Chicago Referencing

Build Chicago style in either of its two systems, and pick the right one for the discipline:

• Notes-bibliography (NB): humanities, history, arts. Footnote numbers in text, full notes, bibliography.
• Author-date (AD): sciences and social sciences. Parenthetical (Author Year, page) citations, reference list.

Steps

1. Read references/chicago-quickref.md and determine which system the assignment requires. Never mix systems in one document.

2. For notes-bibliography, place superscript note numbers after punctuation. First note, full form:

   • Book: Author First Last, Title of Book (Place: Publisher, Year), 25.
   • Chapter: Author First Last, "Chapter Title," in Book Title, ed. Editor (Place: Publisher, Year), 45-52.
   • Journal: Author First Last, "Article Title," Journal Name Volume, no. X (Year): 33-35.
   • Subsequent notes, shortened: Last, Short Title, 26. (Ibid. is deprecated in the 17th edition; prefer shortened citations.)

3. For author-date, cite parenthetically: (Smith 2024, 12) or narrative Smith (2024, 12). Two authors: (Smith and Jones 2024). Three or more: (Smith et al. 2024). Reference list entries follow the bibliography form with the year moved up: Smith, John. 2024. Title. Place: Publisher.

4. Bibliography/References formatting (NB system):

   • Book: Last, First. Title of Book. Place: Publisher, Year.
   • Journal: Last, First. "Article Title." Journal Name Volume, no. X (Year): xx-xx.
   • Headline capitalization for titles; journal and book titles italic; article titles in quotation marks in bibliography
   • Alphabetical by author surname, hanging indent

5. Note punctuation vs bibliography punctuation differ in NB: notes use commas in the source description; bibliography uses periods. The quickref shows both forms side by side.

6. Verify: note numbers run in sequence; every note has a shortened-form ancestor; bibliography and notes cover the same sources; author-date texts have no footnotes.

Pitfalls

• The two systems are not interchangeable; NB is humanities, AD is sciences. Check which one the instructor means by "Chicago".
• Page numbers live in the note (Author First Last, Title, 25) without p.; in author-date they sit after a comma: (Smith 2024, 12).
• URLs in bibliography, not in notes, when the note already names the source clearly.
• Chicago allows et al. from four authors in notes and from one to ten authors listed in bibliography with et al. for eleven or more; check the edition in use.

Provenance

Clean-room summary of Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) conventions for agent use, authored 2026-09-03. Part of the referencing skill family with apa-7-referencing, harvard-referencing, oxford-referencing, ieee-referencing, and mla-referencing.