ORDER YOUR PAPER

15% off today

from a verified trusted writer

total: $11.23

How to Write a Paper in Chicago Style

Many papers, many formats. The academic paper format is a way to arrange your work, make it more standardized and appropriate. Your future writing assignment will look much more correct and organized with a specific format applied. There are several of them:

  • Chicago Manual of Style or CMS
  • Modern Language Association or MLA
  • American Psychological Association or APA

Each of these styles is usually applied while dealing with papers for particular purposes. Hence, you may recognize an MLA format while reading papers that deal with Humanities, APA while working with Sciences, Psychology or Education writing, and Сhicago style paper format is typical for Fine Arts, Business or History writings. In this article, we are going to deal with a Chicago style in particular, and explore all its peculiarities and demands. What Chicago style paper have to look like? What are the common issues of this format? Nobody wants their work to be underestimated just because their brilliant ideas and writings don't meet the required formatting rules. Continue your reading - and find easily all the answers you need.

Chicago Style Rules for All Elements

Chicago style issue covers several writing aspects at once. Working with this formatting you will have to deal with margins, spacing, running heads, page numbers, and so on so forth. And don't forget about all the grammar, spelling and punctuation issues as well! How to write a paper in Chicago style? As we hope, you can write the work itself without any challenges. However, your primary task is to format it correctly. So, let's add specifics and define which parts you should pay particular attention to if you were assigned to write a Chicago style essay, research paper, thesis, or any other academic paper.

  • Margins. Use 1" margins on all four sides of the page.
  • Indentation. Indent the start of a paragraph 1/2 inch from the left margin; indent set-off quotations one inch.
  • Font. Choose a common and easy-to-read font like Times New Roman or Arial.
  • Size. Use 12 point font.
  • Page numbers. Number pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner and your last name should be included before the page number. Don't include a page number on the title page.
  • Spacing. Double space the entire paper. The bibliography and endnotes should be single-spaced within each entry with a double space between them. Block quotes are single-spaced.
  • Title page. The title page should include the title of paper centered on the page, your name centered three-quarters of the way down the page, and the class, professor's name, and date centered at the bottom.
  • Running heads. A running head - which usually includes the title of the paper - can be included in the header but is not required. If included, it should be at the top of the page and justified left.

Also, there is such part as Chicago style paper heading that requires following some specific rules as well. It gives your reader all the central information about your writing, so the heading must be formatted correctly. First of all, CMS has peculiar heading system that includes subheadings and is called "five-level system." What are its features and rules to follow?

  1. First level: Course of study. Common headline capitalization, Italics or boldface type, centered.
  2. Second level: Broad topic. Headline capitalization, regular type, centered.
  3. Third level: More narrow topic. Headline capitalization, italics or boldface, flush left.
  4. Fourth level: Specific aspect that conveys your particular topic. Sentence capitalization, roman type, flush left.
  5. Fifth level: The specified topic you are going to describe as a central one. Sentence capitalization, boldface or italics, terminal period.

Look at the following example to understand the peculiarities better:

  1. Contemporary Literature (centered)
  2. Major movements (centered)
  3. Beat Generation (bold/italics)
  4. Specific events, elements, and figures
  5. Kerouac as a leader (italics). The role of founding Beat Generation Poet was filled by Jack Kerouac...

These are the basics of how to format a Chicago style paper. But remember to keep in focus such small but important things as formatting of tables and figures, dates, and numbers, commas, citations, etc. These elements also have some processing features, and you have to understand them well to provide your Chicago style paper with an appropriate look.

  • Numbers should be written with numerals (15.67, 1,283). Very large numbers can also be written with numerals (27 million), and numbers with units should use numerals as well (250 meters).
  • Dates should be written with the name of the month spelled out to avoid confusion (e.g., 12 January 2006 or January 12, 2006 instead of 1/12/2006).
  • Serial commas. The CMS strongly recommends you use the serial comma consistently throughout your paper to prevent ambiguity (the serial comma is the comma that comes before the conjunction in a list. For example, in the sentence "We're going to the store to get an apple, peanut butter, and bread," the comma after peanut butter is the serial comma).
  • Foreign words. Foreign words should be italicized if they are not commonly used in English. If they're followed by a definition, it should be in parenthesis: She asked for mantequilla(butter), not aceite(oil).
  • Tables and figures should be positioned as close as possible to where they are mentioned in the text. They should be consecutively numbered in two different groups (meaning number all the tables starting at one and number all the figures starting at one) in the order they are mentioned and referred to by number in the text. A legend (a short description of the figure) should be placed below the figure (Fig. 2. A political cartoon, dated 3 July 1863, ridicules prominent politicians from the South.). Tables should be given a short title that is listed above the table along with the number (Table 12 Effect of sunlight on samples).

With these recommendations and explanations, there is no doubt that your Chicago format paper will be absolutely refined and satisfy all the requirements of even the most strict professor!

Our TOP writers

TOP 10
Writer 103589
ID 103589

Master's in Project Management, PMP, Six Sigma

Rating 97.2%
(97.2%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (8) about writer 103589

3590 written pages

600 orders

576 a+ papers

My Master’s degree and comprehensive writing experience allow me to complete any order fast and hit the nail on the head every time.

