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Chicago Style: Basics

This guide is intended to help you learn what Chicago Style is and includes. This guide will help you cite sources and avoid plagiarism. The guide also includes examples of Chicago style and lead you to resources that can help you cite sources.

Hanging Indent

The bibliography entry text should be left-justified; if an entry is more than one line, indent the subsequent line(s) half an inch from the left margin. For more information, please see the CMOS 14.19: Notes and bibliography—an overview or 14.62: Format and placement of bibliography.

NOTE: The library's webpage doesn't show the hanging indent in our examples. 

Websites

Webpage

It is often sufficient simply to describe web pages and other website content in the text (“As of November 15, 2023, Google’s privacy policy stated . . .”). If a more formal citation is needed, it may be styled like the examples below. If a source does not list a date of publication or revision, include an access date. Alternatively, if a publicly available archive of the content has been saved using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine or similar service, the link for that version may be cited.

Notes

1. “Privacy Policy,” Privacy & Terms, Google, effective November 15, https://policies.google.com/privacy.

2. “Wikipedia: Manual of Style,” Wikimedia Foundation, last modified December 19, 2023, 21:54 (UTC), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style.

3. “About Yale: Yale Facts,” Yale University, accessed March 8, 2022, https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

or

3. “About Yale: Yale Facts,” Yale University, archived March 8, 2022, at https://web.archive.org/web/20220308143337/https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

Shortened notes

4. Google, “Privacy Policy.”

5. “Wikipedia: Manual of Style.”

6. “Yale Facts.”

Bibliography entries (in alphabetical order)

In the notes, the title will usually come first (as in the examples above); in a bibliography entry, the source should be listed under the owner or sponsor of the site.

Google. “Privacy Policy.” Privacy & Terms. Effective November 15, 2023. https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Wikimedia Foundation. “Wikipedia: Manual of Style.” Last modified December 19, 2023, at 21:54 (UTC). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style.

Yale University. “About Yale: Yale Facts.” Accessed March 8, 2022. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

or

Yale University. “About Yale: Yale Facts.” Archived March 8, 2022, at https://web.archive.org/web/20220308143337/https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

For more details and examples, see CMOS 14.104.

 

Blogs

Blog Post

Articles from newspapers or news sites, magazines, blogs, and the like are cited similarly. Page numbers, if any, can be cited in a note but are omitted from a bibliography entry. For articles consulted online, include a URL or the name of the database.

Notes

1. Dani Blum, “Are Flax Seeds All That?,” New York Times, December 13, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/well/eat/flax-seeds-benefits.html.

2. Rebecca Mead, “Terms of Aggrievement,” New Yorker, December 18, 2023, 21.

3. Rob Pegoraro, “Apple’s iPhone Is Sleek, Smart and Simple,” Washington Post, July 5, 2007, LexisNexis Academic.

4. Elana Klein, “Meet Flip, the Viral Video App Giving Away Free Stuff,” Wired, December 21, 2023, https://www.wired.com/story/flip-viral-video-app-shopping-free-stuff/.

Shortened notes

5. Blum, “Flax Seeds.”

6. Mead, “Terms of Aggrievement,” 23–24.

7. Pegoraro, “Apple’s iPhone.”

8. Klein, “Meet Flip.”

Bibliography entries (in alphabetical order)

Blum, Dani. “Are Flax Seeds All That?” New York Times, December 13, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/well/eat/flax-seeds-benefits.html.

Klein, Elana. “Meet Flip, the Viral Video App Giving Away Free Stuff.” Wired, December 21, 2023. https://www.wired.com/story/flip-viral-video-app-shopping-free-stuff/.

Mead, Rebecca. “Terms of Aggrievement.” New Yorker, December 18, 2023.

Pegoraro, Rob. “Apple’s iPhone Is Sleek, Smart and Simple.” Washington Post, July 5, 2007. LexisNexis Academic.

Readers’ comments are cited in the text or in a note but omitted from a bibliography.

Note

9. Michelle (Reno), December 15, 2023, comment on Blum, “Flax Seeds.”

For more details and examples, see CMOS 14.87–88 (magazines) and 14.89–98 (newspapers and news sites).

 

Social Media

Citations of content posted to social media can usually be limited to the text (as in the first example below). A note may be added if a more formal citation is needed. In rare cases, a bibliography entry may also be appropriate. In place of a title, quote up to the first 280 characters of the post. Comments are cited in reference to the original post.

Text

The Instagram post included a photo of the president delivering a eulogy at the National Cathedral and referred to O’Connor as “gracious and principled” (@potus, December 19, 2023).

Notes

1. NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb), “👀 Sneak a peek at the deepest & sharpest infrared image of the early universe ever taken—all in a day’s work for the Webb telescope. (Literally, capturing it took less than a day!),” Twitter (now X), July 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1546621080298835970.

2. Chicago Manual of Style, “Is the world ready for singular they? We thought so back in 1993,” Facebook, April 17, 2015, https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoManual/posts/10152906193679151.

Shortened notes

3. NASA Webb Telescope, “👀 Sneak a peek.”

4. Michele Truty, April 17, 2015, 1:09 p.m., comment on Chicago Manual of Style, “singular they.”

Bibliography entry

Chicago Manual of Style. “Is the world ready for singular they? We thought so back in 1993.” Facebook, April 17, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoManual/posts/10152906193679151.

For more details and examples, see CMOS 14.106.