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Writing Center

Footnotes

by Elizabeth R. Rabe '04

Historians and social scientists use footnotes in research articles. Located at the bottom of the page, a footnote provides important bibliographic information for facts, paraphrases, and quotations presented in the paper.

How to insert a footnote in Microsoft Word
    1. Place the cursor where you would like to insert a footnote.
    2. In the Insert menu, choose "Footnote."
    3. In the footnote window, select the options that you would like and then click OK. Word will then automatically insert a footnote number where the cursor is located.
    4. A new window entitled "Footnotes" will also appear at the bottom of the computer screen. In this window, type the necessary bibliographic information (see below).

Where should a footnote be placed?
Insert a footnote after the punctuation mark (period, comma, question mark, or exclamatory point) and the quotation mark. Examples:

In 1860, approximately 40 percent of slaves were children under 12 years of age.1

Belskaia hoped her letter would "become a vivid illustration of the cruel times of Stalinist excesses."2

 
The first footnote for a source should contain full bibliographic information (a). The next and subsequent footnotes should follow an abbreviated style (b). If you use the same source as cited in the previous note, use the Latin abbreviation "Ibid." in place of the author and title (c).    

BOOKS: Citation Format

Work with one author a. Shoshana Keller, To Moscow, Not Mecca: The Soviet Campaign against Islam in Central Asia, 1917-1941 (Westport: Praeger, 2001): 38.
b. Keller, To Moscow, Not Mecca, 46.
c. Ibid., 42.
Work with two authors a. Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000): 234.
b. Isserman and Kazin, America Divided, 176.
c. Ibid., 176.
Work with three or more authors Lawerence B. Goodheart et al., Slavery in American Society, 3rd Ed. (Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1993): 124. Goodheart et al., Slavery in American Society, 143.
Edited work Robert Louis Paquette and Louis A. Ferleger, eds., Slavery, Secession, and Southern History (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000): 128. Paquette and Ferleger, Slavery, Secession, and Southern History, 135.
Multi-edition work a. Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, A History of Russia, 6th Ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000): 7.
b. Riasanovsky, A History of Russia, 272.
Multi-volume work a. George P. Rawick, ed., The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, 21 vols. (Greenwood Press, 1972), I, 274.
b. Rawick, ed., The American Slave, IV, 42.    


ARTICLES: Citation Format

Journal article a. Douglas Ambrose, "Sowing Sentiment: Shaping the Southern Presbyterian Household, 1750-1800," The Georgetown Law Journal 90(November 2001), 149.
b. Ambrose, "Sowing Sentiment," 152.
c. Ibid., 136.
Article in a book a. D.A. Washbrook, "Progress and Problems: South Asian Economic and Social History, c. 1720-1860," in Modern India: An Interpretive Anthology, ed. Thomas R. Metcalf (New Dehli: Sterling, 1990): 199.
b. Washbrook, "Progress and Problems," 231.
Untitled book review a. Michael Grow, review of Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anticommunism by Stephen G. Rabe, The American Historical Review, 94 (December 1989), 1508-1509.
b. Grow, review of Eisenhower and Latin America by Rabe, 1508.
Newspaper article a. Lori Riley, "UCONN Passes Toughest of Tests," Hartford Courant, 1 April 2002: A1.
b. Riley, "UCONN Passes Toughest of Tests," A4.
Magazine article a. Roger Simon, "Show Time," U.S. News & World Report, 29 April 2002: 16.
b. Simon, "Show Time," 19.


INTERNET: Citation Format

Internet source with an author a. Nikki Dryden, "Australian Swimmers Test Women's Undergarments," Swimnews Online, 6 June 2002 http://www.swimnews.com/News.do?action=get&id=1645
b. Dryden, "Australian Swimmers Test Women's Undergarments," 6 June 2002. Ibid.
Internet source with only basic information provided a. El Salvador, 12 July 1996, http://www.abest.com/~rlbal/Spanish.htm.
b. El Salvador, 12 July 1996.


OTHER SOURCES: Citation Format

Interview a. George Bush, Interview by Dan Rather, CBS Evening News Columbia Broadcasting System, 8 Feb. 1989.
b. Bush Interview, 8 February 1989.
Interview conducted by author a. Louise Raggio, Interview by the author, Dallas, TX, 20 September 1995.
b. Raggio Interview, 20 September 1995.
Television or radio broadcast a. "The Shape of Texas," prod. Tamara E. Robinson, KERA (PBS, 27 May 2002).
b. "The Shape of Texas."
Movie a. It's A Wonderful Life, dir. Frank Capra (RKO, 1946).
b. It's A Wonderful Life.
Audio recording of music a. Sarah McLachlan, "Angel," Surfacing (compact disk; Arista 07822-18970-2;1997).
b. McLachlan, "Angel."


Additional Resources

For more information on footnotes please see:
  • The Chicago Manual of Style 14th Ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
  • Turabian, Kate. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th Ed. Chicago: University Press, 1996.
  • www.wisc.edu/writing/ Handbook/Documentation.html

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