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 85466
ID 85466

MBA, PMP, ITIL

Rating 97.6%
(97.6%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (7) about writer 85466

13721 written pages

2288 orders

2242 a+ papers

I am experienced writer with an MBA, PMP, ITIL, that consistently delivers unique, quality papers. I take pride in my experience and quickness.

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 47072
ID 47072

MS in Human Resource Management

Rating 99.2%
(99.2%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (9) about writer 47072

11738 written pages

3913 orders

3756 a+ papers

I hold a MS degree in Human Resource and my goal is to help students with flawless, unique papers, delivered on time.

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 158902
ID 158902

RN, MSN, PCN, PHN

Rating 97.9%
(97.9%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (6) about writer 158902

518 written pages

132 orders

124 a+ papers

As Registered Nurse (RN, PCN), I can quickly deal with any medical paper. My expertise and writing skills are perfect for this job.

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 106387
ID 106387

MPA, MHA

Rating 99%
(99%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (8) about writer 106387

5269 written pages

586 orders

557 a+ papers

I have MPA, MHA degrees but, most importantly, experience and skills to provide unique, well-written papers on time.

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 128170
ID 128170

DNP, BA, APN, PMHNP-BC

Rating 99.5%
(99.5%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (9) about writer 128170

2545 written pages

850 orders

791 a+ papers

I can write about multiple areas and countless topics, as I have a DNP and BA degrees. High-quality writing is my second name.

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 125292
ID 125292

PhD in American History

Rating 99.5%
(99.5%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (8) about writer 125292

4434 written pages

493 orders

429 a+ papers

A PhD in American history comes handy. Unique papers, any topics, swift delivery — helping with academic writing is my passion.

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 127980
ID 127980

MA, PsyD, LMFT

Rating 99.2%
(99.2%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (7) about writer 127980

2905 written pages

416 orders

404 a+ papers

Incredibly fast PsyD writer. Efficient paper writing for college. Hundreds of different tasks finished. Satisfaction guaranteed.

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 124685
ID 124685

MEd, NCC, LPC, LMFT

Rating 98.8%
(98.8%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (9) about writer 124685

2522 written pages

316 orders

278 a+ papers

Top-ranked writer with tons of experience. Ready to take on any task, and make it unique, as well as objectively good. Always ready!

hire writer
TOP 10
Writer 99423
ID 99423

MSW, LICSWA, DSW-C

Rating 98.5%
(98.5%)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (8) about writer 99423

22748 written pages

2844 orders

2588 a+ papers

Experienced Social Work expert focused on good writing, total uniqueness, and customer satisfaction. My goal — to help YOU.

hire writer

Buy your papers from the best writing service

Have your tasks done by our professionals to get the best possible results.

total: $11.23
Confidentiality

NO Billing information is kept with us. You pay through secure and verified payment systems.

Quality

All papers we provide are of the highest quality with a well-researched material, proper format and citation style.

Communication

Our 24/7 Support team is available to assist you at any time. You also can communicate with your writer during the whole process.

Authorship

You are the single owner of the completed order. We DO NOT resell any papers written by our expert

Originality

All orders are done from scratch following your instructions. Also, papers are reviewed for plagiarism and grammar mistakes.

Samples

You can check the quality of our work by looking at various paper examples in the Samples section on our website.

Special price $11.23/page
Place an order
63,000
more than 63,000 times students trusted us to write their papers
9/10
9 out of 10 customers recommend us*
92%
92% of our customers have placed more than 7 orders
*data is based on 6,568 customers' feedback received from Jan 1, 2017 till Jan 1, 2018.
Special price $11.23/page
Place an order
Customer #5335

And here we are again! Honestly, we should be on a first-name basis at this point, with all the assignments you do for me. And you almost never fail! I say almost because I've asked for a couple of revisions, but no biggie. This time you delivered an awesome term paper to me, so it's definitely a "recommend".

Customer #2965

Communication is great! I love all your features that ease the process. Your team must have spent a lot of time to make it work perfectly and it was worth it)

Estimated Deadline: Monday, Dec 23 1:11 PM in Your timezone
Total price: $11.23
Price starts from $11.23
Regular discounts and offers
Excellent results guaranteed
Professional 24/7 support

Free samples of our work

There are different types of essays: narrative, persuasive, compare\contrast, definition and many many others. They are written using a required citation style, where the most common are APA and MLA. We want to share some of the essays samples written on various topics using different citation styles.

services
Hey, you...Yes, you! Don’t you want to get your Discount?
binder1
binder2
Your discount will be
sent to the email!

I have read and agree to the Terms of Use, Money Back Guarantee, Privacy and Cookie Policy of BestCustomWriting.com

  • dmca_logo
  • safecharge
  • trustpilot

Use your opportunity to get a discount!

To get your special discount, write your email below

  • dmca_logo
  • safecharge
  • trustpilot

Best papers and best prices!

Want to get quality paper done on time cheaper?

  • dmca_logo
  • safecharge
  • trustpilot