Chicago Style

Instructors and publishers, particularly in historical fields, often ask that you cite your sources in Chicago Style.  Citing your sources correctly prevents charges of plagiarism and also makes your paper easy to read.  Citing your sources incorrectly can make you look like a sloppy scholar. 

This worksheet provides some of the basics for citing sources correctly.  However, it does not substitute for a Chicago Style Manual.  Whenever you cite sources, you will probably need to check a style manual for correct punctuation, format, and placement.

 

Footnotes, Endnotes, and Bibliographies:
An Overview

Chicago Style dictates that each item you cite appear in an endnote or footnote.  A superscript number (found after the period of the sentence using that source) should direct the reader to the source.  The source information should be formatted the same for both footnotes and endnotes.

• A footnote includes the source information at the bottom of the page being cited.
• An endnote includes the source information at the end of the document.

Some instructors require both footnotes/endnotes and a bibliography.  The bibliography is an alphabetical list of all sources cited in the document; some bibliographies even include sources not cited but useful.  Bibliographies and footnotes/endnotes are not cited in the same way!

Note Bibliographies and footnotes/endnotes are not formatted in the same way!

 

Footnotes and Endnotes: A Guide to Formatting

To format footnotes and endnotes using Microsoft Word, you should

• Place your cursor after the period of the sentence that needs a citation.
• Click on the “References” tab in the Microsoft Word ribbon at the top of the page.
• Select “Insert Endnote” or “Insert Footnote.”

Word will automatically insert the footnote or endnote, and the application will automatically number the footnotes and endnotes for you.
If the footnotes and endnotes are not numeric, then you should

• Right click on the letter/roman numeral/etc.
• Select “Note Option” (this may be named differently in different versions of Word.  Find the one most appropriate to formatting).
• Specify the type of numbering you would like. 

 

Footnotes and Endnotes: Formatting Books and Articles

This worksheet only lists the rules of formatting footnotes and endnotes for basic journal and book sources.  For more specific rules about citing sources with translators, editors, etc., please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style. 

Citations for books by one author generally contain the following information:

Author’s first and last name, Title of the Book (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), page number.

Citations for articles by one author generally contain the following information:

Author’s first and last name, “Title of Article,” Title of Journal, volume, number in volume (year): page number.

A few things to keep in mind when formatting footnotes and endnotes:

• Always use commas rather than periods between information.
• Always put the author’s first name before the last name.
• Always put a comma before the page number when citing books; always put a colon before the page number when citing articles.

 

Sample footnote entry for a book with one author:

 

Sample footnote entry for an article with one author:

 

Footnotes and Endnotes:
Citing the Same Author Multiple Times

When you are writing a research paper, you may cite the same source multiple times.  You should not use the full citation for each time you use the source.  Only use the full citation for the first time you cite that author.  For each subsequent time you cite the same author, you should use either

• An abbreviated citation
• Ibid

An abbreviated citation contains only the author’s last name, a shortened title, and a page number.  Use an abbreviated citation when you have already cited the source in a full citation and when another source has been inserted between the full citation and the citation you are entering.

 

Sample footnote entry using an abbreviated citation:

 

Ibid., an abbreviation for the Latin word ibidem, which means “in the same spot,” indicates that the footnote is from the same source previously cited.  If you are citing the same source but the information is on a different page, then you should use ibid. followed by a comma and the page number.

Sample footnote entry using Ibid.:

 

Bibliographies: A Guide to Formatting

Bibliographies are generally found at the end of documents.  They contain a list of all of the works used in the paper and often other sources that might be pertinent.  Bibliographies follow different citation rules than footnotes and endnotes, and they are generally formatted with the following information:

For a book with one author:

Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

For an article with one author:

Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal Volume, Number (Year of Publication): Page Numbers of Article.

 

Sample Bibliographic Entries:

 

To achieve the hanging indent required for bibliography pages, you should use the ruler function in Microsoft Word:

• If the ruler isn’t shown at the top of the screen, then click the “View” tab and select “Ruler.”
• Notice the hourglass-shaped object on the ruler.
• Put your cursor over the center part of the hourglass (the one with the arrow facing up), and the words “hanging indent” should appear.
• Click down on the hanging indent function and drag it one half inch down the ruler.  All of the text you have selected should format so that the first line remains on the main margin and every other line indents.

 

Here are a few extra tips to consider when citing sources:

• Always cite sources as you go.  You do not want to be in the stressful situation of having to look back through all of your research to determine which citation goes to which information.
• Always allow time to review your citations for correct formatting.  Correctly formatted citations make you look like a careful scholar.  Sloppily formatted sources make you look, well, sloppy.
• Most importantly, always maintain integrity and honesty when citing sources.  If an idea isn’t yours, then you must cite the source! 

 

 

 

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