Turabian Style Paper Format

There comes a time in every History class where you will be expected to compose a paper in order to reflect on the information that you have learned, and in order to show the teacher or professor that you have comprehended the information. Written papers are a great way to show off the amount of information that you have retained over the course of the class, and really shine in front of your teacher or professor. If you are writing a paper for a History class, then chances are that you will be expected to compose the paper in Turabian format. Turabian format is a relatively easy format to follow. This is a format that was derived with the student in mind. Too frequently students are asked to write papers in very intricate formats that are hard to understand and follow. Therefore, Kate Turabian created a format for History classes to use that was straightforward and easy to follow. There are specific guidelines to writing a paper in Turabian format. Some of the most important elements of writing in Turabian format include:

  • The title should appear in the middle of the front page of the text, in all capital letters
  • There should not be a separate title page
  • Text should all be in 12 point font
  • No bolding, or italics
  • Times New Roman font
  • Double space the text
  • Single spacing for footnotes and endnotes
  • One inch margin on all sides
  • Page numbers should be on the bottom in the middle of the page

These are just a few of the most important general guidelines for Turabian style paper formatting.

This format was created in order to provide students with an easy format to follow for History class papers. If you have been assigned a paper in Turabian style formatting, then your teacher or professor should provide you with an in-depth explanation of the guidelines and what is expected of you. However, those were some of the general guidelines that will most likely always be expected of you.

When writing a formal paper in a specific format, it is imperative that you not ignore the content of the paper as well. You will be expected to present interesting and important content in the paper that you are writing. This interesting and unique information will then be expected to be presented in Turabian format. This way the paper is professional and easy to read or evaluate.