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Citing Sources: Books - Chicago

This LibGuide is designed to provide students with assistance in citing sources from a variety of sources.

Chicago Style Basics

Use these basic guidelines when preparing your paper:

  • Use one-inch margins all around.
  • Spacing: Double-space throughout (including block quotes)
  • Choose a clean 12-point font.
  • Include a title page.
  • Page numbers begin in the header of the first page of text with Arabic number 1. 
  • Cite your sources in both the footnotes and the bibliography page. 

Citing Books in Your Bibliography

Book Structure

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Book by one author

Nadler, Steven. A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Book by multiple authors

Marwell, Gerald, and Pamela Oliver. The Critical Mass in Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Child, Julia, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking. New York: Knopf, 1961.

Geller, Anne Ellen, Michele Eodice, Frankie Condon, Meg Carroll, and Elizabeth H. Boquet. The Everyday Writing Center. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2007.

Translated work with one author

Cortázar, Julio. Hopscotch. Translated by Gregory Rabassa. New York: Pantheon Books, 1966.

Book with author and editor

Tylor, Edward B. Researches into the Early Development of Mankind and the Development of Civilization, Edited by Paul Bohannan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.

No Author

CIA World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2009.

Footnotes vs. Bibliography

Footnotes: Citations at the end of the page on which the source is referenced, marked by a superscript number which corresponds to the superscript number within the body of the text next to the content being cited.

Bibliography: All of the sources you consulted while writing your paper. These full citations are placed in alphabetical order by author's last name and include sources cited and relevant source that were not cited but used as a reference.