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History: Writing and Citing Help

A General Guide for History Research.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition

Kate Turabian: A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 8th Edition

The Chicago Manual of Style is often referred to as Turabian because Kate Turabian's shorter manual is essentially a condensed version of the Chicago Manual of Style. 

The citation examples below are taken from the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition.

Footnote-Bibliography System

Chicago/Turabian is a note-bibliography system. In this style, the writer provides a footnote (using Arabic numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc.) in addition to a bibliographic citation on the bibliography. Sometimes, an instructor or publisher will request that the bibliography be omitted. 

The footnote should provide a citation for the referenced work or quotation and a page number/range, when available. Place the footnote after the period of the sentence in which the citation occurs.

To insert a footnote in Microsoft Word: Insert > Footnote (Alt+Ctl+F).

The Short Form Footnote

In Chicago/Turabian style, if you cite a source more than once, you should use a shortened footnote for the second and subsequent citations of that source. The short note will usually consist of the author's last name and the first part of the title. See the examples below (Book and Journal Citations) of the long form and short form of the same source. 

The shortened footnote should also include the page number/range of the referenced work or quotation, when available.

Note: Chicago/Turabian once used the Latin abbreviation ibid. (ibid., short for ibidem = "in the same place") for subsequent references to a source in the footnotes. While ibid. is technically correct, the short footnote is now the preferred style because it makes it easier for writers to keep track of their notes should they add citations between a long form footnote and an ibid. during the writing and revision process. Simply put, the scholarly ibid. worked better in the age of the typewriter!

Citation Tools

Purdue OWL

Purdue OWL - An excellent resource for Chicago Manual of Style information. 

Chicago Manual of Style Sample Paper

  • A sample paper from the Purdue OWL provides an excellent example of how a research paper should be structured using the Chicago Manual of Style. 

If you are experiencing problems with our guides and databases, please contact ProfessorJanet S. Ward, jward@limestone.edu, Assistant Director of the Library and Web Services Librarian.