Chicago Style Guide (17th Edition)
Learn the Chicago Manual of Style citation system used in History, Fine Arts, and some Social Sciences.
After polishing your footnotes, tighten the prose with ProofPoint so Chicago-style narratives stay authoritative and clear.
⚠️ Two Citation Systems
Chicago offers two different citation systems. Check with your instructor which one to use:
Notes-Bibliography (NB)
Uses footnotes or endnotes plus a bibliography. Most common in humanities.
Author-Date (AD)
Uses in-text citations like APA, plus a reference list. Common in sciences/social sciences.
Notes-Bibliography System
How It Works
Use superscript numbers¹ in your text that correspond to footnotes at the bottom of the page (or endnotes at the end of your paper). The first citation includes full publication details; subsequent citations use a shortened format.
First Citation (Full Note)
¹ John Smith, The History of Citations (New York: Academic Press, 2023), 45.
Subsequent Citations (Short Note)
⁵ Smith, History of Citations, 67.
Immediately Following (Ibid.)
⁶ Ibid., 68.
"Ibid." = "in the same place" - used when citing the same source twice in a row
Bibliography Format
The bibliography lists all sources alphabetically by author's last name with hanging indents.
Book
Smith, John. The History of Citations. New York: Academic Press, 2023.
Journal Article
Smith, John. "Understanding Citations." Journal of Academic Writing 45, no. 2 (2023): 112-130.
Author-Date System
How It Works
Similar to APA, use parenthetical citations in text with author's last name, year, and page number.
Basic Format
(Smith 2023, 45)Note: Comma between year and page, no "p."
Two Authors
(Smith and Jones 2023, 45)Three or More Authors
(Smith et al. 2023, 45)Reference List Format
The reference list is similar to the bibliography but formatted for author-date style.
Book
Smith, John. 2023. The History of Citations. New York: Academic Press.
Journal Article
Smith, John. 2023. "Understanding Citations." Journal of Academic Writing 45 (2): 112-130.
Quick Comparison
| Notes-Bibliography | Author-Date | |
|---|---|---|
| In-text citation | Superscript number¹ | (Smith 2023, 45) |
| End matter | Footnotes/Endnotes + Bibliography | Reference List only |
| Common in | History, Literature, Arts | Sciences, Social Sciences |
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