The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition presents a citation and format style, often referred to as Chicago, that is primarily used in professional publications and academic writing by those working in literature, history, the arts, and social sciences. Turabian style, outlined in A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, is a simplified version of Chicago meant for undergraduate academic writing.
There are two primary Chicago and Turabian in-text citation styles: author-date and notes and bibliography. The difference between these two styles has to do with how they cite other sources. Author-date indicates the source of cited material using in-text parentheses and a corresponding reference list (like APA), while notes and bibliography uses a system of notes (footnotes or endnotes), which contains the citation information (author, title, date, etc.) in the notes, paired with a full bibliography at the end.
This handout provides a basic outline of the author-date citation style and format. Throughout the handout, Chicago and Turabian are cited (by the letters C and T, respectively), so readers can refer to these manuals for more information. While this handout covers general concepts, always work with your audience and assignment in mind.
Page numbers should be included and placed consistently, generally in one of four locations: (1) centered in the footer, (2) centered in the header, (3) flush right in the footer, or (4) flush right in the header.
For the body of the paper, use a standard font such as 12-point Times New Roman or 10-point Arial. In general, use a smaller size font (10- or 11-point) for notes.
Double-space the text and leave a one-inch margin on all sides of the document. Indent the first line of each paragraph. Single-space footnotes, endnotes, block quotes, and the reference list.
Section headings or subheadings can be used to title different sections of your paper. Organizing your paper with titled sections helps the reader understand the structure of your argument, especially for longer papers. You can indicate higher or lower-level headings with boldface, italics, centering, and title caps, though Chicago is flexible on exactly what this looks like. Here is a possible example:
| First Level: centered, bold or italics, title caps | The Problem of Universals in Medieval Philosophy |
|---|---|
| Second Level: centered, regular type, title caps | William of Ockham’s View of Universals |
| Third Level: left-aligned, regular type, title caps | Universals in Ockham’s Political Philosophy |
Longer quotations (for example, multi-paragraph quotations or quotations of more than 100 words) should be block-quoted. Block quotes are single-spaced and start on their own line with no quotation marks. The whole quote is indented from the left, generally by 0.5 inches (the same as a regular paragraph indent) with no extra first-line paragraph indent. There should be a blank line before and after the block quote. In author-date format, a parenthetical in-text citation follows the final punctuation mark of the block quote.
Figures or illustrations can be placed in the body of the text to convey information in a more graphical manner or to reproduce an image for the reader’s convenience. Figures should be referenced in-text by the phrase Figure X (e.g. “Figure 3 shows that . . .”). Figures should be positioned close to their in-text reference. They should also be captioned, generally flush left beneath the image, with the word Figure and a number corresponding consecutively to the figures in the paper. This is followed by a short description of the figure (see Figure 1).
Information about paintings and images can generally be included in the text, but it can also appear in the reference list. They can be cited by the source (like a book or website) in which they were found (see C 3.30–37) or by the museum in which they are housed (see C 14.235).
Regardless of citation style, citing sources is a necessary and important part of academic writing because it allows writers to distinguish between their own ideas and the ideas of other authors. If writers do not acknowledge another author’s work, they commit plagiarism, which may have serious consequences.
The author-date system uses parenthetical citations to indicate the source of a particular quote, idea, or piece of information. These parenthetical citations correspond to a reference list at the end of the essay.
In author-date format, parenthetical citations have three components: the author’s last name, the year of publication, and page numbers of referenced material. This information is enclosed in parentheses, usually at the end of the sentence containing cited information. However, if the author’s name appears in the text, follow their name with the year of publication, a comma, and any page numbers.
Use a semicolon to separate two sources cited in the same sentence.
Parenthetical citations may be punctuated differently depending on the number and type of authors.
| Parenthetical Citation | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| One author | (Jones 2021) | |
| Two authors | (Hetherington and Rudolph 2015) | Write out both last names. |
| Three authors | (Keng, Lin, and Orazem 2019, 9–10) | Write out all last names in a list. |
| Four or more authors | (Schmidt et al. 2021) | Write the first author’s last name and use et al. |
| Organization as author | (Snow College 2023, 88, 97–99) | Use the organization’s name in place of the author’s name. You may abbreviate if necessary. |
When you cite the same page range of a source in a single paragraph, only include a full in-text citation after the last reference or at the end of the paragraph. If you use different pages of the same source in one paragraph, use a full in-text citation after the first reference and include only the different page numbers in any following references.
Sometimes sources are missing certain information, such as the name of the author or the publication date. With missing authors, leave the space blank and use the title of the piece in its place. With a missing publication date, use the acronym n.d. (‘no date’) in place of the date. Otherwise, the general rule is to skip the piece of information if it is missing. These guidelines also apply to the reference list citations.
The author-date system uses a reference list at the end of the paper that contains information for the sources used throughout the paper. These citations correspond with the parenthetical in-text citations.
In the author-date system, the references list is formatted differently from the rest of the rest of the text. Format the reference list as follows:
Chicago and Turabian require different information to appear in reference list citations depending on the type of source being used. A list of sample reference citations is provided below.
