not inverted) followed by a comma (,), article title in quotation marks, title
case, followed by a comma (,), journal title (italicized, title case) and issue information.
 Issue information refers to volume, which follows the journal title with no punctuation and is not
italicized, issue number preceded by “no.’’ The year appears in parenthesis after the volume
number (or issue number if given) and is followed by a colon (:). The year may be preceded by a
specific date, month, or season if given. Page information follows the year.
 If you use an electronic book, just add the URL instead of the page number(s)
Example:

Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1987), http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.
 For online periodical, just add the URL or DOI
Example:

Gueorgi Kossinets and Duncan J. Watts, “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social

Network,” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 411, doi:10.1086/599247.

Note: if the date of access to the source is required, you should add accessed (date) before the
URL.

 If you cite the whole website, the note should look in the following way:

Firstname Lastname (if any), “Title of Web Page,” Publishing Organization or Name of Website
in Italics, publication date and/or access date if available, URL.

Example:
“McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts,” McDonald’s Corporation, accessed July 19, 2008,
http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.
Note: The next note in this case will consist only of the title of the website
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 If the author of the work is unknown, cite the source by the title just omitting the author at the
beginning of the note.
Example:

Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory (Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 2005), 122
 When an editor’s or translator’s name appears in addition to an author’s, it should be also
included into a note and bibliography at the end of the paper (in the latter it appears as Edited
by or Translated by.

 In the note it appears shortened to ed. and trans. after a title followed by a comma (,).

Example:
Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera, trans. Edith Grossman (London: Cape,
1988), 242–55.

 If you use a part of the work (e.g. chapter of a book), in the note, mention it after the author’s
name and put it in quotation marks. Use the preposition ‘in’ to mark the source this part belongs
to.

Example:
John D. Kelly, “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War,”
in Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010),
77.

Long quotations

 A prose quotation of five or more lines should be “blocked.”

 The block quotation is single spaced and takes no quotation marks.
 You should leave an extra line space immediately before and after.
 Indent the entire quotation 0.5” (the same as you would the start of a new paragraph).
Example:
In the article A Long Way to Sobriety Ella Jameson states:

Young adults are more susceptible to addiction than ever before. Many illicit substances such as
alcohol and prescription medication are far more easily accessible than previously, and
possession of these substances is also more socially acceptable. Many teens and young adults
who begin experimenting with illicit substances don’t intend to develop an addiction, but
experimentation can quickly lead users down a dangerous road.1
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Reference to Sources

Remember how the titles of different sources should be formatted in Chicago:

Italicized
 books
 edited collections
 movies
 television series
 documentaries
 albums
In quotation marks
 journal articles
 articles from edited collections
 television series episodes
 song titles
Note:
In Chicago, this rule is applicable to the sources no matter where they are mentioned: in the text,
in the note or in the Bibliography. Besides, please, mind that title case is used for all the sources
no matter where they are located.

Reference to Authors

Please, pay attention how one, two and more authors should be mentioned in the text, in the note
and in the Bibliography.

Number of AuthorsIn the textIn the noteIn the BibliographyComments

Number
In the In the In the
of Comments
text note Bibliography
Authors

One Burns Ken Burns, Ken do not forget to

Author Burns put a comma
between a last
name and a
first name in
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Number
In the In the In the
of Comments
text note Bibliography
Authors

the
bibliography

Two and Ward Geoffrey Ward, the name of the

Three and C. Ward Geoffrey C., first author is
Authors Burns and Ken and Ken Burns inverted in the
Burns bibliography;
the name of the
second is not;
do not forget to
put a comma
before ‘and’ in
the
bibliography

Four and Barnes Dana Barnes, Dana, list all of the

more et al. Barnes et G.C. Ward, K. authors in the
Authors al. Burns, and C. bibliography;
R. Sun in the note and
in the text, list
only the first
author,
followed by et
al.only the first
name is
inverted

Endnotes

 Chicago also allows for a system of “endnotes.”

