The Writer's Handbook
Chicago/Turabian Documentation: Formatting Notes
Download a PDF guide to Chicago/Turabian documentation, or use the links below.
- A quick orientation to note systems
- Formatting notes
- First note for a source
- Secondary source
- Performance or DVD
- Conference presentation
- Government document
- Online source
- Subsequent note for a source
General Information about Notes
- Adding a number to a sentence to indicate the presence of a note. To acknowledge a source in your paper, place a superscript number (raised slightly above the line) immediately after the end punctuation of a sentence containing the quotation, paraphrase, or summary. Do not put any punctuation after the number.
- Example: This is an example of how to cite a source.1
- Multiple references to a source. In the Chicago/Turabian note system, the first note for a source provides full documentation information. When a source is used a second time, its reference is given in a shorter form.
- Location of notes. Notes come at the bottom of each page, separated from the text with a typed line, 1½ inches long. Some instructors will allow you to place notes, instead, as endnotes on a separate page (titled Notes) at the end of your paper, after any appendices.
Footnote style Endnote style
- Formatting the note.
- In the footnote or endnote itself, use the same number, but do not raise or superscript it.
- Put a period and one space after the number.
- The notes themselves are single-spaced, and the first line of each note is indented five spaces from the left margin.
- Double-space between notes.
- Citing one source multiple times in one paragraph. If a single paragraph of your paper contains several references from the same author, it is permissible to use one number after the last quotation, paraphrase, or summary to indicate the source for all of the material used in that paragraph.
- Page numbers. Generally there is no need to use the abbreviations "p." and "pp." before page numbers; simply list the appropriate numbers as the last piece of information in the note.