How to write in chicago style

Every student knows that there are several citation styles, which are completely different from each other. Every style is applied for a certain kind of paper and college, that is why this system causes lots of stress and nerves.

Unfortunately, Chicago style is one of the most complicated ones and even if you know MLA formatting, it doesn’t mean that you will be able to apply the Chicago one without any problems. So let us start with the definition and a brief insight into the topic.

The last, sixteenths edition, was published in 2010 and since then has been applied all over the world without any changes.  Chicago style is used for a huge variety of subjects, including specifications, articles and much more. Many specialists consider it a Bible for editors, so it is crucial to master this difficult but important formatting style.

Systems this format deals with

The first thing you need to know when you learn how to write in chicago style is that there are two systems, which are applied inside this formatting style: Autor-Date and Notes and Bibliography.

The first one deals with science and social papers, while the last one is applied for arts, literature or history. If you are a humanities student, you won’t find it difficult to apply Notes and Bibliography, as it is very simple to reference the sources by using a few rules.

Foot- and endnotes

These elements are crucial for a proper formatting, as they mark every source, quote or phrase you have used in your work. You need to make footnotes at the end of every page, while endnotes – at the end of the chapter or the whole work. This system is applied for any source you are using.

Citation formatting

Here is a brief content of the way your citation should be formed:

• First name or full name of the author. Always remember Chicago manual of style contractions;
• Title of the source you are referring;
• Details of the publication.

If you want to use several quotes of the same source, all you need to do is to write author’s last name, number of pages and a short title. There is no need to rewrite full information again.

When there is only one author, your citation will look like this:

1. Adam Levius, A simple guide to the rules of the Universe (Publisher’s Menu, 2009), 45-49.
2. Levius, A simple guide, 19.
3. Levius, Adam. A simple guide to the rules of the Universe. Publisher’s Menu, 2009

For multiple writers:

1. Ronald Atkins and Dean Morgan, Bacon: 100 useful and tasty breakfasts (Adam’s books, 2001), 40.
2. Atkins and Morgan, Bacon, 90-92.
3. Atkins, Ronald and Morgan, Dean. Bacon: 100 useful and tasty breakfasts. Adam’s books, 2001

If you want to use the same source on one page, you need to use a special feature of a Chicago citation speech, which is called ‘at the same place’ and is using ‘Ibid’ abbreviation.

Formatting

Chicago manual of style should consist of the following parts:

• Common components – all the elements of your list of references should be placed in an alphabetical order. You need to start with the name of the author, followed by the title and publishing details;
• Name of the author – always start with the last name of the author, when building your list in an alphabetical order;
• Title – All the titles should be italicized. However, quotes from poems, articles or separate articles should be put into quotation marks;
• Release date – there should always be a year of publication in your citation;
• Proper punctuation – don’t forget to separate every part of the reference with periods.

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Academic language

For any paper you complete is very important to sound professional and trustworthy. That is why you need to use an academic language to prove the reader that your opinion is worth his attention. To remain objective and always provide clear and academic information on the matter, it is very important to avoid a list of things, which include:

• Personal pronouns, which make your paper too subjective and may stir doubts in the audience. Always try to avoid such elements if you want your paper to sound professional;
• Such elements are always used in informal speech, so your academic paper shouldn’t contain any of such elements;
• Rhetoric questions. Such elements often cause misunderstandings among the reader and should be avoided. To sound professional you need to give clear information on the matter;
• ‘Run-on’ expressions, like ‘so on’. They sound unprofessional and are just simple fillers, which bear no importance. They just add wordiness to the text;
• Colloquialisms, which are common participants of our everyday language but need to be avoided in a professional paper.

Now you have all the necessary information on how to write a paper in chicago style and make your paper professional. However, if you have doubts, don’t fall into despair! Just contact us and academic editors will help you to improve your paper in no time.