When writing your Chicago-formatted paper, you will want to use evidence from the resources you have gathered to support your thesis statement. In Chicago, this can be done a couple of ways. But it ultimately depends on if you are using the notes and bibliography system or the author-date system. This should be determined by your professor. If it is not, ask them to verify.
If you are using the notes and bibliography system, your direct quotes and paraphrased sentences will be cited with footnotes or endnotes. This means that your shortened citation will appear at the bottom of the page (footnote) or at the end of your paper (endnote) and will be noted in the body of your paper with superscript numbers.
If you are using the author-date system, your direct quotes and paraphrased sentences will be cited in-text. This way of in-text citation will be very similar to that of APA in-text citations.
This is where the two systems of Chicago vastly differ from each other and is extremely important that you are using the correct system for your citations. Be sure to click on the appropriate tab to see the examples.
The Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide is a great resource to use when you need to see how to format a foot note and the citation quickly. This is good for basic examples. For more non-traditional resources, consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition or ask a librarian.
For the first time that you use a footnote, write out the full note (see number 1). The next time you use the source, use the shortened note (see number 2).
1. First name Last name, Title: Subtitle ( City of Publication: Publisher, Publication Date), page #.
2. Last name, Shortened Title , page #.
1. M ichael Pollan , The Omnivore's Dream: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), 88 .
2. Pollan, The Omnivore's Dream, 92.
Two Authors
1. First name Last name and First name Last name, Title: Subtitle (City of Publication: Publisher, Date), page #.
2. Last name and Last name, Shortened Title , page #.
1. Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945 (New York: Knopf, 2007), 50.
2. Ward and Burns, The War, 102.
Three authors
1. First name La s t name , First name Last name, and First name Last name, Title: Subtitle ( City of Publication: Publisher, Date) page #.
2. Last name, Last name, and Last name, Shortened Title , page #.
1. Joyce Heatherton, James Fitzgilroy, and Jackson Hsu, Meteors and Mudslides: A Trip through.
2. Heatherton, Fitzgilroy, and Hsu, Meteors and Mudslides.
If there are 4 or more authors , cite only the name of the first listed author followed by 'et al' in the note.
1. Claire Hacek et al., Mediated Lives: Reflections on Wearable Technologies...
2. Hacek et al., Mediated Lives.
1. First name Last name, T itle: Subtitle, trans./ed. First name, Last name (City of Publication: Publisher, Date) page #.
2. Last name, Shortened TItle , page #.
1. Gabriel García Márquez , Love in the Time of Cholera, trans. Edith Grossman (London: Cape, 1998), 66.
2. García Márquez, Cholera, 33.
1. Chapter author's First name Last name, "Title of Chapter," in Title, ed. First name Last name of Editor ( City of Publication: Publisher,
2. Chapter author's Last name, "Chapter Title," page #.
1. Glenn Gould, "Streisand as Schwarzkopf," in The Glenn Gould Reader, ed. Tim Page (New York: Vintage, 1984), 310.
2. Gould, "Streidand as Schwarzkopf," 309.
For books downloaded from a library or bookseller, the note should reflect specifically where it is located and in which format.
1. First name Last name, Title ( City of Publication: Publisher, Date) location, Format.
2. Last name, Shortened Title , location.
1. Mary Ann Noe, Ivory Trenches: Adventures of an English Teacher (self-pub., Amazon Digital Services, 2016), loc. 444 of 3023, Kindle.
2. Noe, Ivory Trenches, loc. 500 of 3023.
For books consulted online or through a database, include the DOI (if available) or the URL (if DOI is not available) as part of the note.
1. First name Last name, Title ( City of Publication: Publisher, date) location, doi: .
2. Last name, Shortened Title , location, doi.
3. First name Last name, Title (City of Publication, Publisher, date), page #, stable URL.
4. Last name, Shortened TItle , page #.
1. Mark Evan Bonds, Absolute Music: The History of an Idea (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), chap. 3,
2. Bonds, Absolute Music, chap. 11, https://doi.org/10.1093/ acprof :oso/9780199343638.003.0012.
3. Karen Lystra, Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years (Berkelley: University of California Press, 2004), 59,
4. Lystra, Dangerous Intimacy, 60-61.
(Last name Date, page #).
(Pollan 2008, 79-83)
(Pollan 2008, 88, 95, 103)
For a book with two authors:
(Last name and Last name Date, page #)
(Ward and Burns 2007, 195)
For a book with three authors:
(Last name, Last name, and Last name Date, page #)
(Heatherton, Fitzgilroy, and Hsu 2008, 250)
For a book with four or more authors , cite only the last name of the first- listed author, followed by et al.
(Last name et al. Date, page #)
(Hacek et al. 2015, 384)
(Last name of author Date, page #)
(García M árquez 1988, 230)
(Last name of chapter author Date, page #)
If there is an abbreviation for the organization, like WHO or NASA, then list the abbreviation first followed by the spelling of the organization name.
(Organization name Date, page #)
1. First name, Last name, "Article Title," Journal Title vol. number, issue no. (Publication Date): page number.
1. Donald Maletz, "Tocqueville's Tangents to Democracy," American Political Thought 4, no. 4 (Fall 2015): 615.
If you accessed an article through a database, then you will need to include the DOI (digital object identifier) or if there is no DOI available, the stable URL. If there is no DOI, use the shortened stable URL in the place of the DOI.
1. First name Last name, "Article Title," Journal Title vol. number, issue no. (Publication Date): page number, https://doi.org/xxxxxx.
2. First name Last name, "Article Title," Journal Title vol. number, issue no. (Publication Date): page number, shortened URL.
1. Miriam Schoenfield, "Moral Vagueness Is Ontic Vagueness," Ethics 126, no. 2 (2016): 260-61, https://doi.org/10.1086/683541.
2. Frank P. Whitney, "The Six-Year High School in Cleveland," School Review 37, no. 4 (April 1929): 268,
If the URL is very long and not available, list the name of the commercial database in lieu of the the URL.
1. First name Last name, "Article Title," Journal Title vol. number, issue no. (Publication Date): page number, name of Database.
1. Zina Giannopoulou , "Prisoners of Plot in José Saramago's The Cave" Philosophy and Literature 38, no. 2 (2014): 335, Project Muse.
2. Giannopoulou, "Prisoners," 337.
This will be the same, whether it is a physical journal article or an article from a database.
(Last name Date, page #)