Turabian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Turabian is the popular name of a format for the writing style of research papers (such as the arrangement and punctuation of footnotes and bibliographies). The full title of the handbook is A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, but it is usually referred to by the last name of its author, Kate L. Turabian, who developed it for the University of Chicago.
[edit] Turabian style
Except for a few minor differences, the style promulgated by Turabian is the same as The Chicago Manual of Style, for which it is intended to be a simplified substitute, but it is very different from the styles that are preferred by other institutions such as The MLA style manual (MLA) and the APA style (APA).
An obvious difference is that the Turabian system allows for footnotes or endnotes instead of the inline citations that are preferred in the MLA, APA, and Bluebook systems (Turabian also has guidelines for inline, parenthetical references). However, Turabian's key contrast with the APA style is that it was developed specifically for the purpose of being used in papers written for a class and not for publication; whereas APA was originally developed by the American Psychological Association as a system for use in writing intended for publication in professional journals. That being said, many journals in fields that use Chicago style will accept Turabian's forms.
Academic fields which often rely on the Turabian style include musicology, history, art history, women's studies, and theology. In the opinion of some in these fields, the Chicago Manual of Style is a better choice than Turabian, as Turabian has a layout some find confusing and is in certain respects dated (though the newer editions resolve some of the latter issues). For that look to the Sixth Edition revised by John Grossman and Alice Bennett.
