Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [footnotes]

This tag should be used for questions about the usage of footnotes in writing, such as when citing something in a paper or using footnotes as a stylistic device in your novel.

This tag should be used for questions about the usage of footnotes in writing, such as when citing something in a or using footnotes as a stylistic device in your .

49 questions
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6 answers

Is it fine to use link shorteners for research paper citations?

I'm curious about the "properness" of using shortened links (a la bit.ly or tinyurl) in research papers. I haven't been able to find any sort of definitive reference about whether or not this is accepted or frowned upon. I found a blot post by a…
Hendy
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11
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6 answers

Avoiding foot¬e disease

In his answer to Our note in footnote of a book, Malvolio writes: I hate numbered foot-notes personally, they're very distracting Which I agree with, but his recommendation, to use endnotes, I find much more more distracting: what havoc is played…
Charles Stewart
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9
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8 answers

The use of footnotes to translate foreign words in a novel

I'm writing a fantasy novel and one of my characters speaks in English, but sometimes utters single words in an ancient dead language, and I don't want to abusively use that language. For example: "You're going to be dead SAHU²!" Is using a…
vanity
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9
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5 answers

Our note in footnote of a book

How do I designate the footnotes that are mine inside a quote? I tried "our note", "note ours" and "remark is ours". Which one is the correct one and most commonly used? Or is there some other way? For example: He provides an argument for it: …
Andriy Drozdyuk
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7
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2 answers

Is it acceptable to use many footnotes to share additional ideas?

I teach a course in remedial academic writing. The students should learn to write at the graduate level. Some of the students are ELLs. They tend to include many extraneous thoughts and ideas in their essays that do not directly contribute to their…
Village
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7
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7 answers

Using footnotes in fiction: children's book which can be enjoyed by adults

I would like to write a children's story which is appealing to both children and adults. However, the world in which the story takes place requires the use of higher vocabulary and slang (it is a real world, for example, the petroleum industry).…
writersam
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7
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2 answers

Footnotes for Translation purposes

I am writing a novel that includes occasional words or phrases in another language. If I use a footnote to provide a loose translation of the word and that same word appears once or twice more on the same page, do I have to reference the footnote…
Theresa
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7
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1 answer

How should footnotes be used in non-paginated media?

How should footnotes be attached to a text that doesn't form pages? Say, a lengthy text, over 10,000 words as a single webpage but with formatting limited to static text; I have no options to make them a hyperlink or tooltip, there's no margin to…
SF.
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6
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1 answer

Punctuation-Quote or Quote-Punctuation?

I'm writing a document using the Chicago Manual of Style. I don't have access to the full guide, only to what's provided on-line. Now I wondering as to whether, in the main text itself, I should use the punctuation-quote or quote-punctuation…
neydroydrec
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5
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2 answers

Using one source, multiple times, and footnotes

I am required to use footnotes in a paper for the first time in my life, and I have run into the problem of how to properly cite it. My question is, if I get multiple facts from the same source, when/where do I place the footnote? I know with…
John
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4
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1 answer

Handling alternate spellings of a personal name

I'm dealing with a text that mentions several times the architectural historian Siegfried Giedion. A number of Giedion's books feature his first name as "Sigfried" and others as "Siegfried." What is the Chicago Manual of Style's guidance on how to…
Typothalamus
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4
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1 answer

Is it ok to use long footnotes?

In my text, I have a footnote (6 or 7 lines) that is meant to be an extra insight. It does seem, however, to be a bit large for a footnote. On the other hand, if I try to place it inside the text, it would probably stop the flow of the information…
Jak
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4
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2 answers

Footnotes when using in-text citation style

I have come across some documents (not publicly viewable) that state that footnotes (for the purposes of adding further information) are not permitted in an academic text writen using in-text citations. This seems nonsense to me and I strongly…
dbmag9
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4
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3 answers

Citing a footnote

I have a primary source whose editor often has editorial comments in his footnotes. There are occasions when I would like to quote these remarks, but I cannot understand how to correctly do this from my Chicago Manual. How do I do this? Also, my…
jonjohn447
4
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4 answers

Position of Footnote on Page

This question isn't about a case that I have a problem with; it's just a purely hypothetical thing that I've been thinking about. Suppose you are writing a book or maybe an article for a journal. At the bottom of a page - the last line - you have a…
Sam OT
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