Chicago Format Guide: Rules and Examples
A complete reference for Chicago formatting rules with before-and-after examples.
What Chicago formatting is for
Chicago format, from the University of Chicago, is the standard in history, the arts, and some social sciences. It covers everything from the title page to the reference list, and following it tells a reader exactly what to expect on every page.
The rules can feel fussy, but they exist for a reason. Consistent margins, fonts, and citation placement make a long paper easier to read and easier to grade. This guide pulls the rules you will use most often into one place.
Use it as a checklist while you write, then again before you submit. Most formatting points are lost not because the rules are hard, but because they are easy to miss on a final read.
The core of a Chicago paper
- Footnotes or endnotes for most sources, with a full note the first time.
- A shortened note form for repeat citations of the same source.
- A bibliography at the end, alphabetical with a hanging indent.
- An optional author-date system used mainly in the sciences.
- One-inch margins, double-spaced text, and a 12 point font.
Chicago rules at a glance
| Element | What the rule asks for |
|---|---|
| Margins and spacing | One inch all around, double-spaced, with the same font throughout. |
| Font | A 12 point serif font such as Times New Roman is the usual choice. |
| Notes | Superscript numbers in the text point to full notes at the bottom of the page or the end. |
| Bibliography | Alphabetical by author surname, with entries that mirror the first full note. |
| Title page | Often required, with the title a third of the way down and your name lower on the page. |
Before and after fixes
| Spot | Common mistake | Corrected version |
|---|---|---|
| Footnote, first use | Smith, A Book, 24. | 1. John Smith, A Book (New York: Big Press, 2020), 24. |
| Footnote, repeat | 1. Smith, A Book, 31. | 2. Smith, A Book, 31. |
| Bibliography entry | Smith John A Book New York Big Press 2020. | Smith, John. A Book. New York: Big Press, 2020. |
Set up a document in Chicago
- 1Open a clean template
Start from a blank document or an official Chicago template so you are not fighting inherited formatting from an old file.
- 2Set margins and spacing
Lock in one-inch margins and the line spacing the style asks for, then turn on a hanging indent for the reference list before you type any entries.
- 3Build the title page or header
Add the identifying details Chicago wants on the first page, whether that is a full title page or a header block, and insert the running header if the style uses one.
- 4Write with citation placeholders
Insert your in-text citations as you draft using Chicago's format, even if the reference entries are not finished yet, so nothing gets missed later.
- 5Finalize and proofread
Once the text is stable, build out the reference list in full and do a final pass focused only on formatting, since content edits tend to undo spacing and indentation.
A reader who knows Chicago can skim a well-formatted paper and find any source in seconds. Bad formatting slows them down at exactly the moments you want them thinking about your ideas.
Chicago lets you choose notes-and-bibliography or author-date. Pick based on your field: humanities use notes, sciences often use author-date.
The reference list is where most Chicago points are lost. Run it through the AI Humanizer Lab Citation Checker to catch missing fields, wrong italics, and punctuation slips before you hand the paper in.
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