Chicago Manual of Style – Overview

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Formatting Guidelines for Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is a widely used guide for formatting written work in both the humanities and social sciences. It offers detailed guidelines for various aspects of manuscript preparation, citation, and overall document formatting. Below is an overview of the key formatting guidelines in CMS.

General Document Formatting

Margins and Spacing

  • Margins: One-inch margins on all sides of the page.
  • Line Spacing: Double-space the entire manuscript, including block quotations, notes, and bibliography. Single-spacing is allowed within notes and bibliographic entries, but a double space should be left between each entry.
  • Indentation: Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch.

Font and Typeface

  • Font: Use a readable font such as Times New Roman, 12-point size. Consistency is key, so use the same font throughout the document.
  • Italics and Bold: Italics should be used for titles of works, foreign words, and for emphasis sparingly. Bold is rarely used.

Page Numbers

  • Placement: Page numbers should be placed in the header of the page, aligned to the right. The title page should not have a page number, but it is counted as page i. The first text page is page 1.

Title Page and Headings

Title Page

  • Title: Center the title a third of the way down the page. If there is a subtitle, place it on a new line after a colon.
  • Author Information: Include the author’s name, course title, instructor’s name, and date of submission a few lines below the title, centered and double-spaced.

Headings and Subheadings

  • Levels: Use up to five levels of headings to organize the text.
  • Level 1: Centered, boldface or italicized, headline-style capitalization.
  • Level 2: Centered, regular type, headline-style capitalization.
  • Level 3: Flush left, boldface or italicized, headline-style capitalization.
  • Level 4: Flush left, regular type, sentence-style capitalization, ending with a period.
  • Level 5: Run in at the beginning of the paragraph (no blank line after), boldface or italicized, sentence-style capitalization, ending with a period.

Quotations and Block Quotes

Short Quotations

  • In-text: Short quotations (fewer than 100 words) should be incorporated into the text and enclosed in double quotation marks.

Block Quotations

  • Formatting: Block quotations (100 words or more) should be single-spaced and indented half an inch from the left margin, without quotation marks.

Citations and Bibliography

Footnotes and Endnotes

  • Placement: Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page on which the reference is made. Endnotes appear at the end of the document.
  • Numbering: Number notes consecutively using superscript Arabic numerals in the text and corresponding numbers in the notes.
  • Formatting: Single-space each note and insert a blank line between notes. The first line of each note is indented.

Bibliography

  • Title: Center the title “Bibliography” at the top of the page.
  • Entries: Alphabetize entries by the authors’ last names. If there is no author, alphabetize by the title, ignoring articles such as “the” and “a.”
  • Indentation: Use a hanging indent for each entry (the first line of the entry is flush left, and subsequent lines are indented by half an inch).

Tables and Figures

Placement

  • Within Text: Tables and figures can be included within the text near where they are first referenced or at the end of the document in a separate section.
  • Numbering: Number tables and figures separately (e.g., Table 1, Figure 1).

Captions

  • Tables: Place the title of the table flush left above the table.
  • Figures: Place the caption of the figure flush left below the figure.