Main Body Of A Sample Chicago Style Paper
In the main body of your sample Chicago style paper, you should follow the general formatting guidelines that we have already mentioned. However, there are two more critical points to pay attention to here: the Chicago style paper heading and the citations.
Chicago style paper format suggests the following set of guidelines for headings and subheadings:
- You can capitalize the Chicago style paper heading .
- Subheadings can be put in separate lines, but you dont end them with a period.
- To avoid confusion, be recommended not to use over three levels of subheadings.
- Use bold and italic for different subheading levels.
Chicago style citation example paper allows for both in-text citations and footnotes.
Here is what you do if Chicago style in text citation sample paper is the case:
- A citation consists of the authors name, publication date, and page number.
- If the author is unknown or there is no author, you use the shortened title instead.
- If you are citing an online source, then the page number is non-applicable, so you avoid it.
- The abbreviations are only allowed when they are authentic.
- The only punctuation is the comma between the date of publication and the page number.
- If you have several quotes of the same pages from the same source, you cite this source after the final quote.
In-text citations make the text look less welcoming to read, so be encouraged to use as few quotations as possible. You should not, however, clear your text of all quotations altogether.
Chicago Style Paper: What It Is And How To Write It
Whenever you write a piece of academic writing, you are expected to do it according to certain format style guidelines. The most common format styles are APA , ASA , MLA , and Chicago . Most often, a particular formatting style is used for a particular field of knowledge. For instance, an example of Chicago style paper will most likely be in history, anthropology, or some social sciences, because this formatting style was developed specifically for these fields of knowledge.
If your task is to produce a Chicago Manual of Style sample paper, be recommended to look up the latest edition of Chicago Manual of Style, published by University of Chicago Press. However, it may seem a long read, so we have compressed its main points of implementation for your Chicago style paper into this brief article.
Formatting Guidelines For Chicago Style
The Chicago Manual of Style does not prescribe rules of formatting an essay or research paper the following are generally held standards for title pages, print size, margins, and spacing.
Note: If your instructor has his or her own requirements, follow them. These guidelines are the most commonly required.
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Works Cited Page In Chicago Style Citation Example Paper
You finalize your Chicago Manual of Style paper with listing all the sources that have influenced your writing. This includes all the works that you have cited in your paper along with the ones that have influenced you during your research and writing but were not quoted directly or indirectly. The items in your works cited page will be formatted according to these guidelines:
- Your example of Chicago style paper works cited page opens with the word BIBLIOGRAPHY in the center of the first line, but without quotes
- The order in the list is alphabetical
- The authors are called only by last and first names
- The title of the whole book will be written in italics and without quotes
- The title of a journal article or a book chapter will be in quotes
- The elements of each item are divided by periods.
This may seem a bit confusing in theory. To avoid confusion, here are some illustrations:
Sample Chicago Style Paper Main Body

Basically, you just follow all the general formatting requirements for sample Chicago style paper here. The only two issues that deserve extra attention are Chicago style paper heading and citations.
Headings and subheadings are formatted this way in the Chicago style paper format:
- A Chicago style paper heading can be written in all caps.
- If you want, you can write subheadings in separate lines, but no full stops on ends.
- The number of subheading levels should not exceed three.
- Different levels of subheadings can be written in italic or bold for the sake of distinction.
In a Chicago style citation example paper, you can use either in-text citations, or footnotes, or both. Here are the recommendations:
- A citation includes the following information about the source: the authors name, publishing date, and page number.
- If there is no author or s/he is not known, you shorten the title and use that instead.
- Obviously, you cannot state the page number of an online source, so you dont.
- You cannot add your own abbreviations in a citation, you only use those used by the author of the source.
- You separate the page number with a comma, other than that there will be no punctuation.
- If you quote the same source several times in one paragraph, you put the citation only after the last time.
Here is an illustration of a Chicago style in text citation sample paper:
Here is an illustration:
Footnotes can be complemented with the authors comments.
