Chicago Style: Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date With Examples

Which Chicago system should you use?

The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press, offers two citation systems. Your discipline and instructor decide which one applies. If no one tells you, use notes-bibliography in history, art history, philosophy, theology, and much of the humanities, and author-date in the social and natural sciences.

One rule beats every guide on the internet, including this one: your own university’s or department’s style guide, handbook, or assignment brief always takes precedence. If it differs from what you read here, follow it. You can upload that handbook to Professor Digital, and everything (outline, citations, checks) is tailored to it.

Notes-bibliography: footnotes

Place a superscript number at the end of the sentence or clause, after punctuation (except dashes). Numbers run consecutively through the paper or chapter. The first time you cite a source, give a full note; afterwards, use a shortened note with the author’s last name, a short title of up to four words, and the page. The examples use invented authors.

Notes-bibliography: the bibliography

The bibliography lists all sources alphabetically by the first author’s last name. Unlike notes, entries invert the first author’s name and use periods between main elements. Use a hanging indent; Chicago allows single spacing within entries with a blank line between them, but many instructors ask for double spacing.

• Book: Morgan, Lena. Learning in the Digital Age. 2nd ed. Publisher Name, 2019.
• Journal article: Nguyen, Thanh, and Ravi Patel. “Working While Studying.” Journal of Higher Education Research 14, no. 2 (2021): 115–32. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx.
• Chapter: Kim, Soo. “Feedback and Motivation.” In Assessment in Higher Education, edited by Jane Brown, 45–67. Publisher Name, 2020.
• Web page: Office for Students. “Student Outcomes.” March 5, 2024. https://www.example.org/outcomes.

Author-date system

The author-date system looks similar to APA but has its own punctuation: no comma between author and year, and a comma before the page number. The reference list puts the year immediately after the author’s name.

Formatting a Chicago-style paper

The Chicago Manual mainly targets publishing, so student formatting usually follows Turabian or your instructor’s guidelines. These settings are standard.

• 1-inch margins, 12-pt readable font (such as Times New Roman), double-spaced text.
• Footnotes single-spaced, separated by a blank line, in a slightly smaller font is acceptable.
• Title page for class papers (title centered about a third down, name, course, date), unless told otherwise.
• Page numbers in the header or footer, usually starting on the first text page.
• Block quotations for 100 words or more (roughly five lines), indented, no quotation marks.
• Bibliography or reference list on a new page.

Common mistakes

Chicago is detailed, and small inconsistencies add up. Check these points before submission.

• Mixing notes-bibliography and author-date in one paper.
• Using full notes every time instead of shortened notes after the first citation.
• Inverting names in notes (only the bibliography inverts the first author).
• Commas vs. periods: notes use commas and parentheses, bibliography entries use periods.
• Placing the note number before punctuation instead of after it.
• Citing an older edition’s rules (e.g., always adding the place of publication) without checking what your instructor expects.