Chicago is a very robust citation style, typically used in fields that cite a wide array of sources. At Averett you will normally use Chicago style in upper level history courses.
Chicago style actually has two formats:
- Notes and Bibliography Method - in which in-text citations are handled via footnotes or endnotes
- Author-Date Method - in which in-text citations are handled via parentheticals in the body of the text.
In both cases, bibliography formatting is identical. For in-text citations, this tutorial introduces the "Notes and Bibliography" method. For "Author-Date," examples, please click here.
If you would like to see an example of Chicago style citation in action, here is a book by an author you might recognize.
Made the wrong choice? Return to the Easy Cite selection page.
Chicago Style Examples and Tutorials
A Chicago style bibliography lists ever single item cited in the paper, alphabetized by the author's last name.
Two items of note:
- In a bibliography, journal articles, individual book chapters, etc., use 'inclusive pagination.' In other words, you need to identify the entire range of pages on which the item appears, not just the pages you cited.
- Each entry uses a 'hanging indent'; if the information reaches a second (or third, or fourth) line, those additional lines are indented as in the examples below.
Book-length works can follow additional condensing rules in order to keep the bibliography from getting unwieldy, but a work of essay-length will typically list everything.
Book (one author)
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. New York: Penguin Press, 2016.
Book (two or more authors; never use 'et al' in a bibliography)
Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. A Curious Mind: The
Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Edited Book (anthology, etc.)
D’Agata, John, ed. The Making of the American Essay.
Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016.
Chapter from an Edited Book
Thoreau, Henry David. “Walking.” In The Making of the
American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, 167–95.
Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016.
Journal Article (print)
Satterfield, Susan. “Livy and the Pax Deum.” Classical
Philology 111, no. 2 (April 2016): 165–76.
Journal Article (online with DOI)
Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem.
“Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on
Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human
Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 1–34.
https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.
Magazine Article
Mead, Rebecca. “The Prophet of Dystopia.” New Yorker, April 17,
2017.
Daily Newspaper Article (print)
Lena Schwartz, Lena. "Obesity Affects Economic, Social Status."
The Washington Post, February 30, 1993, A1.
Daily Newspaper (online database)
Manjoo, Farhad. “Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy
of the Camera.” New York Times, March 8, 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/technology/snap-makes-
a-bet-on-the-cultural-supremacy-of-the-camera.html.
Review
Kakutani, Michiko. “Friendship Takes a Path That Diverges.”
Review of Swing Time, by Zadie Smith. New York Times,
November 7, 2016.
Dissertation
Rutz, Cynthia Lillian. “King Lear and Its Folktale Analogues.”
PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2013.
Footnote and Endnote entries in Chicago style traditionally use full citations for the first citation of an item, and then a shortened version for all later references to the same item. Each example below thus has two entries - "1)" denotes formatting for the first citation, and "2)" all subsequent, shortened citations.
A few general rules for shortened citations should be obvious from the examples below:
- Include the author's last name(s) only
- Shorten the title to the minimum necessary to be clear (if there is only one article by Smith that starts with the word "Hamlet" in your full bibliography, then that one word is sufficient)
- Always includes the page number or page range, if the item has page numbers.
- Nothing else needs included in footnote citations after the first instance.
Book (one author)
1) Zadie Smith, Swing Time (New York: Penguin Press, 2016), 315–16.
2) Smith, Swing Time, 320.
Book (multiple authors)
1) Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 12.
2) Grazer and Fishman, Curious Mind, 37.
Book (more than three authors)
1) Earl Wysong et al.,The New Class Society: Goodbye American Dream, 4th ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014), 68.
2) Wysong et al, New Class Society, 72.
Edited Book (anthology, etc.)
1) John D’Agata, ed., The Making of the American Essay (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016), 177–78.
2) D’Agata, American Essay, 182.
Chapter from an Edited Book
1) Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” in The Making of the American Essay, ed. John D’Agata (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016), 177–78.
2) Thoreau, “Walking,” 182.
Journal Article (print).
1) Susan Satterfield, “Livy and the Pax Deum,” Classical Philology 111, no. 2 (April 2016): 170.
2) Satterfield, "Livy," 172-73
Journal Article (online with DOI)
1) Shao-Hsun Keng, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem, “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality,” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 9–10, https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.
2) Keng, Lin, and Orazem, “Expanding College Access,” 23.
Magazine Article
1) Rebecca Mead, “The Prophet of Dystopia,” New Yorker, April 17, 2017, 43.
2) Mead, “Dystopia,” 47.
Daily Newspaper Article (print)
1) Lena Schwartz, "Obesity Affects Economic, Social Status," The Washington Post, February 30, 1993, A1.
2) Schwartz, "Obesity," A1.
Daily Newspaper (online database)
1) Farhad Manjoo, “Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy of the Camera,” New York Times, March 8, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/technology/snap-makes-a-bet-on-the-cultural-supremacy-of-the-camera.html.
2) Manjoo, “Snap.”
Review
1) Michiko Kakutani, “Friendship Takes a Path That Diverges,” review of Swing Time, by Zadie Smith, New York Times, November 7, 2016.
2) Kakutani, “Friendship.”
Dissertation
1) Cynthia Lillian Rutz, “King Lear and Its Folktale Analogues” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2013), 99–100.
2) Rutz, “King Lear,” 158.
- KnightCiteOnline citation generator from the Hekman Library of Calvin University. (Remember to click the "Chicago" toggle in the left hand column.)
- Chicago Quick GuideOfficial Quick Guide for Chicago Style citations
Chicago Style Guides
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Call Number: Ref LB2369 .T8 2007ISBN: 9780226823362Publication Date: 2007-04-15The seventh edition of Turabian's Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is a classic reference revised for a new age. It is tailored to a new generation of writers using tools its original author could not have imagined, while retaining the clarity and authority that generations of scholars have come to associate with the name Turabian.
