The Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) (or CMoS) is a popular style guide used to mostly write about history and art in academic writing. To be clear, the CMoS is two thing things. First, it's a manual for those in the publishing industry that teaches all you need to know about the protocols and processes relating to the publishing industry.

Second, it's a style guide on how to cite references both in the text and in the reference list. In particular, the CMoS is typically used as a reference guide in art, science, humanities, history, religion, and social sciences. 

Cover of the latest edition of CMoS 18.

In this article, we take a look at the rules governing CMoS as relates to it use as a style guide for in-text citations and references. The CMoS has two sets of criteria for citing material in text or references: (1) the documentary-note style and (2) the author-date style. Here we will focus on the Notes-Bbilogrpahy system. 

Chicago Manual of Style: Notes-Bibliography style 

The CMoS Notes style can get complicated quite fast. This is especially so if you compare it APA, which is a relatively simpler system. The CMoS Notse system is divided into three components: 

1. In-text numbering

2. Notes

3. Bibliography

Let's quickly take a look at each in turn. 

In-Text numbering

Unlike APA, the Notes-Bibligraphy system uses numbers to indicate in-text citations. These citations appear as numbers expressed in supertext directly above the word where you would expect the citation to go if you were using a name and year format. 

Notes

The notes are often found at the bottom of the page that corresponds to the superscripted numbers found on that page. The note provides the specific reference format plus information about the source from which the material was taken. 

This would mean something that looks like the reference format you find in APA with stylistic differences in addition to any useful information that would explain what is being read. 

The bibliography

The bibliography can be called many things, such as cited works, references, or, of course, bibliography. The CMoS provides detailed information, just like the APA, on how to properly format your bibliography. 

I will provide details and examples of this soon. In the following, we provide examples of the Notes-Biblography style. This system of references becomes complicated quite quickly because of the requirement of using shortened notes after initially introducing a reference or citation for the first time. 

The rules for CMoS can be quite involved. There is no point to memorizing it to be honest.

Instead, have a reference page for the CMoS guide constantly opened to make sure you're getting it right. In particular, you can make use of software to ensure that you are getting your references right. 

Even Microsoft Word makes it possible to do so. However, proofreading and citation tools are only as good as the person who uses them. So, always make sure you are familiar with the CMoS style guide before using these tools to organize citations and references. 

Below is a table giving a brief preview of how to go about using the CMoS Notes and Bibliography system. 

For more details, you should secure the latest edition of the CMOS style guide. However, the cost can be prohibitive. Instead of this, check out the CMoS website, which provides a basic but complete preview of how to use the Notes-Bibliography style: Notes and Bibliography: Sample Citations. Good luck with your academic writing.

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, August 19). The Chicago Manual of Style. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/the-chicago-manual-of-style