Dear Write Site is a series that equips Athabasca University students with tips and resources to improve their writing—whether it's for an essay, research paper, or the next great novel. We feature advice from the Write Site, AU's academic writing support service, with answers to common learner questions.
Dear Write Site,
I’ve never used Chicago style before, but now some of my courses require it. What do I need to know to get started?
—Chicago, Afraid So
Dear Chicago, Afraid So,
Chicago is a style of citations and formatting commonly used in the humanities and social sciences. The Chicago Manual of Style provides two distinct citation styles—please check with your instructor or tutor regarding which style they prefer.
Notes and bibliography (N/B) style uses footnotes and a bibliography page and is common in history courses.
Author/date (A/D) style uses parenthetical citations and a reference list and is often used in fields such as anthropology and philosophy.
The AU Library provides access to The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Using the manual, you can find all the information and examples you need to format your Chicago citations and bibliography.
How to use The Chicago Manual of Style Online
I’ve created three short videos to show you how to use the online guide and create your citations.
1. Citation Quick Guide Examples
This video shows how to navigate the Notes/Bibliography quick guide and what to pay attention to when creating your citations. On the guide menu, click the type of source you’re working with, such as book, journal article, or web page to get started.
If you’re using Chicago Author/Date format, visit the Author/Date quick guide instead.
2. Format for multiple authors
"Et al." is an abbreviation of “et alia,” meaning “and others” in Latin. As with other citation styles, the phrase “et al.” is used in Chicago N/B to denote several authors. In this video, you’ll find details about how and when to use this phrase.
Visit the equivalent Author/Date page.
3. Creating footnotes
Chicago N/B has certain formatting requirements for how to place footnotes. In this video, I’ll show you the particulars about how to format them correctly in Microsoft Word.
Final words
For sample papers using Chicago formatting, please visit Purdue OWL:
I hope this gets you started with Chicago style! You can reach out to writesite@athabascau.ca with more questions, or with suggestions for future videos. You can also visit the Library’s Chicago guide for more information!
Happy citing,
Sarah-Jean Watt
Write Site coordinator