Introducing Turabian Referencing
If you’re a student, you may be asked to use ‘Turabian referencing’ in your work. This system gets its name from Kate L. Turabian, who wrote A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. But what is it? And how does it work?
In essence, ‘Turabian’ style referencing is a version of Chicago referencing. In fact, they are the same. It’s simply that A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations focuses entirely on information for students and academics, while The Chicago Manual of Style covers other types of writing as well.
As a result, Turabian referencing encompasses two distinct styles:
- Notes and bibliography style – In this version of Turabian referencing, you cite sources in footnotes, while also giving full source information in a bibliography.
- Author–date style – In this version, you cite sources in brackets in the main text, then give source information in a reference list.
At Proofed, we’re experts in both styles. Just let us know which one to use.
Turabian Proofreading Services
If you are asked to use Turabian referencing in a document, make sure to have it proofread by an expert. We have dozens of academic proofreading specialists with expert knowledge of Turabian and Chicago style referencing, so just let us know how we can help.
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Turabian Referencing
When you upload a document, select either ‘Turabian (Footnotes)’ or ‘Turabian (Author-Date)’ from the drop-down menu. This tells us which citation style to use when we check your work.
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Footnote Citations In Turabian Referencing
If you are using the notes and bibliography version of Turabian referencing, you will cite sources in footnotes. These are indicated via a superscript number in the text:
The question of whether it is a ‘pizza’ or a ‘pie’ remains unanswered.¹
The number one after the full stop in the sentence above, for instance, would point to the first footnote in a document. And this is where you would cite the source.
The content of the footnote would then depend on the source type. For example, a Turabian footnote for a book would look like this:
¹ Jess Levey, Understanding Illinois Cuisine (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998), 2–3.
As shown here, you will need to provide full publication information the first time you cite a source, as well as a pinpoint citation for the part of the book cited (e.g. pages 2–3 above).
At the end of your document, meanwhile, you will need to list every source you’ve cited in a bibliography. The format here is similar to the first footnote citation, except:
- Authors’ surnames are given before first names
- You will use full stops instead of commas between each main element (e.g. to separate the author’s name, the title, and the publication information)
- You do not need a pinpoint citation in the bibliography
For instance, the book above would be listed as follows:
Levey, Jess. Understanding Illinois Cuisine. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998.
Author–Date Citations In Turabian Referencing
As mentioned above, Turabian referencing also permits parenthetical citations. With this version of the system, you cite a source by giving the author’s name and a year of publication in brackets within the main text (not in a footnote). For instance:
Gastronomical analysts disagree strongly on the definition (Levey 1998).
In the example above, the citation is at the end of the clause. This is standard unless you name the author in the text, in which case you would cite the source immediately after:
Levey (1998) argues that the pizza–pie dichotomy is unhelpful.
And if you were quoting a source, you would include a page number or range as well. The citation below, for example, is for a quote from page 43 of the Levey source:
This is because ‘pizza and pie are both delicious’ (Levey 1998, 43).
Furthermore, while the footnote version of Turabian uses a ‘bibliography’, the author–date version prefers a ‘reference list’. This is, however, essentially the same thing: i.e. a list at the end of your document that includes every source cited in your work.
The correct format in the reference list depends on the source type, but it should include full publication information. You would list the book cited above, for instance, as follows:
Levey, Jess. 1998. Understanding Illinois Cuisine. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
And as you may have noticed, the only difference between this and the format used in the footnote version of Turabian referencing is the placement of the year of publication.
Turabian Bibliographies And Reference Lists
As mentioned above, Turabian referencing requires you to document sources in a bibliography or reference list. The rules for formatting this list are as follows:
- Start the bibliography/reference list on a new page at the end of your document
- Title this page ‘Bibliography’ (footnotes) or ‘Reference List’ (author–date citations)
- List sources alphabetically by author surname
- Use single spacing, but with a blank line after each entry
- Add a half-inch (1.27cm) hanging indent for each line after the first in each entry
- Place titles of essays, book chapters, and other short publications in quote marks
- Italicise titles of books and other standalone publications
- Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in titles, but not conjunctions, prepositions, or articles unless they’re the first word in a title or subtitle
After that, it’s just a case of making sure that all sources are cited with full publication information. To find the correct format for different source types, try the posts on Chicago referencing on our blog, as these will also work for Turabian. In addition, you can find Chicago’s own Turabian citation guide here.
Referencing Styles And Systems
Our expert editors can work with a range of referencing styles, including:
We can work with other referencing styles on request, too. Just let us know which system you’re using when you upload your work, and we’ll tailor our service accordingly. For more information on legal referencing styles, such as OSCOLA and AGLC, see our dedicated legal referencing page.
