Turabian is one of many writing styles created for students and researchers to help with source citation, argumentation, formatting, grammar, and more. The 9th edition of the Turabian manual, available in print and online (abridged), is derived from the Chicago Manual of Style, which is in its 17th edition.

Source citation has two forms in the Turabian manual - Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date.  You will be using the Notes and Bibliography form, which is recommended for humanities research.

For an example, see an entire paper in Notes and Bibliography form from the Austin Peay State University Writing Lab.

Visit the Citation Quick Guide for the Notes and Bibliography form from the Turabian manual (online abridged version) to see the citation styles for sources commonly used across all disciplines. Common sources include books, book chapters, journal articles, websites, and theses and dissertations. See the box, Citation of Music Sources, for specialized notes/bibliographies describing musical scores, Grove sources, and more.

1. The Notes, Shortened Notes, and Bibliography forms of a citation are all slightly different.
2. The footnotes are numbered consecutively throughout the paper.
3. Insert a footnote with page number(s) whether you are paraphrasing or quoting directly.
4. Notes and Shortened Notes are indented 0.5"; Bibliography entries have a hanging indent or 5".
5. A permanent link is preferred for online articles. If the database doesn't give you one, you can use the URL form of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), e.g., https://doi.org/10.1086/689836. If URLs and DOIs are not available, then list the name of the database/platform where you found the item, e.g., RILM.
6. Some musical sources require a specialized reference - see the Citation of Music Sources box on this page.
7. Note: A reference manager will take care of most of these details for you, but you should always proofread the output for the occasional error.

Need help? Then use the library's Ask Us service. Get help from real people face-to-face, by phone, by email, or by live chat.