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Citing Sources: Formatting a bibliography in Chicago (Notes-Bibliography)

A guide to citing sources in MLA, APA, and Chicago format.

Bibliography Page

The Bibliography page is an alphabetical list of all the sources you used when writing your paper.

Here are some basic rules to follow when creating your Bibliography:

  • The Bibliography page should be placed at the end of your paper on a new page.
  • The page number should be in the top right corner in the header.
  • Center the heading Bibliography a few spaces down from the top of the page.
  • Two blank lines should be after the Bibliography heading, and before the first entry on the list.
  • Use one blank line between each entry.
  • Each entry should be single spaced and the second line of each entry should be a hanging indent. To get this in MS Word:
    • Select all text, and then right-click it.
    • From the pop-up menu, select Paragraph.
    • To double-space the text, under Spacing, Line Spacing, select Single.
    • To add a hanging indent, under Indentation, Special, select Hanging. This indents the lower lines of each entry 0.5” from the left.
  • Alphabetize each entry by author’s last name, or if the author’s name is not given, by the title of the work.
  • When you are citing multiple works by an author, you can include a long dash as a substitute for the author's name.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Signifying Monkey:
A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
 
-----. American Behind the Color Line: Dialogues
with African Americans. New York: Warner Books, 2004.
 
Note: Your Bibliography usually contains all research sources used for your paper, regardless of whether you cited the source or not.  A Selected Bibliography can contain only the sources you cited.  An Annotated Bibliography includes a brief description of the source's content or why it was revelant to your research.

 

Example Bibliography