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Chicago Style: Books and eBooks

A guide to writing papers and citing sources in Chicago style.

Superscripts

Remember that your notes should be indicated by a superscript number. In order to insert a superscript, first type the number, then highlight it with your mouse. From here, you can either right-click and select the 'Font' option, then check the 'Superscript' box, or hold down Control and Shift and press the + key. For Macs, use the COMMAND key instead of Control. You can also use the 'Font' controls in your toolbar.

Rules for Book Notes

The rules for foot- and endnotes for books form the basis for most other note styles in Chicago. A complete reference should contain enough information to allow readers to locate the book used for the work. There are nine common elements to a note, though some may be omitted based on the type of source. Try to include:

  1. Author: full name of author(s) or editor(s) or, if no author or editor is listed, name of institution standing in their place. (Firstname Middlename Lastname)

  2. Title: full title of the book, including subtitle if there is one, written in italicized characters with all major words capitalized. If referencing a chapter write (chapter name) in (book title) with quotation marks around the chapter title. 

  3. Editor, compiler, or translator: if any, if listed on title page in addition to author (Firstname Middlename Lastname). 

  4. Edition: if not the first.

  5. Volume: total number of volumes if multi-volume work is referred to as a whole; individual number if single volume of multi-volume work is cited, and title of individual volume if applicable (title written in italicized characters). 

  6. Series title: if applicable and volume number within series if series is numbered.

  7. Facts of publication: (city, publisher and date)

  8. Page number or numbers: if applicable.

  9. URL/DOI: (For electronic books accessed online), or for other types of electronic books, an indication of the medium consulted (e.g. Kindle e-book, CD-ROM)

Thus, the basic layout of a foot- or endnote for a book would be:

[indented tab]1. Author Firstname Lastname, “Chapter of Book” in (italicized)Title of Book, ed. Firstname Lastname, nth ed., vol. #, volume title  (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page numbers, URL/DOI.

Examples

Single Author

1. David Shields, The Thing about Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).

Single Author with Editor

2. Yves Bonnefoy, New and Selected Poems, ed. John Naughton and Anthony Rudolf (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1995).

Two to Four Authors

3. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of

Everything (New York: William Morrow, 2005), 20-21.

More than Four Authors

4. Jeri A. Sechzer et al., eds., Women and Mental Health (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 243.

Editions other than First

5. Karen V. Harper-Dorton and Martin Herbert, Working with children, Adolescents, and Their Families, 3rd ed

(Chicago:Lyceum Books, 2002), 43.

Volumes

6. The Complete Tales of Henry James, ed. Leon Edel, vol. 5, (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1963), 32-33.

Digital Books (in various formats)

7. Elliot Antokoletz, Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartok (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008),

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365825.001.0001

8. The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), CD-ROM, 1.4.

9. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (New York, 1855), 22, http://www.whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1855/whole.htm