Notes and bibliography

Footnotes and Endnotes overview

Before creating a footnote or endnote, make sure to know how to incorporate a quote into your paper, making sure to introduce the source, use quotation marks, and give readers context. Instead of adding years or page numbers as MLA or APA formatting might, the Chicago style calls for adding a reference number directly after any sentence where a source is quoted or referred to. This appears in superscript:

A corresponding note that provides further information about the source will then appear on the bottom of the page (footnotes) or at the end of each section or the end of the entire document (endnotes). Your instructor may specify whether to use footnotes or endnotes.

Note: our Chicago essay template shows how to create superscript reference numbers and footnotes in Google docs.

The first footnote or endnote for each source should include all the required information to identify the source. If the same source is cited again, the note only needs to cite the last name of the author, the full title or a shortened form of the title and page number(s) for where the information appears.

If the same source and page number(s) from a single source are used two or more times consecutively, the corresponding note should use the word “Ibid.” (an abbreviated form of the Latin term “ibidem,” which translates to ‘in the same place’ ). If the same source is used more than once but with a different page number, the corresponding note uses the term ‘Ibid.’ followed by a comma and the new page number(s).

Additionally, the Chicago style generally requires a bibliography page, which is the last page of the paper and should give the full information for all sources, with each source listed in alphabetical order.