Understanding the Chicago Manual of Style

If you are a writer, editor, publisher, or really anyone working in today’s literary industry, you are likely working under a distinct style guide. Style guides are not only important for the aesthetics and consistency of your writing, but they also define the rules which govern distinct elements of it such as grammar, language, documentation, such as use of citations, as well as how to format writing, such as font and heading size. There are considered to be four main style guides, which include the AP, APA, MLA, and Chicago, and with a range of different style guides that exist today, it is easy to get lost in translation with the unique and distinct set of guidelines that come along with each In this article, we’ll be focusing on understanding the Chicago Manual of Style in particular, which has not only been deemed the “editor’s bible” but is the one of the most widely-used style guides in the United States, and is ubiquitous amongst the realms of academia and publishing.

A Brief History of the Style

The Chicago Manual of Style began at the University of Chicago Press in 1891. According to the Chicago Manual of Style website, it was created due to a need to define a distinct set of guidelines that would correct “typographical errors” and “stylistic inconsistencies” that would often arise when professors of the time would submit their manuscripts to the university’s press. The article discusses the evolution of the style, and how it grew from a single sheet of defined guidelines to a pamphlet, and then to a published book in 1906, which was the first edition. Today, the Chicago Manual of Style is now in its 17th edition and is an “authoritative reference” for a large portion of the literary industry, such as “authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, publishers,” and more. According to UChicago News, this style “can address most questions relevant to writing, editing, and publishing in any discipline,” and was created “originally as a guide for publishers of academic books and journals,” particularly in the humanities and social sciences, but is also used often by students and publishers in the traditional publishing industry. The style guide is of course available in published form, but is also available online, and remains up-to-date as language and technology continue to evolve over time. There is no doubt that future editions of the Chicago style will continue to accommodate the changes in how we speak and write, as well as for the inevitable advancement in technology.

Why Is This Style So Widely Used?

According to UChicago News, the journey to this style becoming a standard reference is that it found its inception at a time when press publishing in the United States was in its very early stages. The article notes that currently, “the University of Chicago Press is considered the largest academic press in the United States.” In addition to being the largest in the country, it is “one of the oldest continuously publishing presses, according to the Association of American University Presses.” The University of Chicago press was in print even before prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Yale, putting itself on the map and therefore defining the standard reference space for hundreds of years to come. According to Prometheus Editorial, the Chicago style is one of two major styles of American English, with the alternate style being the AP style. Despite there being two commonly used styles for American English, the Chicago style is widely considered to be the “leading style guide among publishers, including everything from fiction to academic writing,” and a more comprehensive guide to American English grammar and punctuation than the AP style. According to the article, the Chicago stylebook “covers several areas of our language in more detail than the AP stylebook and covers several more that AP doesn’t address at all.” If you find yourself submitting a manuscript to a publisher, they’ll likely want your document to be formatted in the Chicago style, due to its application in such a wide range of literary genres and styles of writing.

Prometheus Editorial also notes that the stylebook not only delves deeply into topics such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization, but also gives in-depth insight into the process of publishing, making the Chicago Manual even more attractive to hopeful and published authors alike. The article also says that the stylebook “gives guidelines on how to treat illustrations and tables as well as discussing how rights are acquired and what the author’s responsibilities are in navigating the world of copyright law,” which is inevitably something writers hoping to get published will have to deal with at some point in their publishing journey, so it is important to be familiar with the intricate details of the legalities surrounding copyright.

Key Features

The article “The Chicago Manual of Style, Explained,” offers a general overview of the style, and notes that the “Chicago Style” itself refers to a unique set of rules regarding punctuation and citing sources. The article lists some common characteristics of the style compared to other well-known styles and defines this particular style as requiring elements like the use of double quotation marks, with periods and commas going inside of the quotation marks instead of outside. This style also uses em dashes with no space before or after the dash, and utilizes what is called the “serial comma,” otherwise commonly known as the “Oxford Comma.” This style also references Merriam-Webster as a guide for the correct use of spelling.

The Chicago style also has two distinct styles of source referencing and citations that it uses, one of which is called the Chicago Notes and Bibliography (NB) System, which utilizes footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies. This article from Purdue University offers an overview of the proper use of citation for the style. According to Purdue University, the NB system is commonly used within the spheres of “literature, history, and the arts.” For the NB system, this style defines that an endnote or footnote should be included each time a source is used, “whether through a direct quote, paraphrase, or summary.” The difference between footnotes and endnotes is that footnotes are compiled at the end of the same page where the source is referenced, while endnotes are compiled at either the end of the chapter where the particular source is referenced, or at the end of the entire document itself.

The incorporation of bibliographies is common and encouraged in this style, and shortened citations are commonly utilized. According to the article, a shortened citation consists of “the author’s name, the source title, and the page number(s).” It also adds that “consecutive references to the same work may omit the source title and simply include the author and page number.” Bibliographies are incredibly important to include because they not only omit the possibility for plagiarism, as the article notes, but also attributes to the “writer’s credibility,” and therefore of the content itself. Purdue includes a sample paper in using the NB system that can be referenced as an example for this style.

The second documentation system used by the Chicago style is the Author-Date system and is used in the social sciences. According to Purdue University, this system is “nearly identical in content but slightly different in its form.” This system diverges from the NB system in that it uses in-text, parenthetical citations using the “source’s author’s last name and the year of publication” in lieu of footnotes and endnotes. This system, instead of a bibliography, uses a References page that will match the in-text citations used. Purdue also includes a sample paper using the Author-Date system that is a great resource for those looking for an example of this system.

Purdue also published an entire article on the general format of the Chicago style that is a great resource for those looking for in-depth details on formatting, as well as examples to help visualize and apply this style to your own work. The article goes into main characteristics that include double-spacing the text, using a certain “readable” typeface such as Times New Roman, how to format the title page of a document, and further points on references, footnotes, and headings.

If you have further questions, you might find them answered in the The Chicago Manual of Style Online version, which includes in-depth answers and examples to commonly asked questions about the style, such as when to use the singular or plural, why prepositions are lowercase in titles in this style, when to use or omit hyphens, citing classic films, and even how to write out grade levels.

In Conclusion

By now, you’ve likely learned how useful a tool like the Chicago Manual of Style can be. No matter what your role is in the literary industry, you’ll likely come toe-to-toe with this style at some point in your career. You’ve now had a brief introduction and overview of the style, so what are you waiting for? Head over to your nearest bookstore and get yourself a copy of the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style! If you can’t manage that, feel free to check out the online version of the book to get into the nitty-gritty details of the style and become your own resident expert of this versatile and popular style guide!