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Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)/Turabian: An Overview

Chicago Style, or Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), is a research and documentation style favored by
many disciplines. Users often refer to it as “Turabian” in honor of Kate Turabian, the woman who
originated its authoritative student resource, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations. CMS consists of two styles of citation that make it an appealing choice for writers: notes-
bibliography style and parenthetical citations-reference list style. This handout, based on the 7th edition
of Kate Turabian’s guide, provides a beginning look at both of these styles.

Source Citation in General

Why cite?
Some students may wonder why they must cite sources. Citing sources is important for several
reasons: we cite to give proper credit to the researcher(s), to assure readers that our facts are accurate, to
show the research tradition that informs our work, and to help readers who are interested in learning more
about our topic begin or continue their research.
And, when we use CMS correctly, we demonstrate to others in the field that we know and understand
their values and practices, and we establish ourselves as valuable members of the academic community.

When to cite?
Cite in the following situations:
 When you quote exact words from a source
 When you paraphrase ideas that you learned from that source, even if you don’t use exact
words
 When you use any idea, data or method you learned about by reading a particular source

Which version of CMS do I use?

Notes-bibliography style (often shortened to bibliography style) is used widely in the humanities and
some social sciences. Parenthetical citations-reference list style (or simply reference list style) is generally
used in the social sciences and the natural and physical sciences.
If you are not sure which style to use, consult your instructor. When you make your choice, follow
that style consistently.

Using this Handout

On the following pages, each style is given its own section. First, an overview of notes-bibliography
style is provided, followed by a list of key examples. This is followed by an overview of parenthetical
citations-references page style and its key examples.

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 Notes-Bibliography Style
For a more in-depth look at notes-bibliography style, consult chapters 16 and 17 of Turabian’s A Manual for
Writers, 7th ed., beginning on pages 141 and 160, respectively.

Overview
In this style, let readers know that you have used a source by placing a superscript at the end of the
sentence containing the source:

Ball argues that “for as long as painters have fashioned their visions and dreams into images, they
have relied on technical knowledge and skill to supply their materials.”1

Then, cite the source in either a footnote or endnote. Footnotes are printed at the bottom of the page;
endnotes are listed together after the end of the text/any appendices but before the bibliography (view a
sample footnote below). Both are numbered consecutively. Whether you used footnotes or endnotes, all
notes are formatted in the same basic way and include the same basic information:

1. Phillip Ball, Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color (New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2001), 140.

[Note Number. First Name, Last Name. Title: Subtitle (City of Publication: Publisher, Year),
Page Number.]

Subsequent citations of the same source in text can be abbreviated in the footnote/endnote:

6. Ball, Bright Earth, 159-60.

[Note Number. Last Name, Title, Page Number(s).]

Or, when the same source is cited back-to-back and will be footnoted on the same page, the Latin term
ibid. (“in the same place”) can be used. Capitalize ibid. but do not write it in italics. And, do not use ibid.
after a note that contains more than one source reference.

30. Buchan, Advice to Mothers, 71.

31. Ibid., 95.
32. Ibid.

Your sources are then collected into a bibliography, positioned at the end of your essay. All sources
cited within the text and sometimes even sources only consulted while writing the text are included in the
bibliography (ask your professor if you are unsure). Sources should be alphabetized and entries should
include all of the information included in the full note, but in a slightly different form:

Ball, Phillip. Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2001.

[Last Name, First Name. Title: Subtitle. City of Publication: Publisher, Year.]

Usually, the list is labeled Bibliography or Sources Consulted. (For more options, see p. 147.) Sources
that fill more than one line should be formatted with a hanging indent.

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You can form the footnote superscript by going to the References tab and selecting Insert Footnote.

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Notes-Bibliography Key Examples

In the following examples, observe the basic pattern for notes-bibliography style. Nearly all citations
will include the same type of information in the same order. For variations and further examples, see
chapter 17, which begins on p. 160 of Turabian’s guide.

