quicktips

chicago documentation style: footnotes/endnotes

(pdf)

Each academic discipline has its own expectations for style and documentation. Often, these disciplines rely on a broad system of guidelines that are determined by professional organizations in the field. In history and other humanities fields, the standard style is based on The Chicago Manual of Style.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, contains extensive information about editing and documentation. Brief versions of this same material appear in many other handbooks, including A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker. (SWS has copies of The Chicago Manual of Style, A Writer's Reference, and other handbooks for student use.) In addition, all University of Minnesota students have free access to an online version of 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style courtesy of the University Libraries.

CHICAGO STYLE USES A SYSTEM OF SUPERSCRIPT NUMBERS AND CORRESPONDING NOTES—these notes can come at the bottom of the page (footnotes) or the end of your paper (endnotes). It is best to ask your instructor’s preference when determining whether to use footnotes or endnotes.

For samples of common formats for notes, see the pdf version of this quicktip.

INDENT THE FIRST LINE OF EACH NOTE FIVE SPACES and introduce the note with its corresponding number, a period, and one space. Double-space all endnotes. For footnotes, single-space each entry and double-space between entries.

USE A SUPERSCRIPT NUMBER AFTER THE END PUNCTUATION OF A SENTENCE, THEN ITS CORRESPONDING NUMBER IN NON-SUPERSCRIPT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NOTE.

• In the text: As Jones notes, it is often impossible to tell at an early age which children will best acclimate to school.¹⁷
   
• In the note: 17. Melissa Jones. The Education Challenge: How to Prepare Your Student for School (New York: Middleton Press, 1995), 149.

THE FIRST TIME A SOURCE IS MENTIONED, its full citation information should be given. Thereafter, use only the author’s name, a keyword from the title, and the page number from which the information came. Moreover, if the same source is used two or more times in a row, then the name/keyword/page number are given once, and thereafter the abbreviation “Ibid.” is used.

           
18. Jones, Education Challenge, 149.
19. Ibid., 150.
20. Ibid., 236.

In addition to noting the sources cited in your text, you may be asked to compile a BIBLIOGRAPHY at the end of your paper. A bibliography includes publication information for all of the sources that you cited or consulted in order to write your paper.

• Arrange bibliographic entries alphabetically by authors' last names
• The first line of an entry should be flush with the left margin; subsequent lines should be indented five spaces
• Double-space the list

For a sample Chicago-style bibliography, please see the pdf version of our quicktip, “Chicago Documentation Style: Bibliography Page.”

For more information:

Hacker, Diana. “History: Documenting Sources.” Research and Documentation Online. Bedford/St. Martin’s. http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c10_s1.html.

________. A Pocket Style Manual. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.

Turabian, Kate. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 7th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.