Chicago Style

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is put out by the University of Chicago Press. According to its website, the first CMOS was published in 1906. Today, the most recent edition of the CMOS is the 17th edition, published in 2017.

There are two different versions of Chicago style: the author-date style and the notes & bibliography style. Your professor should tell you which one you should use. For the author-date style, you will use in-text citations and a References page. For notes & bibliography style, you will create footnotes and a Bibliography page.

Examples

Author-Date style

In-Text Citations

Chicago author-date in-text citations are the way you cite your sources throughout your paper. When you quote or paraphrase a source, you should include an in-text citation.

Include the author's last name and the year the source was published--with no comma in between (also include the page number if you are directly quoting from your source; separate the date and page number with a comma):

Receiving different versions of the same news "may hinder the chances of political moderation and compromise among the mass public” (Morris 2007, 726).

If you introduce the author of the source in the sentence, then you should include the date in parentheses after the name (the page number still goes at the end of a direct quote):

Morris (2007) writes that receiving different versions of the same news "may hinder the chances of political moderation and compromise among the mass public" (726).

If your source has no author, use the title of the source instead. If the title is long, shorten it to (up to) 4 key words, making sure to keep the first word (other than "a," "an," or "the") so that a reader can easily find your source in the references. If your source has no date, write n.d. instead.

References Page

Create a new page at the end of your paper and write "References" in the center of the first line. Then list all of your sources in alphabetical order. Your list should be single-spaced, but you should leave an extra space between each source. You should also create a "hanging indent." How to create a hanging indent: here (for Microsoft Word) or here (for Google Docs).

Book

Last name, First name. Year of publication. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Journal Article

Last name, First name. Year of publication. "Title of Article." Name of Journal Volume (Issue): pages.


* Note: the "pages" here are the page numbers of your article within the journal (since journals publish many articles together)

This is what the reference for the article from the in-text citation examples would look like:

Morris, Jonathan S. (2007). "Slanted Objectivity? Perceived Media Bias, Cable News Exposure, and Political Attitudes." Social Science Quarterly 88 (3): 707-728.

Website

Last name, First name. (Year of publication). "Article Title." Last modified date. URL.

If your article has no author, use the name of the organization/website instead. If your article has no publication date, write n.d. instead and write the date that you accessed the source before the URL (ex. Accessed November 10, 2019.). If your article has no Last modified date, leave it out.

Notes & Bibliography Style

Footnotes

You will need to create footnotes for the Notes & Bibliography style of Chicago. Use a footnote after a direct quote from a source or after you have summarized/paraphrased a source. Learn how to create footnotes here (for MS Word) and here (for Google Docs). Format your footnotes as shown below:

Books

1. First name Last name, Title of Book (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

Journal Articles

1. First name Last name, “Title of Article,” Journal Title Volume number, no. Issue number (Year of publication): page number.

Websites

1. First name Last name, “Title of Article,” Name of Website, publication date if available, access date if no other date is available, URL.


*Note: If a publication date is available, you don't need to include the date you accessed the source (ex. Published November 10, 2019). If there is no date of publication, include the date you accessed the source instead (ex. Accessed November 10, 2019). If your source has no author, just begin with the title of the article instead.

Important note on footnotes: you only need to include the full footnote the FIRST time you cite your source. Look at this sample paper to see how you can shorten your footnotes after the first use.

Bibliography

Create a new page at the end of your paper and write "Bibliography" in the center at the top. Then list all the sources you cited in alphabetical order. Your list should be single-spaced, but you should leave an extra space between each source. You should also create a "hanging indent." How to create a hanging indent: here (for Microsoft Word) or here (for Google Docs).

Books

Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Journal Articles

Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Journal Title Volume number, no. Issue number (Year of publication): pages.


* Note: the "pages" here are the page numbers of your article within the journal (since journals publish many articles together)

Websites

Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Name of Website. Publication if available. Access date if no other date is available. URL .


*Note: If a publication date is available, you don't need to include the date you accessed the source (ex. Published November 10, 2019). If there is no date of publication, include the date you accessed the source instead (ex. Accessed November 10, 2019).

If your source has no author, just begin with the title of the article instead.

Resources