N: Footnote/Endnote; B: Bibliography

By convention, the following source types may be omitted from a bibliography. They are, however,
included in-text through footnotes/endnotes. A page number is included after each item on the list; consult
this page in Turabian’s A Manual for Writers to learn how to assemble a footnote/endnote for these
source types and to view any exceptions to this convention.
 Newspaper articles (186)
 Classical, medieval, and early English literary works (189)
 The Bible and other sacred works (190)
 Well-known reference works, such as major dictionaries and encyclopedias (191)
 Brief published items, such as reviews of published works or performances (192), abstracts (192),
and pamphlets and reports (193)
 Unpublished interviews and personal communications (195), blog entries and comments (199),
and postings to electronic mailing lists (199)
 Individual documents in unpublished manuscript collections (196)
 Many sources in the visual and performing arts, including artworks and other visual sources
(200), live performances (201), and television and other broadcast programs (202)
 The U.S. Constitution (209), legal cases (210), and some other public documents (205)

Patterns for Book Citations

Book with one author or editor

One author:
N: 1. Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York: W.W.
Norton and Company, 1997), 47-48.
B: Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W.
Norton and Company, 1997.

Editor (use the author pattern, adapted as follows):

N: 4. Mark A. Noll, ed., Religion and American Politics . . .
B: Noll, Mark A., ed. Religion and American Politics . . .

Book with multiple authors

Two authors:
N: 2. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert
Oppenheimer (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 52.
B: Bird, Kai, and Martin J. Sherwin. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert
Oppenheimer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.

Three authors (use the two author pattern, adapted as follows):

N: 9. Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob, Telling the Truth about History . . .
B: Appleby, Joyce, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob. Telling the Truth about History . . .

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Four or more authors:
N: Jacquelyn Dowd Hall et al., Like a Family . . .
B: Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd et al. Like a Family . . .

Book with author(s) plus editor or translator

N: 4. J. B. Harley, The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History in the History of Cartography,
ed. Paul Laxton (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 132-133.
B: Harley, J. B. 2002. The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography. Ed. Paul
Laxton. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

In case of a translator (instead of an editor), substitute trans. for ed. and Translated by for Edited by.

Book with an edition number

N: 15. Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life,
2nd ed. (New York: Harper Perennial, 2002), 84.
B: Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life.
2nd ed. New York: Harper Perennial, 2002.

Single chapter in an edited book

N: 13. Anne Whiston Spirn, “Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted,” in
Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, ed. William Cronon (New York:
W.W. Norton and Company, 1996), 101.
B: Spirn, Anne Whiston. “Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted.” In
Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 91-113.
New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1996.

Patterns for Journal Article Citations

Both print and online examples are included below.

Journal Article in Print

N: 2. Pramod K. Nayar, “Marvelous Excesses: English Travel Writing and India, 1680-1727,”
Journal of British Studies 44, no. 2 (April 2005): 213.
B: Nayar, Pramod K. “Marvelous Excesses: English Travel Writing and India, 1680-1727.” Journal
of British Studies 44, no. 2 (April 2005): 213-38.

Journal Article Online

N: 4. Daniel A. McFarland, “Resistance as a Social Drama: A Study of Change-oriented
Encounters,” American Journal of Sociology 109, no. 6 (May 2004), under “Settings,”2
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJS/journal/issues/v109n6/050199/050199.html (accessed
May 3, 2006).
B: McFarland, Daniel A. “Resistance as a Social Drama: A Study of Change-oriented
Encounters.”American Journal of Sociology 109, no. 6 (May 2004).
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJS/journal/issues/v109n6/050199/050199.html (accessed
May 3, 2006).

2
This component is a descriptive locator paired with the word “under,” directing the reader to a particular
location on the Web site.

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Pattern for Web Sites (Informally Published Electronic Sources)
Material that is informally published (“posted”) online will often lack basic publication facts. Even if you
cannot determine all publication facts, you must still include more than just the URL, as this is the most
unstable portion of the citation, and, if it changes, the citation will become obsolete.

Web Sites: Named Author

N: 14. Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees, “Evanston Public Library Strategic Plan, 2000-
2010: A Decade of Outreach,” Evanston Public Library, http://www.epl.org/library/stratetic-plan-
00.html (accessed June 1, 2005).
B: Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees. “Evanston Public Library Strategic Plan, 2000-2010:
A Decade of Outreach.” Evanston Public Library, http://www.epl.org/library/strategic-plan-
00.html (accessed June 1, 2005).

