Footnotes and endnotes tend to be cumbersome for most writers. Most certainly, I keep my Chicago Manual of Style handy when I’m editing notes.
To avoid the weightiness of correct formatting, I like to cite my sources within the body of my text when I can. But I realize there is a time for notes.
Why Do I Need Footnotes or Endnotes?
The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition, says this: “Ethics, copyright laws, and courtesy to readers require authors to identify the sources of direct quotations or paraphrases and of any facts or opinions not generally known or easily checked.”
In other words, giving credit where credit is due. Using someone else’s words or ideas and claiming them as your own is called plagiarism—serious business that could land you in jail.
Should I Use a Footnote or an Endnote?
This is your choice. The only difference is where the note is placed—at the bottom of the page where the quote appears (footnote), or at the end of the book (endnote). The formatting is the same no matter where you decide to put it.
Please be aware that in e-books all footnotes end up at the end of the book because e-books have no specific pages. This process happens automatically within the program you use to create your e-book. So, if you plan to produce only an e-book, put your notes at the end of your manuscript.
Where to Find Help in Formatting Notes
Your profession and reader audience often dictate the specific guidelines you’ll use in formatting your notes. I’ve listed below the more commonly known ones. Each are available in MS Word for auto-formatting.
- MLA Guidelines (Modern Language Association)
- APA Guidelines (American Psychological Association)
- Chicago Manual of Style
- IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers )
I recommend you head online to Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL). This site offers excellent information on all the above citation guidelines plus the AMA (American Medical Association) and the ASA (American Sociological Association).
If you aren’t writing in a specific field of science but writing genre fiction or nonfiction, the Chicago Manual of Style is your go-to source.
How to Format Your Note
Chicago covers two systems, one for writers in literature, history, and the arts; and one for those in the natural, physical, and social sciences. I’m going to cover only the first one.
From the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition, the basic information needed is “the author, title, and facts of publication, in that order. Elements are separated by commas; the facts of publication are enclosed in parentheses. Authors’ names are presented in standard order (first name first).”
Italicize book titles. Put blog post titles and magazine articles in quotation marks. The Chicago Manual states that the specific page numbers where the quote is found “are usually included.” Draw your own conclusion on that verbiage.
Depending on your source—book, article, website—you’ll include different information. Yeah, now you see why footnotes and endnotes are cumbersome.
I’m going to cover the very basic that most writers need—citing a book with one author and a website citation.
Examples
For books with one author…
Debra L. Butterfield, Carried by Grace, (St. Joseph, MO: CrossRiver Media, 2015), 20.
James Scott Bell, Plot & Structure, (Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2004), 105.
You’ll find the facts of publication on the copyright page of the book. List the city first, then the name of the publisher (separated by a colon), and then the copyright date.
As you’ll note in my examples above, the first one includes a state with the location, the second one doesn’t. Most people easily identify Cincinnati as the city in Ohio. If by chance, it wasn’t Ohio, but Cincinnati, Missouri, then you’d put MO to give the reader greater clarity.
For blog posts, include author name, article title (in quotation marks), name of website (in italics), date of publication (in parentheses), and the URL.
Debra L. Butterfield, “Should I Use Italics or Quotation Marks? A Style Guide to Formatting Titles,” The Motivational Editor (14 Feb 2017), https://www.themotivationaleditor.com/italics-or-quotation-marks-style-guide-to-formatting-titles/.
Once you get beyond the basic book citation, things get more detailed. If you include a bibliography in your book, your footnotes won’t need as much information because that info will be in the bibliography.
This basic information on footnotes and endnotes is going to serve the majority of a writer’s needs. If your book contains extensive notes, I encourage you to either visit Purdue’s OWL or ask your editor what kind of information you’ll need to provide so he or she can correctly format your notes.
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