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Rising Scholars Program: Merced College Library: Citing in Chicago 17

Cross-disciplinary library guide that provides one stop for accessing resources for students and faculty. Forms, timelines and contact information are also provided.

Chicago Style

Chicago style is usually used in the Humanities, History, and other fields. It includes several different versions for notes, bibliography entries, and shortened citations.

Chicago Manual

Microsoft 365 Access

All Merced College students have access to Microsoft 365 (formerly branded as Office 365), which includes Word, through student email.

How to...in Chicago

In the notes-bibliography system, each in-text reference is denoted by a number that corresponds to a footnote.

  • When it's time to cite a source within the text of your paper, you'll insert a footnote outside of the period or other punctuation using your word processor.
  • A superscript 1 will appear after the punctuation mark, and you will be taken to the footer of the page which will also show a 1. The superscript 1 in the text alerts your reader to look for the 1 on the bottom of the page for more information.

Superscript 1

From Purdue OWL's "CMOS NB Sample Paper."

  • In the footer, add a period after the number, and create your footnote.
    • The first line of a footnote is indented .5” from the left.
    • Subsequent lines of a footnote are flush left.
    • Footnotes are single-spaced within a note.
    • Double-space between footnotes.
  • Each subsequent note within your text will follow in numerical order throughout your paper. Even if you insert a note in between notes, for example, the software you are using will adjust.

Footnotes

From Purdue OWL's "CMOS NB Sample Paper."

In the notes-bibliography system, the page at the end of your paper where you will list all of your citations should be titled Bibliography.

  • Bibliographies should be organized in alphabetical order by the first letter in the first word of each entry.
  • Subsequent lines of an entry have a hanging indent.
  • Write out the names of the first 3 authors.
  • If there are 4 to 10 authors, write out the names of each author in the bibliography entry, but use First Author Name et al. in the footnote.
  • Use DOIs instead of URLs if possible.
  • Make DOIs active.

Bibliography Sample

From Purdue OWL's "CMOS NB Sample Paper."

Chicago Style Resources

Create Chicago-Style Footnotes in MS Word

"Create Chicago-style footnotes in MS Word" (3:49) by Amy Whitson is used with permission. Start at 1:10 to get step-by-step instructions for inserting a footnote and adjusting the footnote spacing.