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Citation Guide: Notes: Foot or End

A guide for navigating various citation styles in order to create citations for resources cited in research papers.

An Overview

Some basic rules for Footnotes are:

  • Notes are placed at the bottom of page (footnotes) or at the end of paper (endnotes). Check with your professor if they prefer footnotes or endnotes
  • If you cite the same source more than once, subsequent notes can be referred to in a shortened form (see 16.4.11). Example of shortened note format: Author last name, shortened title, pages.
  • Notes are indented like paragraphs (not hanging) with 1st line indented and following lines flush left (see 16.1.7)
  • Number notes consecutively
  • Note number should follow any mark(s) of punctuation in the text (see 16.3.2)

Well-known Reference Works

Note:

Note number. Title, edition, s.v. “term,” URL.

Sample Note:

3. Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed., s.v. “Mondegreen,” http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/251801.

5. Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. “Sibelius, Jean,” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/542463/Jean-Sibelius.

Periodicals

Newspapers:

Note:

Note number. Author’s First and Last Name, “Title of Article,” Title of Newspaper, Date of Publication, URL or doi number or database.

Sample Note:

3. Editorial, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 31, 2012.

7. Richard Simon, “Redistricting Could Cost California Some Clout in Washington,” Los Angeles Times, August 28, 2011, http:///www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-california-congress-20110829,0,1872016.story.

29. Mark Lepage, “Armageddon, Apocalypse, The Rapture People Have Been Predicting the End since the Beginning,” Gazette (Montreal), May 21, 2011, Nexis Uni.

Personal Communication

Note:

Note number. Person’s First and Last Name, interview by name, location, date.

Sample Note

10. David Shields, interview by author, Seattle, February 15, 2011.

11. Roland J. Zuckerman, email message to author, June 1, 2017.

Websites

Note: Websites can be the most complicated sources to cite.  Provide as much of the following information as you can find: author, title of page, title or owner of the site, and publication or revised date. Include a URL. If no date can be found then add an access date.

Note:

Note number. Author’s First and Last Name, “Title of Article,” Title of Website, Date of Publication, accessed date, URL.

Sample Note:

8. Susannah Brooks, “Longtime Library Director Reflects on a Career at the Crossroads,” University of Wisconsin-Madison News, September 1, 2011, http://www.news.wisc.edu/19704.

7. “Toy Safety,” McDonald’s Canada, accessed November 30, 2010, http://www. Mcdonalds.co/en/community/toysafety.aspx.

Blog entries/ Comment

Note:

Note number. Author’s First and Last Name, “Title of Article,” Title of Blog, Date of Publication, accessed date (if no date is found), URL.

Sample Note:

9. Dick Cavett, “Flying? Increasingly for the Birds,” Opinionator (blog), New York Times, August 19, 2011, http://www.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/flying-increasingly-for-the-birds/.

10. Mr. Feel Good, comment, February 14, 2012 (1:37 a.m.), on Becker, “Is Capitalism in Crisis?

Photographs/ Art Work

Note:

Note number. Artist’s First and Last Name, Title of Piece, Date of Piece, Location of Piece, URL (if viewed online).

Sample Note:

6. Georgia O’Keeffe, The Cliff Chimneys, 1938, Milwaukee Art Museum.

13. Erich Buchholz, Untitled, 1920, gouache on paper, Museum of Modern Art, New York, http://moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=38187.

Live Performance

Note:

Note number. Artist’s First and Last Name, Title of Piece, Author of Piece, Location of Performance, Date of Performance.

Sample Note:

8. Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, by Glen Berger and Julie Taymor, music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, directed by Julie Taymor, Foxwoods Theater, New York, September 10, 2011.

16. Simone Dinnerstein, pianist, Intermezzo in A, op. 118, no. 2, by Johannes Brahms, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Portland, OR, January 15, 2012.

Video / Podcasts

Note:

Note number. Author/Speaker/Artist’s First and Last Name. “Title of Piece”, Description of work, Producer of show, type of video, URL (if viewed online).

Sample Note:

10. Fred Donner, “How Islam Began”, Alumni Weekend 2011, University of Chicago, June 3, 2011, video of lecture, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RFK5u5lkhA.

21. Michael Shear, host, “The Spat over President Obama’s Upcoming Jobs Speech,” The Caucus, New York Times, September 1, 2011, MP3 podcast, http://www.nytimes.com/pages/podcasts/.

25. Luminosity, “Womens Work_SPN”, March 5, 2009, video, http://www.viddler.com/v/lf6d7f1f.