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Citation: Chicago Formatting Basics

A guide to citation resources

Chicago Paper Formatting Basics

For more instruction, please see the Chicago NB Sample Page or the Chicago AD Sample Page from Purdue Owl.

  • Paper should have 1 inch margins on the top, bottom, left, and right.
  • Paper should be in 12 pt. font, Times New Roman, double spaced.
  • Insert page numbers, starting with 1, on the top right corner of every page, starting with the page after the title page.
  • Title for title page should be 1/3 of the way down the page. Further down, write your name, class information, and date (each on their own line).
  • The bibliography or references page is on its own separate page after the paper. Title “Bibliography” or “References” center on the page, no underline, bold, or italics. Double space between entries, but single space for each entry.
  • Use a hanging indent for the citations.

Quotes

  • Long Quotes
    • Prose quotation of 5 or more lines, or more than 100 words, should be a blocked quote
    • Poetry quotation of 2 or more lines should be a block quote
    • There are NO quotation marks used in block quotes
    • Blocked quoted should begin a new line and should be indented and single-spaced
  • Short Quotes
    • Surround with “” quotation marks, keep inside text of paragraph.
    • Footnote markers or parenthetical citations go directly after the in-text quote.

Section Headings

How to differentiate between section headings:

  • Level 1: Center, Bold or Italics, Titlecase
  • Level 2: Center, Regular type, Titlecase
  • Level 3: Flush left, Bold or Italics, Titlecase
  • Level 4: Flush left, sentence-style capitalization
  • Level 5: Beginning of paragraph, Bold or Italics, sentence-style capitalization, terminal period.