Overview of Chicago/Turabian Style
The Chicago/Turabian system is favored by many writers in the humanities. There are two versions of Chicago/Turabian citations: Notes & Bibliography, and Author-Date. For more detailed information about the two styles, visit the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide on the Chicago Manual of Style website.
This guide will primarily focus on the Notes & Bibliography version, where bibliographic citations are provided in footnotes or endnotes and preferably supplemented by a bibliography, and the endnotes or footnotes are usually numbered and correspond to superscript note reference numbers in the text. The Author-Date version uses in-text citations rather than footnotes and endnotes, and calls for a Reference List that is formatted slightly differently than a bibliography.
The University of Illinois has multiple copies of the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. This guide provides links to the online version (requires login with your NetID), but the University Library also has multiple copies in their reference sections at multiple libraries.
Versions of Chicago/Turabian Citations
A bibliography is a list of works that have been cited in your paper or that you have referenced during the writing process. It is typically an alphabetized list included at the end of the paper, and is formatted with a hanging indent (the first line of the citation is not indented, while all lines following it are). Each section of the citation is separated by a period.
See the example below:
See Also: CMoS 13.18 - Notes and bibliography—an overview
CMoS 13.66 - Format and placement of bibliography
CMoS 6.120 - Slashes in URLs and other paths
CMoS 7.47 - Dividing URLs at the end of a line
CMoS 13.75 - Form of author’s name
Footnotes and endnotes are comments inserted into your text that can provide citations or further commentary on a topic. These are both marked with a number inside of the text and point either to text at the bottom of the page (footnotes) or to text at the end of a chapter or book (endnotes). All mainstream word processing interfaces are equipped to easily insert footnotes or endnotes into your papers. Typically, an endnote or footnote includes the author, title, and publication details, in that order and separated by commas.
Below is an example of what footnotes and endnotes may look like in a paper:
See Also: CMoS 13.18 - Notes and bibliography—an overview
CMoS 13.47 - Footnotes—pros and cons
A references list is a list of works that have been cited in your paper or that you have referenced during the writing process. It is formatted the same as a Bibliography in Notes & Bibliography Style except that the publication year is included immediately after It is typically an alphabetized list included at the end of the paper, and is formatted with a hanging indent (the first line of the citation is not indented, while all lines following it are). Each section of the citation is separated by a period.
See the example below:
See Also: CMoS 13.102 - The author-date system—overview
CMoS 6.120 - Slashes in URLs and other paths
CMoS 7.47 - Dividing URLs at the end of a line
CMoS 13.75 - Form of author’s name
In-text citations are inserted into your text to show that you are quoting or referring to information from a source in your References List. They typically enclose the author, publication year, and page numbers in parentheses at the end of the sentence, in that order and separated by commas.
Below is an example of what an in-text citation might look like in a paper:
