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A Guide to Chicago Style

Chicago style citation is a widely used format in academic writing. It has two varieties - notes-and-bibliography and author-date substyles. The former is mostly used in humanities, while the latter is a characteristic of the sciences.

A note-and-bibliography style is more common in academic writing. The style requires footnotes or endnotes for citations and a bibliography at the end that includes a full list of sources.

An author-date style uses in-text citations in parentheses and a common reference list at the end of the paper, which is also characteristic of other citation styles.

Let’s have a closer look at both varieties. That will help you use the Chicago style in a proper way.

Use a footnote or endnote to cite your source and a superscript number of such a note at the end of the sentence. This number usually stands after a punctuation mark.

There is a difference between footnotes and endnotes. The former are located at the end of the page, while the latter are usually at the end of the entire text. If you choose one type or the other, you need to follow it throughout the whole text.

If you experience difficulties in using footnotes and endnotes, you can use specific word-processing options that link subscript numbers and notes automatically.

Using Full or Short Notes

You can use either full notes or short notes to cite sources. Include more detailed information about the source while using a full note. Instead, you can just create a short note with the name of the author, the title of the source, and the page number(s) where the cited information is located. The recommendation here is to use the full note if you cite the source for the first time, and if you need to cite the same source further, use the short note.

However, keep in mind that your field of study can impose additional requirements on such citations. For example, some fields require full notes all the time, or you may need to use only short notes and list the full information about the source in the bibliography. Do not hesitate to check these requirements with your professors if you have doubts about using such notes.

When you need to cite a source created by several authors, you can indicate up to three authors. If there are more than that, you have to write ‘et al’. It stands for ‘and others’ and originates from Latin.

How to Make Chicago Note Citation

Footnotes and endnotes should contain the name of the author and the title of the source. The other pieces of information depend on the source type. You need to include the number(s) of page(s) if your reference deals with a limited part of the text (a passage or paragraph). All the indicators in the citation are divided by commas, while a period means the end of a citation note.

Let’s look at the citation examples for different types of sources.

Book

You should include the book’s edition if it is indicated. Use the abbreviated form of it, e.g., 3rd ed. If you have taken your sourcebook from the Internet, use its URL. It will look like this:

  • Full Note: Author’s full name, Book Title: Subtitle, edition (Publication Place: Publisher, Year), number(s) of pages, URL.
Example

Peter Carry, The View of Citation Styles: Present-Day Trends, 2nd ed. (New York: Free Press, 1997), 84-98.

  • Short Note: Author’s last name, Shortened Title of the Book, number(s) of page(s).
Example

Carry, View of Citation Styles, 84-98.

Book Chapter

If the book is written by several authors, introduce the title of the chapter and then the title of the book.

  • Full Note: Author’s full name, “Title of the Chapter,” Title of the Book: Its Subtitle, ed. Full name of the Editor (Publication Place: Publisher, Year), Number(s) of page(s).
Example

Andrew Collins, “History of Citation Styles: The Early Days and Trends of the Future,” in How to Cite Source in Academic Writing, ed. Ian Green (Toronto: Free Press, 2017), 108.

  • Short Note: Author’s last name, “Shortened Title of the Chapter”, number(s) of pages.
Example

Collins, “History of Citation Styles”, 108.

Journal Article

Here, we need to include a volume and issue. You also have to indicate the issue date.

    Full Note: Author’s full name, “Title of the Article”, Journal’s title + volume, no. of Issue (year): number of page(s), DOI / URL.
Example

Laura Anderson, “The Best Ideas of Using Different Styles in Academic Writing,” Journal of Linguistic Research 48, no. 9 (2017): 197, www.jstor.org/proper/28491145.

  • Short Note: Author’s last name, “Shortened Title of the Article”, number(s) of page(s).
Example

e.g., Anderson, “Best Ideas of Using Styles”, 197.

Website

The problem with websites and web pages is that no date or author may not be highlighted. If you do not know the author’s name, use the title in the first place. When you are making a short note, you need the name of the website/page instead of the author’s name. If you are not sure about the date of publication, the date of access to the information should replace it. (e.g., accessed on February 03, 2021).

  • Full Note: Author’s full name, “Title of the Page”, Title of the Website, Month Day, Year, URL.
Example

e.g., Luke Current, “How to Avoid Plagiarism”, PaperTyper, April 20, 2023, https://papertyper.net/knowledge-bank/avoiding-plagiarism/ways-to-avoid-plagiarism/ .

  • Short Note: Author’s last name, “Shortened Title of the Page”.
Example

Current, “How to Avoid Plagiarism”.

How to Create a Bibliography in a Chicago Style

The bibliography is a specific form of writing. It includes complete references to all the sources used in the paper. It is usually located at the end of the essay but before the appendix.

You need to invert the name of the author in such a list. All sources are placed in alphabetical order.

Write each source in a new line and use a hanging indent to divide the sources that can run in multiple lines.

Sources with multiple authors are cited up to ten. 11 or more sources are listed with the first seven authors and the ‘et al’ sign at the end.

Including a bibliography is not obligatory, especially if you have cited all the sources with the help of full notes. It is also non-mandatory if your text is short and you have used only a few sources in it. Anyway, you need to ask your instructor whether to include the bibliography or not.

The format of bibliography entries can differ depending on the type of source. Let’s consider these different examples of the structure.

Book

The format of book entries is the following:

  • Author’s last name, first name. Title of the Book: Subtitle. Edition. Publication Place: Publisher, Year.
Example

Carry, Peter. The View of Citation Styles: Present-Day Trends. 2nd ed. New York: Free Press, 1997.

Book Chapter

Here is the entry format for a book chapter:

    Author’s last name, first name. “Title of the Chapter”. In Book Title: Subtitle, edited by the first name and last name of an editor, page range. Publication Place: Publisher, Year.
Example

Collins, Andrew, “History of Citation Styles: The Early Days and Trends of the Future”. In How to Cite Sources in Academic Writing, edited by Ian Green, 223-54. Toronto: Free Press, 2017.

Journal Article

The format looks in the following way:

  • • Author’s last name, first name. “Title of the Article”. Name of Journal and its volume, number of an issue (Month Year): Page range. DOI / URL.
Example

Anderson, Laura. “The Best Ideas of Using Different Styles in Academic Writing.” Journal of Linguistic Research 48, no. 9 (October 2017): 194-210, www.jstor.org/proper/28491145.

Website

The website entry format is the following:

  • Author’s last name, first name. “Title of the Page”. Name of the Website. Month, Day, year. URL.
Example

Luke Current, “How to Avoid Plagiarism,” PaperTyper, April 20, 2023, https://papertyper.net/knowledge-bank/avoiding-plagiarism/ways-to-avoid-plagiarism/.

Final Thoughts

Chicago citation style is widely used by academic institutions nowadays. That is why you can look through the information presented in this article again and always come back to it when you need to use Chicago for your academic essay.

We suppose that the ideas of how to cite books, book chapters, journal articles, and web pages in Chicago format will be pretty helpful for your academic writing improvement.

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