| name | chicago-formatting |
| description | Use when formatting academic work in Chicago/Turabian style — notes-bibliography or author-date systems. |
Chicago / Turabian Formatting for Qualitative Work
The Chicago Manual of Style offers two citation systems: notes-bibliography (NB) and author-date (AD). Many humanities dissertations use NB; many social sciences accept AD. Pick one system and stay consistent.
Notes-bibliography system
Citations appear as footnotes or endnotes with superscript numbers in text. Notes include full or shortened source forms depending on whether it is the first citation. A bibliography lists all sources alphabetically at the end.
Typical use: history, some education and religious studies, legal-adjacent writing, narrative-heavy qualitative theses.
Author-date system
Citations appear parenthetically in text: (Smith 2020, 45–46). Reference list entries resemble APA-like author-date entries but follow Chicago punctuation and capitalization rules.
Typical use: anthropology, parts of sociology when Chicago is required.
When to use each
Use NB when:
- Discursive footnotes carry substantive commentary.
- Advisors expect classical humanities form.
Use AD when:
- You want in-text compactness similar to APA.
- You write for social-science journals using author-date Chicago.
Formatting differences from APA (high level)
- Title capitalization in notes/bibliography follows headline-style for sources in Chicago (contrast with APA sentence-style for article titles).
- Publication locations appear for some book entries in NB (check current Chicago for rules on omitting cities).
- Quotation integration and punctuation with quotes differ—follow Chicago’s “American style” quote rules unless instructed otherwise.
Bibliography vs reference list
NB ends with Bibliography (often alphabetical by author).
AD ends with Reference list (alphabetical).
Do not mix NB footnotes with an APA-style reference list without explicit guidance.
Common source types (patterns to verify in CMOS)
- Book: Author. Title. Place: Publisher, Year.
- Chapter: Author. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by Editor, pages. Place: Publisher, Year.
- Journal: Author. “Article Title.” Journal volume, no. issue (Year): pages. URL/DOI if applicable.
Always confirm italics/quotation marks for titles against the current edition.
Chicago-specific rules (selected reminders)
- Ibid. usage has evolved across editions—verify for your CMOS version.
- Shortened notes after first full citation reduce clutter.
- Access dates for unstable URLs may be required—follow department style.
Qualitative writing notes
Long ethnographic excerpts may require block indentation per Chicago. If you reproduce participant dialogue, ensure consent and anonymization align with ethics; Chicago cares about accuracy and ellipsis ethics too.
Turabian
A Manual for Writers aligns with Chicago but streamlines student work. Use Turabian when assigned; otherwise CMOS is authoritative.
Checklist
References (starting points)
- The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.).
- Turabian, K. L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (9th ed.).
