Q. I have to write a paper using Chicago style. How do I find out the format for Chicago style?

Much depends on what your instructor means by the directive to use "Chicago Style."  Do they want the bibliography or literature cited section created according to Chicago Style guidelines?  Or does your instructor want you to apply Chicago Style guidelines to the body of the paper as well?

The following two Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) guides are available at the Oakton Library reference desks at both the Des Plaines Campus and Ray Hartstein (Skokie) Campus.  These guides are the best options for finding comprehensive guidelines.  To see additional location information, please click on the links:

The Chicago Manual of Style

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers

Other options:

Oakton Library's NoodleTools citation manager includes a Chicago/Turabian option for formatting citations. To take full advantage of the added features available to Oakton College students, create an account. For more details, see our Cite It Right!: NoodleTools (citation manager) page.

The Chicago Manual of Style Online is a subscription (fee-based) service.  It does, however, offer a free trial and a Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (Purdue OWL) is one of our favorite online writing guides.  It provides a Chicago Manual of Style formatting and style guide as well as a citation style chart (PDF)

If you retrieve articles or reference information using the Oakton Library's online databases, you will discover that many of these resources generate citations in multiple styles.  Contact us if you need help finding this option in a particular database.