How to Create a Bibliography in Chicago (Turabian) Style

With Chicago (Turabian) Style, the bibliography page is where you list all of the sources you used to create your paper. You need to follow a variety of formatting rules when listing the sources. The type of source that you're listing determines the formatting configuration that you'll use, but there are a few formatting rules that work for every listing.

A) ALPHABETIZING. When creating the alphabetical list of the bibliography, sort the list of sources based on the last name of the author. When sorting the list, ignore any spaces in the last name. If you have more than one source from an author, sort them by either the dates in which they were created or by placing the titles of the sources in alphabetical order. Just be certain that once you've chosen a sorting preference for multiple sources from one author, you stick with it.

B) AUTHORS. List the author's last name, followed by the first name and middle name, if the author commonly uses it. If you have more than one author for a source, list each one individually. The first author should be listed by last name, then first name. Subsequent authors should be listed by first name, then last name. When listing more than one author, separate them by commas, with the word "and" ahead of the final author in the list.

C) CAPITALIZATION. Use headline-style capitalization with all titles in your bibliography.

D) INDENTION. After the first line of each source, indent each subsequent line about one-half inch, creating a hanging indention for each source.

E) SPACING. You may single-space each entry in the bibliography, leaving a blank space between entries.

I. BIBLIOGRAPHY EXAMPLES

Here are some examples for listing various sources in Chicago (Turabian) Style. (These examples do not follow the indention rules.)

ARTICLES. When using a newspaper or a magazine as a source, list the author, title of the article (in quotations), name of the periodical (in italics), date of publication, and page numbers used.

* Johnson, Thomas J. "Governments Invest in Technology." New York Times, 29 November 2007, B1.

A journal article requires slightly different formatting. Be sure to include the issue number and the issue date ahead of the page number(s).

* Johnson, Thomas J. "The Economic Impact of Technology." Journal of Economic Growth 6 (June 2005): 110-2.

BOOKS. Include the author's name, the book title (italicized), the publisher's location and name, and the date of publication. Do not use the page numbers used as a source in the bibliography.

* Johnson, Thomas J. and Xavier Quincy Smith. Economic Growth in Africa. New York: Jones Brothers Publishers, 2003.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT. Because such a document usually doesn't include an author, list the governmental division in the alphabetical list and italicize the title.

* U.S. Department of the Treasury. Economic Growth Forecast, 2006-2010. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2005.

INTERNET SITE. List the author's name, if known; title of the online article or Web page (in quotations); Web site name; date of publication, if known; Internet address; and date of retrieval (in parentheses).

* Johnson, Thomas J. "Determining Technology's Role in Economic Growth." Economic Growth, August 20, 2006, http://www.economicgrowth.com/johnson/techrole.html (accessed July 20, 2007).

SCHOLARLY WORK. If using a thesis or dissertation as a source, list the author's name, the title (in quotations), the type of paper, the educational institution, and the year of publication.

* Jones, Steven. "Hydrogen Bonding and Water Molecules." Ph.D. diss., State University, 2000.

II. ODD SITUATIONS

Same author, multiple sources. If you end up with several sources from the same author, you may skip repeating the author's name. Instead, use a solid horizontal line to replace the author's name. The horizontal line should be noticeably longer than the hanging indention of the source, probably three-quarters inch to one inch in length. If you have an additional source that lists multiple authors, you will have to enter the original author's name again. The only time you may use the horizontal line is when all of the authors are the same as the previous work in the list. In the four examples below, the first two have the same single author, and the last two have the same pair of authors.

* Johnson, Thomas J. "Governments Invest in Technology." New York Times, 29 November 2007, B1.
* _________. "The Economic Impact of Technology." Journal of Economic Growth 6 (June 2005): 110-2.
* Johnson, Thomas J. and Xavier Quincy Smith. Economic Growth in Africa. New York: Jones Brothers Publishers, 2003.
* _________. Economic Decline in Africa. New York: Jones Brothers Publishers, 2006.

III. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

Finally, for additional information on formatting sources in a reference list, look at either The Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian's A Manual for Writers. Both books cover a large number of situations for listing sources within a bibliography. The chicagomanualofstyle(dot)org Web site also has a large number of helpful resources.