Old Pueblo Academy

Best ways to tackle your Chicago style paper

When it comes to writing an essay, there are various things to bear in mind, such as planning your work correctly and doing the necessary research. All of this will help you to write a good essay.

However, having written what you consider to be a good essay, the lasting you then want to do is drop marks as a result of formatting it incorrectly. If you have to write a paper using Chicago style, then there are certain rules and procedures that you have to follow. It is worth bearing in mind that, whilst there are generally accepted guidelines with which to follow, your educational establishment or even your teacher may have their own specific requirements.

Be sure to follow exactly what you are meant to do, as the last thing you want to happen is for you to drop marks as a result of an incorrectly formatted piece of work, particularly if you have spent so much time and effort to write a good piece.

The following are a few genuine rules that you should bear in mind was writing your paper:

Page layout

This includes such things as what margins to use, what line-spacing to use and how to lay out a paragraph correctly. It is important to note that there are differences between the main body of text and other sections, such as the bibliography and notes.

Also important is which font types and sizes to use, and when and where they should be used, e.g. size 10 for footnotes rather than 12 as with the main body.

Structure of the paper

To start with, you need to create a title to be used on the cover page, all of which needs to be laid out correctly. This is followed by the main body of the essay, with the final three sections being comprised of an appendix (if applicable), notes and finally the bibliography.

The correct use of names and numbers

For the initial use of a name in the essay, such as of an agency, it should be written out in full. This should be followed by the acronym in brackets, which is how the name should then be referred as throughout the rest of the text. Using numbers is simple enough; for numbers below 100, write them out in full.

Be sure to comply with any specific rules that you may be instructed to follow and beware that these may vary slightly from traditionally used methods for writing in Chicago style. Furthermore, be sure not to get confused with any other styles that you may be aware of, such as MLA, in which an example of the differences is the inclusion of works cited, in the bibliography, being at the top.

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