Web Sites: No Named Author

N: 19. Federation of American Scientists, “Resolution Comparison: Reading License Plates and
Headlines,” http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/resolve5.html (accessed June 1, 2005).
B: Federation of American Scientists. “Resolution Comparison: Reading License Plates and
Headlines.” http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/resolve5.html (accessed June 1, 2005).

Web Sites: Informally Presented Information

Use descriptive phrases to help guide readers to information from sites lacking formal titles.

N: 1. Camp Taconic Alumni, 1955 photo gallery, http://www.taconicaalumni.org/1955.html

(accessed June 1, 2005).
B: Camp Taconic Alumni. 1955 photo gallery. http://www.taconicaalumni.org/1955.html (accessed
June 1, 2005).

Patterns for Select Miscellaneous Sources

The patterns for many other source types are available in Turabian’s guide. A few commonly used
sources are detailed below and are listed in alphabetical order by source type.

One Source Quoted in Another

Researchers should avoid repeating quotations they have not seen in their original form. If you have a
source that uses a useful quotation, seek out the original version of the quoted source if you can. That
way, you can verify that the quoted source has been represented accurately and fairly. If the original
source is unavailable, you can cite the source as “quoted in” by following the examples below.

N: 8. Louis Zukofsky, “Sincerity and Objectification,” Poetry 37 (February 1931): 269, quoted in
Bonnie Costello, Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1981), 78.
B: Zukofsky, Louis. “Sincerity and Objectification.” Poetry 37 (February 1931): 269. Quoted in
Bonnie Costello, Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1981.

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Publications of Government Departments and Agencies
Executive departments, bureaus, and agencies issue reports, bulletins, circulars, and other materials.
Include the name of an identified author after the title.

N: 12. U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, An Oilspill Risk Analysis for
the Central Gulf (April 1984) and Western Gulf of Mexico (July 1984), by Robert P. LaBelle,
Open file report, U.S. Geological Survey (Denver, 1984).
B: U.S. Department of the Interior. Minerals Management Service. An Oilspill Risk Analysis for the
Central Gulf (April 1984) and Western Gulf of Mexico (July 1984), by Robert P. LaBelle. Open-
file report, U.S. Geological Survey. Denver, 1984.

Theses and Dissertations

If you consult an unpublished thesis or dissertation in print form, treat it as an unpublished manuscript.
Abbreviate dissertation as diss. In the case of a master’s thesis, replace diss. with master’s thesis. The
word unpublished is unnecessary.

N: 1. Karen Leigh Culcasi, “Cartographic Representations of Kurdistan in the Print Media” (master’s
thesis, Syracuse University, 2003), 15.
N: 1. Priscilla Coit Murphy, “What a Book Can Do: Silent Spring and Media-Borne Public Debate”
(PhD diss., University of North Caroline, 2000), 15.
B: Murphy, Priscilla Coit. “What a Book Can Do: Silent Spring and Media-Borne Public Debate.”
PhD diss., University of North Carolina, 2000.

To cite a dissertation consulted in an online database, add the name of the database, the URL, and the
access date following the institutional information.

B: Murphy, Priscilla Coit. “What a Book Can Do: Silent Spring and Media-Borne Public Debate.”
PhD diss., University of North Carolina, 2000. In Proquest Dissertations and Theses,
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=727710781&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientld=13392&RQT
=309&VName=PQD (accessed April 1, 2006).

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 Parenthetical Citations-Reference List Style
For a more in-depth look at parenthetical citations-reference list style, consult chapters 18 and 19 of Turabian’s A
Manual for Writers, 7th ed., beginning on pages 216 and 227, respectively.

Overview
In this style, let readers know that you have used a source by placing a parenthetical citation
(including author, date, and relevant page numbers) next to your reference to that source:

He argues that “for as long as painters have fashioned their visions and dreams into images, they
have relied on technical knowledge and skill to supply their materials” (Ball 2001, 140).

