| Every discipline has its own method of footnoting. The trend is to copy
the scientists' method of embedding a short note in the text—as, for
example, (Urban, 1975). However, this is not a good practice for a narrative
discipline like history, because the note breaks the eye's movement and the
mind's concentration. |
| Historians prefer footnotes or endnotes, which can be created in WordPerfect by using Control-F7 (holding Control down while pressing F7) or in Windows by pulling down the "Insert" menu, choosing "footnote" or "endnote" and then "create." The difference between footnotes and endnotes is that footnotes appear at the bottom of the page and endnotes appear at the end of the article, essay, or paper. |
THE UNIVERSAL RULE IS: FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTOR'S INSTRUCTIONS.
Footnotes and endnotes have two purposes.
| First, they can discuss a point in more detail than the narrative flow permits; thus, some footnotes are mini-essays. |
| Second, they tell the reader what sources you used. |
It is this latter use that is essential for future historians (and lawyers, journalists, and so on) to master. You must give the reader all of the following on the first citation: Author, Title (Place: publisher, date of publication), page number(s). On the second and subsequent citations, you need only give the author or the author and title (if you are citing two or more sources by the same author), and page number(s).
Examples of typical citations:
BOOK: first citation:
1. William Urban, The Baltic Crusade (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1975), 1.
BOOK: second (OR SHORT) citation:
2. Urban, 37.
NOTE: In the bibliography, authors are alphabetized, hence last name first. Not so in footnotes or endnotes.
BOOK, multiple authors: first citation:
1. William Urban, Mary Crow, and Charles Speel, A History of Monmouth College through its Fifth Quarter-Century (Monmouth: Monmouth College, 1979), 1-2.
BOOK, multiple authors: second citation:
2. Urban et al., 3-5.
If the book has only two authors, the second cite is usually done like
this:
2. Jagger and Joel, 84.
(you don't use et. al., in other words)
ARTICLE: first citation:
1. Simon Cordery, "Friendly Societies and the Discourse of Respectability in Britain, 1825-1875," Journal of British Studies, 34 (January 1995), 37.
NOTE: The title of the article is in quotation marks, the title of the journal is in italics or underlined.
NOTE: The full citation for the article (that is, its inclusive pages) appears only in the bibliography. In the footnote or the endnote, the citation is the page(s) from which you have quoted or taken material.
ARTICLE: second citation:
2. Cordery, 43.
BOOK REVIEW: first citation
1. Stacy A. Cordery, Review of Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume I (New York: Viking Press, 1992) in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 91, 2 (Spring, 1993), 235-237.
BOOK REVIEW: second citation:
2. Cordery, 236.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE: first citation:
1. James Taylor, "The Writing of ‘Your Smiling Face’ and Other Hits," Chicago Tribune,
22 January 1985, 11.NEWSPAPER ARTICLE: second citation:
2. Taylor, 11.
MAGAZINE ARTICLE: first citation:
1. Sylvia Beech, "I Met Ronald Reagan," Newsweek, 14 February 1992, 134.
MAGAZINE ARTICLE: second citation:
2. Beech, 134.
ARCHIVAL MATERIAL:
1. Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Alice Roosevelt Longworth, 5 March 1889, in the Alice Roosevelt Longworth Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Hereafter cited as ARL Collection.
Second citation of the same collection:
2. Letter
from Alice Roosevelt Longworth to Anna Roosevelt Cowles, undated, ARL
Collection.
Another example:
1. Ralph Eckley, "Musings About Old Galesburg," undated clipping in the Papers of Ralph Eckley, Monmouth College Archives, Monmouth College.
Second citation:
2. Eckley, "Musings About
Old Galesburg," Monmouth College Archives.
INTERVIEW/ORAL HISTORY:
1. James Stockdale, interviewed by the author, 1 May 1982.
1. Hillary Clinton, interviewed by Shawn Parry-Giles, 4 September 1996. Transcript in Monmouth College Archives.
SOURCES FROM THE WORLD WIDE WEB:
WWW Page:
1. Melvin E. Page, "A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities," H-NET Website <http://h-net2.msu.edu/~africa/citation.html>.
Second citation:
2. Page, "A Brief Citation."
Another example:
1. Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence," American Memory Project, Library of Congress Website, <http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage collId=lljc&fileName=005/lljc005.db&recNum=94>.
Second citation:
2. Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence."
Notes: Please do not include the date that you accessed it. Please DO include the title of the website and put the word "Website" in there so your reader knows what it is.
Here are the basic citation components and punctuation for websites:
Author's First Name, Last Name. "Title of Document or Article," Title of Website, <url>.
Since you won't have pages, usually, for a website, your short cite should give the author's name and an abbreviated title of the document or website.
Return to S. A. Cordery homepage.