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Chicago Manual of Style

General Guidelines for Formatting

Title Page

Always read the assignment instructions before formatting your paper - there may be additional requirements from the course/instructor.

The title page should include:

  • Your title (about a third of the way down the page)
  • Your name, course name, and date (several lines further down from that)
  • Any other information your instructor has requested.

All this information should be centered and double spaced, as shown below:

Sample title page created by Claire Pienaar, 2021.

Note that there should be no page number on the title page - you can select "Different First Page" when formatting page numbers in Word to make sure the page numbers start on the following page.

Headings/Transitions

Longer assignments in Chicago style can often use headings to help organize the paper. Always check with your instructor or guidelines to see if headings are expected for your assignment.

If you are expected to use headings, Chicago does give you some freedom in how you format them. Here are some suggestions:

  • Whichever formatting you choose (bold, italics, centered, etc.), be sure to use that formatting consistently throughout the paper.
  • You can see some more specific examples of possible heading styles on this Purdue OWL page under "Headings."

Bibliography

Note that the heading on this page says "Bibliography," centered on the page and in normal font. 

  • The bibliography page(s) still have page numbers.
  • Unlike the rest of the paper, the bibliography is mostly single-spaced, with extra spaces between each entry.
  • The entries are arranged in alphabetical order.

Photo: Chicago Bibliography Sample from Lumen Learning (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-writing/chapter/chicagoturabian-citations-and-references-notes-and-bibliography-nb-system/

Note that the list is also formatted with a hanging indent. Watch the video below to learn how to create a hanging indent:

How to Create Hanging Indents in Microsoft Word

Sterling Miller, "Create Hanging Indents in Microsoft Word," YouTube, August 25, 2015, video, 1:35, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEcpi98IEns.

How to Insert a Footnote

The video below is from:

Excel, Word, and PowerPoint Tutorials from Howtech. How to Insert Footnote in Word. YouTube, May 5, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9_dw_CxG6w.