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Notes And Bibliography In Chicago Style
The Chicago Notes and Bibliography system is often used in the humanities to provide writers with a system for referencing their sources through the use of footnotes, endnotes, and through the use of a bibliography. This offers writers a flexible option for citation and provides an outlet for commenting on those sources, if needed. Proper use of the Notes and Bibliography system builds a writers credibility by demonstrating their accountability to source material. In addition, it can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the intentional or accidental uncredited use of source material created by others.
Major Changes From The 16th Edition
Discourages the use of ibid. in favour of shortened citations .
Includes expanded instructions on how to cite websites, blogs, and social media .
Includes instructions on citing personal communications .
Expanded coverage on citing audiovisual and multimedia .
Information on citing permalinks and short forms for URLs .
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Using Word To Format Your Paper
The video below gives you step-by-step instructions for using Word to format your paper.
Please note: Your teacher is the final authority for how you should format your paper. For example, Chicago Manual of Style provides for variations in where you place the page numbers for your paper. Turabian recommends that you pick a format and use if consistently. Therefore, the video may show you some style variations that you will not use in your paper.
Chicago Style Overview And Examples
The “notes and bibliography” variant of Chicago style allows you to use numbered endnotes or footnotes in the places where APA and MLA styles use parenthetical in-text citations. There is also an option to use the “author/date” variation if you prefer parenthetical in-text citations.
Notes and bibliography example:
Algorithms of Oppression enumerates ways that discrimination is “embedded in computer code and, increasingly, in artificial intelligence technologies that we are reliant on, by choice or not.”¹
¹ Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, , pp. 1-2.
Reference List
Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: New York University Press. 2018.
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Chicago Manual Of Style 17th Edition
Summary:
This section contains information on The Chicago Manual of Style method of document formatting and citation. These resources follow the seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style , which was issued in 2017.
Please note that although these resources reflect the most recent updates in the The Chicago Manual of Style concerning documentation practices, you can review a full list of updates concerning usage, technology, professional practice, etc. at The Chicago Manual of Style Online.
Title Page For A Chicago Style Sample Paper
If you have it in your Chicago style sample paper, it will still have very little information. The only thing to mind here is how you allocate this information on your title page. The manual suggests the following:
- You go ¼ of the page down from its top, and this is where you write your title. If it is longer than one line, you set the spacing to double.
- Then you go another ¼ of the page down and type the authors name.
- Finally, you go another ¼ of the page down and write the name of your course, your instructor, and the date of completion. These will make three separate lines with double spacing.
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Chicago Manual Of Style Sample Paper
Formatting For The Body Of The Paper

- When a title page is not required, write the title at the top of your first page of main text.
- Begin every new paragraph in the body of the paper on its own line with a 0.5 indentation do this by pressing the Tab key once.
- Double-space the main text .
- Use only one space after a period, not two spaces.
- Start page numbering with the first page of body text, not the title page, and use Arabic numerals . When there is a title page, start the first page of body text with page 2. When there is no separate title page, start the first page of body text with page 1.
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Footnotes / Endnotes Sample Papers
Footnotes, which are located at the bottom of each page, acknowledge which parts of the paper reference particular sources. Footnotes should match with a superscript number at the end of the sentence referencing the source. Footnotes should begin with 1 and continue numerically throughout the paper. Do not start the order over on each page.
Sample Paper Using Chicago Manual Of Style
Although less popular then MLA and APA styles, the Chicago citation style is also used at many universities across the United States. If you would like to know more about this style, please see the Chicago Manual of Style FAQ.Below is a sample research paper formatted using Chicago Manual of Style.
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Sample Chicago Style Paper On The Exploration Of The Political Structure Of The Roman Empire
Instructions:
The exploration of the political structure of the Roman Empire and how the political structure of the Roman Empire was AFFECTED by religion, social structure, gender relations and economics. Chronologically, your topic must cover the time period between prehistory and 1500.Here are the topic regions: Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Sub-Saharan, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, Western Indo-European , Eastern Indo-European , Meso-American, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Melanesian and Polynesian, Mongol and Turkic, and Semitic . Choose only one culture .