Place parentheses around the citation and place the period for the sentence after the closing parenthesis.

Then, at the end of your paper, collect all of your sources in a reference list. The reference list
includes all of the sources cited within your paper and can sometimes include the sources that you
consulted but did not cite in the text (ask your professor if you are unsure which sources to include). All
entries have the same basic form and contain the same basic information:

Ball, Phillip. 2001. Bright Earth: Art and the invention of color. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux.

[Last Name, First Name. Publication Date. Title.3 City of Publication: Publishing Company.]

Label the list References and arrange the sources alphabetically by author (and then chronologically if
an author has more than one entry). Sources that fill more than one line should be formatted with a
hanging indent.

3
In parenthetical citation/reference list style, capitalize most titles sentence style, but capitalize the titles
of journals, magazines, and newspapers headline style. In sentence style, capitalize only the first letter of
the first word of the title (and subtitle, if there is one) and any proper nouns or adjectives.

Seeing and selling late-nineteenth-century Japan

Natural crisis: Symbol and imagination in the mid-American farm crisis

In headline style, capitalize the first and last word of the title and subtitle, and all other words except
articles, coordinating conjunctions, to, as, prepositions (unless they are emphasized words), and the
second word in a hyphenated compound (unless it is a proper noun/adjective).

The Economic Effects of the Civil War in the Mid-Atlantic States

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Parenthetical Citation-Reference List Key Examples
In the following examples, observe the basic pattern for parenthetical citation-reference list style.
Nearly all citations will include the same type of information in the same order. For variations and further
examples, see chapter 19, which begins on p. 227 of Turabian’s guide.

P: Parenthetical Citation; R: Reference List

By convention, the following source types may be omitted from a reference list. They are, however,
included in-text through parenthetical citations. A page number is included after each item on the list;
consult this page in Turabian’s A Manual for Writers to learn how to assemble a parenthetical citation for
these source types and to view any exceptions to this convention.
 Classical, medieval, and early English literary works (254) and (in some cases) well-known
English-language plays (270)
 The Bible and other sacred works (256)
 Well-known reference works, such as major dictionaries and encyclopedias (257)
 Anonymous unpublished interviews and personal communications (261), blog entries and
comment (264), and postings to electronic mailing lists (264)
 Many sources in the visual and performing arts, including artworks and other visual sources
(265), live performances (266), and television and other broadcast programs (267)
 The U.S. Constitution (275) and some other public documents (271)

Patterns for Book Citations

Book with one author or editor

One author:
P: (Diamond 1997, 47-48)
R: Diamond, Jared. 1997. Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: W.W.
Norton and Company.

Editor (use the author pattern, adapted as follows):

P: (Noll 1990, 75-80)
R: Noll, Mark A., ed. Religion and American Politics . . .

Book with multiple authors

Two authors:
P: (Bird and Sherwin 2005, 52)
R: Bird, Kai, and Martin J. Sherwin. 2005. American Prometheus: The triumph and tragedy of J.
Robert Oppenheimer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Three authors (use the two author pattern, adapted as follows):

P: (Appleby, Hunt, and Jacob 1994, 135-36)
R: Appleby, Joyce, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob. 1994. . . .

Four or more authors:

Adapt the parenthetical citation only as in the example below. Follow the three-author pattern for the
reference page citation.
P: (Hall et al. 1987, 114-15)

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Book with author(s) plus editor or translator
P: (Harley 2002, 132-33)
R: Harley, J. B. The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography. Edited by Paul
Laxton. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.

In case of a translator (instead of an editor), substitute Trans. and the translator’s name for the editor data
in the reference list entry.

Book with an edition number

P: (Daniels 2002, 84)
R: Daniels, Roger. 2002. Coming to America: A history of immigration and ethnicity in American
life. 2nd ed. New York: Harper Perennial.

Single chapter in an edited book

P: (Spirn 1996, 101)
R: Spirn, Anne Whiston. 1996. Constructing nature: The legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted. In
Uncommon ground: Rethinking the human place in nature, ed. William Cronon, 91-113. New
York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Patterns for Journal Article Citations

Both print and online examples are included below.

