Formatting Guide for Chicago Style – 2022
Chicago formatting style is mostly used in social sciences and humanities. As compared to APA and MLA styles of formatting it is a bit complex. Yet complexity lies in the flow of the guideline of formatting, if you follow the step-to-step rules then it is not rocket science. Students find the Chicago style difficult because of its two approaches of documenting a source; one by notes system and the other by author/date system similar to that of APA. The author/date system is commonly used by scholars, so we discuss formatting through this approach.
Like essay writing where there is a proper beginning, body, and conclusion, documenting formatting in any style involves some basic rules and procedures, here are some of the rules of formatting in Chicago style that help you produce a correctly formatted research paper.
In-text formatting rules
- The name of the author and year of publication should be separated by a space rather than a comma.
- When a direct quote or part of a source is incorporated only then a page number is required and ‘p or pp.’ are not required’.
- Endnotes and footnotes are required only if specific copyrights are to be mentioned or extra information is to be added.
- The citation includes the last name of the author and publication date and they are separated by space, not a comma. Also, if they appear at the end they are enclosed by parenthesis i.e. (James 2010).
- In case of mention of the page number, a comma separates it from the year of publication i.e. (Smith 2021, 123).
- Separate the names of the authors by an ampersand and if the year of publication is missing then write 'n.d. i.e. (John & Smith n.d.).
- In case the author’s name is not known then write the title of the article and in the bibliography, alphabetize from the first word without articles i.e. (Environmental degradation due to ozone gases 2021).
- In the case of four or more authors, write the last name of the first author and with 'et al.' i.e. Raymond et al. 2018)
- In case the paper is produced by a group or cooperation then write the name of the group or cooperation i.e. (Less Label Theatre Company (LLTC) 2019)
- If works of the same author are to be mentioned then write the name of the author followed by publication dates i.e. (Smith 2012, 2016, 2021)
- If works of the same writer published in the same year were to be mentioned then write 'a' and 'b' with the publication years i.e. (Johnson 2016a, 2016b)
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Reference list formatting rules for Chicago style
- A reference list with a title works cited page or literature cited should be at the end of the paper center aligned
- The title page and first entry should have a double-spaced in between and all other entries should be single-spaced.
- Authors last name should come first and should be alphabetized accordingly
- An entry should be left-aligned and the subsequent part should be indented five spaces.
- First names are mostly abbreviated and you may prefer not to do so
- Sources without any author names are to be referenced with the names of titles and alphabetized as per the first word without a, an, and the.
- Names of the authors appear as given on the title page of the book.
- In the case of four or more authors, unlike in-text citation, all the names are mentioned in the bibliography. Follow the last name of the first writer followed by the first name for the first writer and first name first for the rest of the writers
Lastly, having gone through all the basic in-text citation and referencing rules, it can be safely said that if you carefully format a paper or two then you become familiar with it like with the rules of MLA, and APA. You need not resort to an paper writing service to format your document if you practice it a couple of times.
Some Extra Writing Tips for an Essay in Chicago Format
If you are a student trying to learn about the formatting styles then you must know that you cannot perfect them without practice. There are multiple formatting styles that are commonly used. These include the APA style of citation, the MLA, and the Chicago Manual of Style.
Chicago’s manual style of referencing and formatting is usually used in social sciences, especially in History and Anthropology. Some expert essay writer online may help you write a paper in Chicago manual style. You should know which version of the Chicago manual style you want to follow. In history usually, the author-date version of the Chicago manual style is followed while the rest of the social sciences use the note-bibliography version of the Chicago manual style. You may choose any of these versions because nowadays they are used in all social sciences.
If you are writing your essay in the Chicago Manual of Style then you should be glad that essays do not include any heading. This saves you the trouble of remembering the formatting for multiple levels of headings. You are required to add a title page in Chicago format. The title does not have any header but the rest of your essay would include your last name and the page number in the right corner of the header. One-fourth page down the top, you will add the title of your essay. In the middle, you will add your name and toward the end of the title page, you will include the instructor’s name and the date.
You will not have to include any headings anywhere in your essay, not even before your introduction. Your essay would be double spaced, written in Times New Roman font 12. Paragraphs would be indented half an inch from the left and there would be zero spacing between the paragraphs. By now you must have realized that writing essays or high quality papers in the Chicago manual style is not that difficult. If you are following the author-date version then in-text citations would include the last name of the author and the date of publication of your source. If you are following the note-bibliography version then your essay would include footnotes for in-text citations. Footnotes are denoted by superscript numbers in your transcript that refers to the footnotes at the bottom of the page.
Aside from these general guidelines for formatting your essay, you should have a well-prepared outline to ace your essay. Equally crucial to formatting is the organization of your essay. If you are following the note-bibliography version of the Chicago Manual of Style then you may choose to add a shortened note or a more detailed full-note.
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If you are required to include a references page at the end of your essay. It would be under the title of “bibliography”, bold and flushed left. The references would not be listed according to the order of superscript for footnotes. The references in the bibliography are listed alphabetically in Chicago Style. If you have consulted quite a number of sources then you can make sections and add primary sources and secondary sources separately. You can also make subheads within the broader categories of primary and secondary sources.
Following these guidelines, you can easily format your paper in the Chicago manual of style. The general formatting style regarding font, spacing, and alignment is common to other formatting styles like APA and MLA. Just that Chicago manual style has a different title page and it has different versions available for citations.
It would not be that easy to learn Chicago formatting by reading just one post but with due practice, you can excel at it without any difficulty. Best Wishes!
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