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Cite While You Write: Chicago Note

As soon as you use the ideas, words or other intellectual property from an outside source, acknowledge the original work by citing it. The documentary note or humanities style of the Chicago Manual of Style uses bibliographic notes rather than in-text citations like MLA, APA, and the author-date style of Chicago. It consists of two parts: a number in the text and a note either at the bottom of the page (footnote) or at the end of the paper (endnote).

Notes are numbered sequentially, beginning with 1., throughout each article, chapter, or paper. The numbers in the text must be in superscript1 and should follow sentences, clauses, quotations, punctuation marks and closing parentheses. The note number in the endnotes or footnotes should be a normal, full sized number.















  • A note provides similar information to its corresponding bibliography entry except it includes a specific page number referenced. There are also a few formatting differences: the first line of a note is indented, the author's name is written in the normal order, periods are replaced with commas, and book publishing information is placed in parentheses.

    Example:

    Baumgartner and Morris conclude, "Ultimately, negative perceptions of candidates could have participation implications by keeping more youth from the polls."1

    Note:

    1. Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris, "The Daily Show Effect: Candidate Evaluations, Efficacy, and American Youth," American Politics Research 34, no. 3 (2006): 362.

    Bibliography:

    Baumgartner, Jody and Jonathan S. Morris. "The Daily Show Effect: Candidate Evaluations, Efficacy, and American Youth." American Politics Research 34, no. 3 (2006): 341-367.

  • Subsequent references to sources already fully cited can be shortened using the author's last name and a shortened version of the main title.

    Example:

    1. Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris, "The Daily Show Effect: Candidate Evaluations, Efficacy, and American Youth," American Politics Research 34, no. 3 (2006): 362.

    2. Doris A. Graber, Mass Media and American Politics, 6th ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002), 23.

    3. Baumgartner and Morris, "The Daily Show Effect," 363.

  • Ibid is used in place of the author's name, the title, and as much of the information as is identical to the immediately preceding note. It cannot be used if the preceding note cites more than one work.
    • Example:

    3. Baumgartner and Morris, "The Daily Show Effect," 363.

    4. Ibid., 364-365.

See a sample Chicago documentary-note style paper at Diana Hacker's Research and Documentation Online.

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