Journal Article in Print

P: (Nayar 2005, 213)
R: Nayar, Pramod K. 2005. Marvelous excesses: English, Travel Writing and India, 1680-1727.
Journal of British Studies 44, no. 2 (April 2005): 213-38.

Journal Article Online

P: (McFarland 2004)
R: McFarland, Daniel A. 2004. Resistance as a social drama: A study of change-oriented encounters.
American Journal of Sociology 109, no. 6 (May) http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJS/journal/
issues/v109n6/050199/050199.html (accessed May 3, 2006).

Pattern for Web Sites (Informally Published Electronic Sources)

Material that is informally published (“posted”) online will often lack basic publication facts. Even if you
cannot determine all publication facts, you must still include more than just the URL, as this is the most
unstable portion of the citation and, if it changes, the citation will become obsolete.

Web Sites: Named Author

R: Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees. Evanston Public Library strategic plan, 2000-2010: A
decade of outreach. Evanston Public Library. http://www.epl.org/library/strategic-plan-00.html
(accessed June 1-August 15, 2005).

Web Sites: No Named Author

If there is no named author, give the name of the owner of the site.

R: Federation of American Scientists. Resolution comparison: Reading license plates and headlines.
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/resolve5.html (accessed June 1, 2005).

9
Web Sites: Informally Presented Information
Use descriptive phrases to help guide readers to information from sites lacking formal titles.

R: Camp Taconic Alumni. 1955 photo gallery. http://www.taconicaalumni.org/1955.html (accessed

June 1, 2005).

To site a Web site without a formal publication date in text, give the name of the author or site owner or
the descriptive phrase used in the reference list entry. Include this information either in parentheses or in
the text:

P: As indicated on the Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees’ Web site . . .

or

P: During the 2005 fiscal year, the library had a record number of new borrowers (Evanston Public
Library Board of Trustees).

Patterns for Select Miscellaneous Sources

The patterns for many other source types are available in Turabian’s guide. A few commonly used
sources are detailed below and are listed in alphabetical order by source type.

One Source Quoted in Another

Researchers should avoid repeating quotations they have not seen in their original form. If you have a
source that contains a useful quotation, seek out the original version of the quoted source if you can. That
way, you can verify that the quoted source has been represented accurately and fairly. If the original
source is unavailable, you can cite the source as “quoted in” by following the examples below.

P: (Zukofsky 1931, 269)

R: Zukofsky, Louis. 1931. Sincerity and objectification. Poetry 37 (February): 269. Quoted in
Bonnie Costello, Marianne Moore: Imaginary possessions (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1981).

Publications of Government Departments and Agencies

Executive departments, bureaus, and agencies issue reports, bulletins, circulars, and other materials.
Include the name of an identified author after the title.

P: (U.S. Department of the Interior 1984, 3)

R: U.S. Department of the Interior. Minerals Management Service. 1984. An Oilspill Risk Analysis
for the Central Gulf (April 1984) and Western Gulf of Mexico (July 1984), by Robert P. LaBelle.
Open-file report, U.S. Geological Survey. Denver.

10
Theses and Dissertations
If you consult an unpublished thesis or dissertation in print form, treat it as an unpublished manuscript.
Abbreviate dissertation as diss. The word unpublished is unnecessary.

P: (Murphy 2000)
R: Murphy, Priscilla Coit. 2000. What a book can do: Silent Spring and media-borne public debate.
PhD diss., University of North Carolina.

To cite a dissertation consulted in an online database, add the name of the database, the URL, and the
access date following the institutional information.

R: Murphy, Priscilla Coit. 2000. What a book can do: Silent Spring and media-borne public debate.
PhD diss., University of North Carolina. In Proquest Dissertations and Theses,
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=727710781&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientld=13392&RQT=309
&VName=PQD (accessed April 1, 2006).

Created Spring 2010 by Jaclyn Lutzke

Source Text: A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Thesis, and Dissertations, 7th Edition, by Kate L. Turabian

SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS

INDIANA UNIVERSITY
University Writing Center
IUPUI

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