How to Footnotes

Add footnotes to clarify the source for the reader. Instead of using published information about the source of the footnote, the author often notes “relevant” information in footnotes, often from sources not directly cited. In the novel “Infinite Jest” (roughly translated as Infinite), David Foster Wallace wrote several page-long captions as a satire. With scholarly articles, you need to limit the use of footnotes like this, but this is quite a common practice in memoirs as well as in realistic literary works.

• In scientific articles, footnotes often point to other studies that share the same conclusions but do not directly cite them.

Write brief. If one of your articles mentions wikiHow articles and you want to make that clear, after the numbering, your footnote might look like this: “The wikiHow examples are used to do this. clear context in cases where a visual example is necessary Reginaldaily, Timeless wikiHow Examples: Through the Ages (Minneappis: St. Olaf Press, 2010), 115.”

Do not use footnotes rampantly. Long footnotes often distract the reader and break the flow of the text. If you find that you need to include too much information, find a way to include that information in the body of the article, or review the original citation to shorten it.

• In specialized articles, editors will often suggest that you create footnotes with the information in brackets. So pay attention to the sequence and flow of writing and consider whether to include some information in the footnotes.