Chicago Style: Formatting Your Paper

The Chicago Manual of Style provides formatting information for a manuscript, but does not address formatting of student papers. This page provides basic information about components/format of the CMS Notes-Bibliography system.

Always find out whether your instructor has specific requirements when you are writing a paper. Basic elements of a paper using Chicago style are as follows:

• A title page that contains:
  • the title of your paper
  • your name
  • the class, the professor, and the date.
• Body of the paper.
• Footnotes on pages where references occur OR an Endnotes page on a new page after the body of the paper.

• A bibliography.

Margins, Indents

• Leave uniform margins of at least 1 inch (2.54 cm.) at the top, bottom, left and right of every page.
• Indent all paragraphs in the body of the paper 1/2".
• Indent notes (footnotes or endnotes) 1/2".
• Use a hanging indent of 1/2" for Bibliography entries.
• Block indent long quotations 1/2".

Spacing

• Double-space the body of the paper.
• Double-space block quotes.
• Single-space each note (whether using endnotes or footnotes) and bibliography, but double-space between each entry.