Chicago Style Sample Paper with Footnotes and Bibliography

Author’s Name Here

Course Title
Professor’s Name
Date (Month, Day, Year)
 Last Name 1

Learning to write in new or unfamiliar documentation styles is often a frustrating

experience for students, but it is an experience that all students will encounter many times

throughout their educations and careers. One citation style that is common on campuses and in

publishing is the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). The style can cause confusion because it

encompasses three systems. This short paper will provide the newcomer to CMS with a bit of

the history and rationale for the Chicago system as well as provide a visual example of the

footnote system commonly required for Chicago style papers. This document is in no way

substitutes for the Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition nor is it meant to substitute for a

consultation with an instructor or a trained writing center consultant. It will, however, provide a

solid example of what a final draft with footnotes might look like, while providing an explanation

of the nuts and bolts required to make a CMS paper look and sound polished and professional.

The Chicago Manual of style traces its history back to the opening of the University of

Chicago Press in 1891.1 What started as a style sheet has become, in its 17th edition, the most

widely used citation style for publisher of scholarly works. Another style, so similar to CMS that

the handbook is often consulted for the purposes of student papers is CMS, is “Turabian’s. Kate

Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, first published

in 1937, is in its 8th edition and was developed specifically for student writers.2 Because the

CMS is a comprehensive guide to publishing, the 1026 page guide to style can be

overwhelming. Using a student handbook such as the Lunsford guide or the Turabian 8th edition

can feel much more approachable. However, keep in mind that the CMS 17th edition is available

to answer the more specific questions.

1
University of Chicago, “The History of the Chicago Manual of Style,” The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Last
modified 2010. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/about16_history.html.
2
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 7th ed. (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2007) xiii.
 Last Name 2
CMS system has two different systems for dealing with citations: note and bibliography

(NB) and author date.3 This paper serves as a visual example and an explanation of the NB

system using footnotes. According to the Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition, footnotes are

preferred because “readers of scholarly work usually prefer footnotes for their ease of access.”4

However, sometimes an author or instructor may prefer endnotes because they do not want to

disrupt page makeup or find that space at the bottom of the page being used for extra footnote

text to be distracting.5 What is important to remember is that the function of a note within the text

is the same, both function as the in text citation in a text regardless of where they are placed,

and each system should be used with a bibliography and do not take the place of the

bibliography page. The bibliography, however, may contain works that were consulted in the

process of writing a piece but were never directly referenced.

The information in the notes and the information in the bibliography page should be the

same but is formatted differently. In the note the author’s first name comes first, and in the

bibliography, the author’s last name is first. The citation appearing in the note is indented, parts

are separated by commas, and publication information is enclosed by parentheses. Kate

Turabian’s guide provides examples of both side by side so that writers can observe these

differences side by side.6 The bibliography page is similar to reference pages in other common

citation styles; it should be alphabetized by author’s last name, authoring organization, or title,

and entries should have a hanging indent.

The note is indicated by a superscript number that appears within the body of the text at

the end of the borrowed information even if that place is in the middle of a sentence or a

paragraph. That number corresponds to a note appearing at the bottom of the page, which

3
Purdue Online Writing Lab, “Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition,” Last modified 2017.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/
4
University of Chicago Press, The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2010).
671.
5
Ibid. 672.
6
Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, 162-215.
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contains bibliographic information. There are three different forms that a note can take. The first

time a writer uses a source, the note will have full bibliographic information plus the page

number; however, that information appears differently than it does in the bibliography. If the

author of a paper uses the same source twice in a row, full bibliographic information is replaced

by the term, “Ibid”7 which is short for the Latin term Ibidem, meaning “in the same place.8 The

second time an author uses a source in a paper, and that source is not the same as the one

before, it is acceptable to use a shortened citation. This is meant to save space and it also

saves time. Anytime the author of a work is citing information, they should use the page number

where the borrowed information can be found. If there is no page number, then, chapter

numbers, paragraph numbers, or other identifying information might be listed.9

The second example of a shortened citation includes a truncated version of the full

bibliographic information as demonstrated in note 6. The shortened citation is the author's’ last

name and a shortened title, or only the title if there is no author and the page or paragraph

number of the borrowed information. After using a note with the full bibliographic information

once, a writer can use either the shortened citation or Ibid. for the remainder of the paper.

The rules of Chicago style can seem picky and perhaps arbitrary at first but once a writer

becomes accustomed to them, they become second nature. These rules represent another

system set out for the same purposes as other citation systems: to responsibly attribute

intellectual property to the original source in a uniform fashion. The key to success in using any

citation style is not knowing the rules by heart but taking the time to find the answers and

understanding where to look for them.

7
Ibid. 155-157.
8
University of Chicago, “Documentation I: Notes and Bibliography,” The Chicago Manual of Style Online.
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/about16.html.
9
University of Chicago Press. 666-667
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Bibliography

Purdue Online Writing Lab. “Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition.” Last modified 2017.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 7th ed.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2007.

University of Chicago. “Documentation I: Notes and Bibliography.” The Chicago Manual of Style
Online. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/about16.html.

---, “The History of the Chicago Manual of Style.” The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Last
modified 2010. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/about16_history.html.

University of Chicago Press. The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press 2010). 671.