University of Chicago Press. 2003. Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 956 pp. Retail $55.00. Link to Amazon.com: (Hardcover $38.50).

Refreshingly revised, in active voice. The new edition surpasses the last in clarity and organization, so much so that you will gratefully relegate the old edition to its now proper role as a door stop. Chicago has solved the problem of citing electronic sources by adding a URL to the format of an equivalent print document. You may even dispense with an access date. CMS no longer reads like instructions for programming a VCR, or like a book cobbled together by a committee. The style is clear, concise, and direct throughout.

Turabian, Kate L. 2007. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 466 pp. Link to Amazon.com: (New Edition $11.56 April 2007).

The Chicago Manual of Style website advises the "CMS is primarily a reference for manuscripts that will be published as books. For a master's thesis [and similar papers], you would find Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers . . . much more useful." At the heart of a research style is documentation—how to format notes and references. Most of the essential features of Chicago style are covered in this manual, though page formatting for class projects is missing. New with this edition is a guide to writing research papers, as well as the guide to documentation and style.