Citing Sources: Chicago Format

This guide is based on the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style and the eighth edition of A Manual for Writers. Chicago formatting is used in the social sciences, history, and religion fields.This guide will review the general format of an research paper, in-text citations, and the Bibliography page.

There are a lot of choices to make when using Chicago format. At St. Paul's, we use the Turabian variation of Chicago. Also, we use the Notes-Bibliography style. Students are expected to follow the guidelines provided unless their teacher requires an adaptation.

Teachers ask students format their papers in the same style so both the writer and reader are not distracted by style choices a student may make. The consistency allows the teacher to focus on the student's work and not on the look of the paper. Using a formatting style also ensures students are citing their sources properly.

Teachers may adapt these guidelines for their own purposes. Always follow your teacher's requirements.

• There are many variations to Chicago-Turabian.style. At St. Paul's High School, we follow the Turabian style, also knows as the Humanities style, as described in A Manual for Writers. Please refer to the notes-bibliography style. Teachers at St. Paul's use the following variations to stay consistent with the other formatting styles used in the school. 
• All papers are typed on letter-sized paper (8 1/2 x 11)
• Double-space text except the following, which should be single spaced:
  • block quotation
  • Bibliography - each citation is single spaced but double spacing is used between citations
• Use 12 pt. Times New Roman font
• Leave only one space after punctuation 
• Set all margins to 1 inch on all sides (2.54 cm.) - "Normal" margins
• Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch
• Remove extra spaces between paragraphs
• Do not use any contractions (which means that you will NEVER use the word it’s in an essay/research project)
• Titles in text follow the same rules as they appear in the bibliography/works cited including:
  • Capitalize the first word, last word and all the important words
  • Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works referred to in your paper (books,plays, journals, movies)
  • Use quotation marks when referring to titles of shorter works in your paper (articles, chapters, webpages, short stories)
  • Just capitalize but don't use italics or quotation marks with scriptures (or other revered works), versions of scripture, or books within the scripture (Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Matthew).
• In a formal essay, never write in the first person (me, I, my)

First page (Title page):

•  Approximately 1/3 down first page
  • Center your title on the line: Title in Bold
• Approximately 2/3 down first page
  • your full name (First Last) 
  • title of course
  • full date (that you are handing in the paper) 
• Do not include a header on the title page

Body of the paper 

• Header starts on the first page of text (not the title page)
  • Place page number in the top right corner
  • Start at 1 on the first page of text (not the title page)

Footnotes and Bibliography

• The notes-bibliography style requires footnotes instead of parenthetical citations (the citation is provided at the bottom of the page instead of in the bracket) Please review Citations - Chicago for more information.

Short video explaining general formatting of a paper in Chicago including title page, header, spacing and font.