Chicago/Turabian Style Details from WritingResources.info

WRITINGRESOURCES.INFO
Resources for Academic Writers

Home >

Get a $5.00 discount on our choice for great document preparation software:

APA style

MLA style

Chicago/Turabian style

Seminary style

Chicago/Turabian Style Details

Page Layout

Your page layout must match the standard's specifications. This includes the physical appearance of the your pages and paragraphs, including font usage, spacing, margins, and correct ordering of your document's components.

Margins

Chicago/Turabian style specifies that margins should be at least 1" on all four sides of the page, with a 1½" left margin for bound documents, including most theses and dissertations. All pages in a document use the same margin.

Note that the page number at the top of pages fall outside of the top and bottom page margins.

Font Usage

Almost all of the institutions that we know about recommend 12-point Times Roman for documents delivered in Chicago/Turabian style.

Headings and Paragraphs

MLA style specifies the appearance of five levels of headings, several text paragraph types, and reference entry paragraphs, as summarized in the following table.

Paragraph Type	Description
Chapter Heading	A chapter heading, which starts on a new page. This style is typically used only in multi-chapter documents such as theses and dissertations. This is a center-justified, capitalized (all caps) text, followed by an indented paragraph.
First Level Subheading	The first subheading level within a chapter, used to start a major new section within the chapter or document. This is center-justified, headline-capitalized, bold text, followed by an indented paragraph.
Second Level Subheading	The second subheading level, used to start new subsections within major sections. This is center-justified, headline-capitalized text, followed by an indented paragraph.
Third Level Subheading	The third subheading level, used to start another level of hierarchy in a section. This is left-justified, italicized, bold, headline-capitalized line of text, followed by an indented paragraph.
Fourth Level Subheading	The fourth subheading, . This is left justified, sentence-capitalized text, followed by an indented paragraph.
Indented Paragraph	Standard, indented, double-spaced paragraphs. The first line is indented ½" from the left margin of the page.
Block Paragraph	Non-indented text paragraphs, which means that the first line is not indented. These are typically used to follow a block quote that falls in the middle of a logical paragraph.
Block Quote	A long quote (40 words or more) that is indented ½" from the left margin as a block, and is single-spaced.
Reference Entry	Bibliographic entries in the Works Cited section of a document. These paragraphs use a hanging indent: the first line of the paragraph is flush with the left margin of the page, and subsequent lines are indented ½".

Reference Entries

Without a doubt, the most complicated and difficult to use feature of MLA style is the formatting of reference entries. The Fifteenth Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style uses over 160 pages to describe citation and bibliography formats. The formatting of specific reference entries can be exceedingly complicated, including where commas and periods go, what gets underlined or italicized, and other details.

The vast majority of writers purchase software to help format their Chicago/Turabian reference entries, rather than trying to work out all of the details for each and every reference entry.

The following table shows several reference entry examples. As you can see, you need to carefully format each unique reference entry type, and most writers quickly conclude that paying a little for software that takes care of these details is very worthwhile.

Reference Type	Example
Book	Hillerson, Gary. 2002. Student's Guide to StyleEase. Boston: Oh Press.
Journal Article	Lange, Mark. 2002. Mastering the Scales. Guitar Quarterly 6, no. 15 (Fall): 52-54.
Published Proceedings	Doe, John. 1989. Hemingway in Idaho. In Hemingway's Travels held in San Francisco, May 13-14, 1988, edited by Joe Schmoe, 34-35. Boston: Oh Press.
Thesis	Lange, Mark. 1991. Self as Construct. Master's thesis, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA/
Movie	Doe, John. 1983. Jack's Road. Interview by Jane Jones (Lowell, MA, May 12, 1982). Great Interviews, no. 4 (June): 72-75

Footnote, Endnote, and Parenthetical Citations

Chicago/Turabian style specifies three different styles for including citations (to your reference sources) in the body of your document. Generally, your institution or individual professor specifies which citation type you need to use:

Citation Type	Example
Footnote	Adding a reference entry to your document means: Format it as a bibliography entry and add it to your Works Cited section. Format it (differently) as a footnote, add it at the bottom of the current page, and insert a superscripted footnote number in the text that refers to the footnote at the bottom of the page.
Endnote	Adding a reference entry to your document means: Format it as a bibliography entry and add it to your Works Cited section. Format it (differently) as an endnote, add it to the Notes section at the end of your document, and insert a superscripted endnote number in the text.
Parenthetical	Adding a reference entry to your document means: Format it as a bibliography entry and add it to your Works Cited section. Insert a parenthetical citation, which typically includes the author and publication year, into the text. Parenthetical citations are complicated by the fact that you can then add "comment" notes to your document as either footnote or endnotes.

Make sure that the software you buy to help with Chicago/Turabian style allows you to create documents using any of the three citation types.