Chicago Manual of Style

NOTE: Use the information for the Notes-Bibliography style

The Chicago Manual of Style is often used to document sources for papers and assignments in the Humanities (e.g., history, fine arts, philosophy, and political science). Check with your instructor to find out which citation style you should use for an assignment.

This guide is based on the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (published in 2017). It provides selected citation examples for commonly used sources in the of notes/bibliography style. For more detailed information, consult the full style manual available at the TRU Library.

 Here are three different ways you can present information you have found in your research to consciously avoid plagiarizing.

1. Direct quote

When you use or copy the exact words or section of words from an author, you can surround that direct quote by quotation marks. Include the correct citation acknowledging the original author in your sentence.

2. Summary

Write a summary using your own words of the ideas or the text you want to use. Be original without using the words of the original work and be sure you cite that statement.

3. Paraphrase

Paraphrasing is similar to a summary. It just means taking what you have read and rewriting it in your own words. You must cite that paraphrase.

When teachers ask you to write in "Chicago Style", they are referring to the editorial style that most subjects within Arts and Humanities have adopted to present written material in the field.

Editorial style is a set of rules or guidelines that a publisher observes to ensure clear and consistent presentation of written material. Editorial style  concerns uniform use of such elements as:

• punctuation and abbreviations
• construction of tables
• selection of headings
• citation of references
• presentation of statistics
• as well as many other elements that are a part of every manuscript

The purpose of documentation is to:

• Identify (cite) other people’s ideas and information used within your essay or term paper.
• Indicate the authors or sources of these in a Bibliography at the end of your paper.
• Identify the sources you researched to support your argument.
• Provide all information necessary to enable your readers to find the sources you used.

The 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (2017) recognizes two basic styles of citation: Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date. Notes-Bibliography is the standard in the humanities; this guide is only for the Notes and Bibliography system.

"Chicago Manual of Style" by TRU Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).