A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

It's a good reference for write researchs and investigations jobs for your post-graduate thesis and other works.

The 7th edition of Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers features significant new material, a more user-friendly arrangement, much-needed rules for online resources, and an eye-friendly, two-tone typeset format.

Editors Booth, Colomb, and Williams have adapted material from their The Craft of Research and inserted it as Part I of the 7th edition. Researchers now get both a style guide and a research guide in one book.

The three-part format for the 7th edition also makes it easier to navigate. Part I is the new research guide; Part II is the rules for source citation; Part III is the style guide. In the 6th edition, the first chapter was a guide to the parts of a research paper which then had to be compared to the formats and sample layouts in the last chapter. The new edition combines all this material together in Appendix A along with instructions that are updated to reflect common word processor settings. And the index at the back of the volume now references items by page number rather than chapter and section, a great improvement in my opinion.

The 7th edition brings Turabian up-to-date by including rules and examples for citing online sources. Part II also separates the instructions for notes/bibliography style from the instructions for parenthetical/reference list style. What had been a completely separate chapter for citing public documents is now helpfully included with the rest of the citation rules. Part II of edition 7 now includes over 100 pages of citation examples compared to the 26 pages in chapter 11 of the 6th edition.

One weakness that is not corrected in the new edition is that Turabian's official stance for encyclopedias and other reference works is still that they should only be cited in notes. (17.5.3, p.191) Nothing acknowledges the difficulties of citing scholarly encyclopedia or dictionary references where signed articles are the norm. One can, however, adapt the instructions for edited collections on p.179 to sufficiently cite academic reference works.

Finally, the blue-and-black typesetting makes it much easier to distinguish in-text examples and to move one's eye from section to section.

It is fitting that the 7th edition has been published on the 20th anniversary of Kate Turabian's death. The many improvements in this edition will ensure its place on student bookshelves for years to come.

Sure, the style found in the "Turabian Guide" is an adaptation of the Chicago Manual of Style. But, it is easily accessible and far easier on the average student's budget- not to mention it is widely accepted by most Universities and Colleges. So here we are again, a style guide- that now has references examples that pertain to Microsoft software- which most students use- examples for citing websites, podcasts, and all manner of modern (2007) electronic media, and in addition, it now lays out a method for writing a quality paper...so how did it work? Well, I received an "A" for my first production under the new 7th edition! Kate has extended her service as a reference and research guide to students everywhere that English is the lingua franca!

Finally, Turabian has been brought into the digital age. Designed for the era of Microsoft Word and WordPerfect, the new Turabian declares revolutionary new things like consistent pagination, website citation, and Times New Roman examples! The new edition also borrows from "The Craft of Research," going beyond mere form and style to discuss the nature of writing research papers. I'm glad the blessed St. Kate speaks beyond the grave.