The Writing Center @ The University of Wisconsin - Madison
The Writer's Handbook
Chicago Documentation Style

Format the Works Cited page

The bibliography, placed at the end of your paper, is an alphabetized list of books, articles, and other sources used in writing the paper.

Since the word bibliography technically means all the works written on a particular subject, a more accurate heading for this section of the paper would be, for example,

  • Selected Bibliography (if you list all of the sources you consulted in writing your paper)
  • Works Cited or References (if you list only the items you actually cited in your paper).

While bibliographies and notes contain basically the same information, there are some slight differences.

Note form

Bibliographic form


  • numbered
  • alphabetized

[When alphabetizing, use the author's last name for your entry; if it is not given, simply go on to the next item in order (the title of the book or article, for example) and use that to alphabetize the entry.]



  • author = first name and then last name
  • author = last name, comma, then first name

  • location of publication, publisher, and year in parentheses
  • no parentheses for location, publisher, and year

  • uses commas to separate items
  • uses periods to separate items

  • lists specific pages from which you took information
  • lists entire books, complete chapters, or journal articles to which you referred

  • first line indented 5 spaces; subsequent lines are not
  • first line not indented; subsequent lines are indented 5 spaces

Sample note:

4. Donald N. McCloskey, Enterpriseand Trade in Victorian Britain: Essays in Historical Economics (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981), 54.

Sample bibliographic entry:

McCloskey, Donald N. Enterprise and Trade in Victorian England: Essays in Historical Economics. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981.

In either note or bibliographic form, if the author's name or the title (or other item) is missing, simply go on to the next item as it should appear.