Tips For Using Chicago Style
Chicago Style has two referencing style systems the Notes/Bibliography style system and the style system . The Author-Date method uses in-text parenthetical references and a reference list. This guide covers the Notes/Bibliography style system, which uses notes and a bibliography at the end of the paper.
Double space the main body of the essay. Entries in the bibliography and endnotes are single spaced within entries, but double spaced between entries .
Footnote form and bibliographic form differ slightly. Each entry provides an example of an entry’s bibliographic form and footnote form. In bibliographic entries, the second and all subsequent lines should be indented in a “hanging indent” fashion. In notes, the first line is indented.
When no date is provided, the abbreviation n.d. takes the place of the year in the publication details .
Notes
Notes can be either footnotes or endnotes . Footnotes and endnotes are structured in exactly the same way.
When citing a source, insert a superscript number within the text. Use normal full sized font numbers for note reference numbers in the notes themselves. The notes are numbered consecutively throughout the paper. Most word processing programs handle footnotes automatically .
Bibliography
The bibliography is given on a separate page at the end of the paper. The entries are organized alphabetically by the author’s last name or by the title if the item’s author is anonymous .
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Footnotes Versus Parenthetical Citations
- Include a citation whenever another authors work is directly quoted or paraphrased.
- There are two formats in Turabian: author-date and notes-bibliography. Liberty University allows only notes-bibliography format, except for book reviews .
- In notes-bibliography, include relevant publishing details along with the authors name and year of publication as footnotes.
- All programs of study at Liberty University still require the use of ibid. for consecutive footnotes of the same resource on the same page in notes-bibliography format, and shortened notes for non-consecutive subsequent citations, even though the Turabian 9th edition manual recommends not using ibid.
- See the Turabian Chart of Citations for visuals of the citations and reference entries in notes-bibliography format. The section of this Quick Guide on author-date format includes a link to a chart of citations in that format.
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Bibliography Or Reference List
At the end of your paper, youll likely include a bibliography or a reference list .
Bibliographies and reference lists are not double-spaced, but leave a blank line between entries.
If an entry extends onto a second line, a ½ inch indent should be applied to all but the first line of the entry.
If you have to create a Chicago style annotated bibliography, follow the same format as a normal bibliography, but indent and double-space the annotations under each source reference.
Chicago Style Paper Format Overview

Here are the general guidelines for a sample Chicago style paper:
- Font. Technically, a Chicago style research paper or essay can use any font type or size to use in ones paper. The only requirement is that the font is clearly readable. So, the choice is up to you. We suggest that you dont get inventive here and stick to Times New Roman size 12.
- Spaces. You use double spacing, except in block quotations.
- You should not divide paragraphs with blank lines.
- Page numbering. If you have a title page and Chicago style paper no title page is not the case, the numeration begins on the page that follows it, with number two. If it is a Chicago style paper no title page, you begin your numeration from the first page from number one. You put the number next to the authors name.
Usually, your Chicago style research paper will have three sections: the title or cover page, the main body, and the bibliography. If you write a small five-paragraph essay, your instructor may suggest that you skip the title page. Let us see what each of these sections are about.
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Bibliography Or Reference List Formatting
Both Chicago formats include a full list of sources at the end of a paper. Author-date format requires a reference list while notes-bibliography encourages a bibliography.
Here are formatting guidelines that apply to both lists:
- Begin the bibliography or reference list on a new page immediately following the last page of main text.
- Center the word Bibliography or References on the first line of the page. Add two blank lines after the title.
- Single-space each entry and add a blank line between entries.
- Begin each reference entry with a hanging indentation so that the first line of the reference touches the left margin while all subsequent lines have a 0.5 indent.
- Order reference list entries alphabetically by the authors last name, followed by the first name .
Apart from the guidelines above, there are some differences between creating a Chicago bibliography and reference list. For more information, visit these pages on styling a Chicago bibliography and Chicago reference list.