He will not be secure from the anger of those who cannot write clearly, let alone vividly, and who have never in their lives been able to resurrect the past, but he will be secure from their destructive effect." Let him keep his notes and challenge criticism. But let him take sections here and there, and in an appendix show the critic how it is being done. For instance, let a man who writes history as it should be written - with all the physical details in evidence, the weather, the dress, colors, everything - write on for the pleasure of his reader and not for his critic. "et a man put his foot-notes in very small print indeed at the end of a volume, and, if necessary, let him give specimens rather than a complete list. (Noel Coward made the same point more memorably when he remarked that having to read a footnote resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.)"
References detract from the illusion of veracity and immediacy. "More than one recent critic has pointed out that footnotes interrupt a narrative. If you cite the same text again, you can shorten subsequent notes: 5. The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 623. I hardly need to add that in this vale of tears failure is sometimes unavoidable."Īll notes have the same general form: 1. One should regard them as symbols of failure. Hence my rule of thumb for footnotes is exactly the same as that for parentheses. The footnote usually includes the author’s name, publication title, publication information, date of publication, and page number (s) if it is the first time the source is being used. "What, after all, is a content footnote but material that one is either too lazy to integrate into the text or too reverent to discard? Reading a piece of prose that constantly dissolves into extended footnotes is profoundly disheartening. First name Last name, 'Article Name,' Magazine Title, Month and year of publication, page if given, URL/ Database name. If the URL is not available, then include the name of the database where you got the article. For instance, a footnote citation for an image from a book would look like this: 1. The only difference is that you can use a figure number as well as a page number. If it is from a published book, article, or website, you will need to cite this. " Copyright permission footnotes acknowledge the source of lengthy quotations, scale and test items, and figures and tables that have been reprinted or adapted." Include the URL at the end of the citation. The exact format for the citation will depend on where you found the image. " Content footnotes supplement or simplify substantive information in the text they should not include complicated, irrelevant, or nonessential information.".In a work containing many long footnotes, it may be difficult to fit them onto the pages they pertain to, especially in an illustrated work."