 Endnotes may become useful when footnotes consume a lot of space and/or extend beyond the
page to which they refer.
 Endnotes appear at the end of a paper, article, or chapter (after the text before the bibliography)
with a page title of “Notes.”
 Using endnotes, put note numbers at the end of the clause or sentence to which they refer and
add a corresponding note to the Notes page.
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 Endnotes are formatted in the same way as the footnotes.

Note:
as a rule, we use footnotes unless followed by particular customer’s requirements..

Headings

Since Chicago has an optional system of five heading levels, we have worked out our own
system of headings we will use in our company. Please, stick to it:

Chicago Headings
1. 1 st level: Centered, Boldface, Title Case

The paragraph begins from a new line, indented.

2. 2nd level: Centered, Not Bolded, Title Case

The paragraph begins from a new line, indented.

3. 3 rd level: Flush Left, Boldface, Title Case

The paragraph begins from a new line, indented

4. 4 th level: Flush left, not bolded, sentence case

The paragraph begins from a new line, indented

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Tables and Figures

1. Place tables and figures after the paragraph where they’re described.
2. Cite the source of the table and figure information with a “source line” at the bottom of the table
or figure. Source lines are introduced by the word Source(s), followed by a colon, author’s last
name and year of publication, followed by a comma, and the page number, ended with a period.
3. But the full information about the source should be included into the corresponding entry in
Bibliography.
4. Every table should have a number and (a short and descriptive) title flush left on the line above
the table.
5. Every figure should have a number and a caption flush left on the line below the figure.
6. Number tables and figures separately in the order you mention them in the text.
7. In the text, identify tables and figures by number (“in figure 3”) rather than by location
(“below”).
8. Table titles, and figure captions, which should be single-spaced. Use the title case capitalization.

List of sources

Bibliography

1. The list of sources used in the paper should appear at the end of the paper.
2. It should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay.
3. In Chicago Citation Style, we name the list of sources ‘Bibliography’.
4. The word ‘Bibliography’ should be centered at the top of the page (NOT bolded, not underlined,
not italicized, not in quotation marks).
5. The first line of each entry should be flush left. All lines after the first line of each entry in the
list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin (hanging indentation).
6. There should be two blank lines between “Bibliography” and the first entry.
7. There should be one blank line between remaining entries.
8. Lines within the bibliography entries should be singled-spaced internally; however, you should
leave an extra line space between the bibliographic entries.
9. Entries should be arranged in the alphabetical order according to the first word in each entry. As
a rule, it is the author’s last name. If no author or editor is listed, the title or keyword by which
the reader would search for the source may be used instead.
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10. The author’s name is inverted in the bibliography. Place the last name first and separate the last
name and first name with a comma.
11. Use “and,” not an ampersand, “&,” for multi-author entries.
12. The 3-em dash (—) should be used to replace authors or editors’ names who hold multiple,
successive entries in a bibliography.
13. As a rule, the year of publication is mentioned at the end of the entry.
14. In the Bibliography, all major elements are separated by periods (whereas in notes, all major
elements are usually separated by commas).
15. In Bibliography, in the text of the paper and in the notes, titles of books and journals are
italicized. Titles of articles, poems, chapters, poems, etc. are placed in quotation marks.
16. The title case is used for all the titles in the Bibliography.

umming Up…

Basic Features of Chicago

 Page number starts with the first page, not the title page.
 The title of the paper is in CAPS.
 There is no title on the first page as a rule.
 Chicago presupposes the use of footnotes or endnotes. Note numbers should be placed at the end
of the clause or sentence to which they refer. Footnotes should be added at the end of the page on
which the source is referenced.
 The list of sources is labelled ‘Bibliography’.
 The formatting of footnotes and entries in the Bibliography differ: author’s name is not inverted
in the footnotes but is inverted in the Bibliography.
 In the Bibliography, all major elements are separated by periods whereas in notes, all major
elements are usually separated by commas.
 Headings of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd level are formatted using the title case. Headings of the 4th and
5th level are formatted using the sentence case.
 All titles in Chicago are formatted using the title case.
 Longer works (books, journals, movies) are italicized and parts of works (book chapters, articles)
are in quotation marks in the text, in the notes and in the Bibliography in Chicago.
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