A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018
Notes
Notes-bibliography style: the basic form
Source citation
Writers use several different kinds of notes, depending on their field, their readers, and the nature of their project. This section explains your options and how to choose among them.
16.3.1 Footnotes versus Endnotes
Your department may specify whether you should use footnotes or endnotes, especially for a thesis or dissertation. If not, you should generally choose footnotes, which are easier to read. Endnotes force readers to flip to the back of the paper or of each chapter to check every citation. If you include substantive comments in endnotes (see 16.3.5), readers may ignore them because they cannot tell without turning to the back which notes are substantive and which only cite sources.
On the other hand, choose endnotes when your footnotes are so long or numerous that they take up too much space on the page, making your report unattractive and difficult to read. Also, endnotes better accommodate tables, quoted poetry, and anything else that requires a lot of room or complex formatting.
If you use endnotes and include only a few substantive notes, you can reduce the risk that readers will miss them by separating substantive notes from source notes. Number source notes and present them as endnotes. Signal substantive notes with asterisks and other symbols (see 16.3.3) and present them as footnotes.
16.3.2 Referencing Notes in Text
Whenever you refer to or otherwise use material from a source, you must insert into your text a superscript number that directs your reader to a note that gives bibliographical information about that source. Put the number at the end of the sentence or clause containing the quotation or other material (see also 25.2). Normally the note number should follow any mark of punctuation, including a closing parenthesis.
Magic was a staple of the Kinahan charm.1
“This,” wrote George Templeton Strong, “is what our tailors can do.”2
(In an earlier book he had said quite the opposite.)3
If, however, the note refers to material before a dash, put the reference number before the dash:
The bias surfaced in the Shotwell series4—though not obviously.
Do not include more than one reference number at the same location (such as 5, 6). Instead, use one number and include all citations or comments in a single note (see 16.3.5).
Avoid putting a note number inside or at the end of a chapter title or subtitle. If your note applies to the entire chapter, omit the number and put an unnumbered footnote on the first page, before any numbered notes. You may, on the other hand, attach a note number to a subhead.
16.3.3 Numbering Notes
Number notes consecutively, beginning with 1. If your paper has separate chapters, restart each chapter with note 1. Do not skip a number or use numbers such as 5a.
If you use endnotes for source citations but footnotes for substantive comments (see 16.3.1), do not number the footnotes. Instead label the first footnote on a page with an asterisk (*). If you have more than one footnote on a page, use superscript symbols in the sequence * † ‡ §.
For notes to tables, see 26.2.7.
16.3.4 Formatting Notes
Use regular paragraph indents for both footnotes and endnotes. Begin each note with its reference number, formatted not as a superscript but as regular text. Put a period and a space between the number and the text of the note. For notes labeled with symbols (see 16.3.3), a space but not a period should appear between the symbol and the text of the note.
If your local guidelines allow it, you may instead use superscripts for reference numbers and symbols in notes. (By default, word processors typically apply identical formatting to the number or symbol in the text and its corresponding number or symbol in the note, making this the easier option.) You should then begin the text of each note with an intervening space but no period.
16.3.4.1 Footnotes. Begin every footnote on the page on which you reference it. Put a short rule between the last line of text and the first footnote on each page, including any notes that run over from previous pages (your word processor should do this automatically). If a footnote runs over to the next page, it is best if it breaks in midsentence, so that readers do not think the note is finished and overlook the part on the next page. Single-space each footnote. If you have more than one footnote on a page, put a blank line between notes. See figure A.10 for a sample page of text with footnotes.
16.3.4.2 Endnotes. Endnotes should be listed together after the end of the text and any appendixes but before the bibliography. Single-space each note, and put a blank line between notes. Label the list Notes. If you restart numbering for each chapter, add a subheading before the first note to each chapter: “Chapter 1” and so forth. See figure A.14 for a sample page of endnotes.
16.3.5 Complex Notes
16.3.5.1 CITATIONS. If you cite several sources to make a single point, group them into a single note to avoid cluttering your text with reference numbers. List the citations in the same order in which the references appear in the text; separate citations with semicolons.
Only when we gather the work of several scholars—Walter Sutton’s explications of some of Whitman’s shorter poems; Paul Fussell’s careful study of structure in “Cradle”; S. K. Coffman’s close readings of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and “Passage to India”—do we begin to get a sense of both the extent and the specificity of Whitman’s forms.1
N:
1. 1. Sutton, “The Analysis of Free Verse Form, Illustrated by a Reading of Whitman,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 18, no. 2 (December 1959): 241—54; Fussell, “Whitman’s Curious Warble: Reminiscence and Reconciliation,” in The Presence of Whitman, ed. R. W. B. Lewis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1962), 28—51; Coffman, “’Crossing Brooklyn Ferry’: A Note on the Catalogue Technique in Whitman’s Poetry,” Modern Philology 51, no. 4 (May 1954): 225—32; Coffman, “Form and Meaning in Whitman’s ’Passage to India,’” PMLA 70, no. 3 (June 1955): 337—49.
It is also useful to group citations when you refer readers to a number of additional sources (called a “string cite”):
N:
1. 2. On activists, school reforms, and school protests, see Ray Santana and Mario Esparza, “East Los Angeles Blowouts,” in Parameters of Institutional Change: Chicano Experiences in Education, ed. Armando Valdéz (Hayward, CA: Southwest Network, 1974), 1—9; Mario T. García and Sal Castro, Blow Out! Sal Castro and the Chicano Struggle for Educational Justice (Durham: University of North Carolina Press, 2011); and Henry J. Gutierrez, “The Chicano Education Rights Movement and School Segregation, Los Angeles, 1962—1970” (PhD diss., University of California, Irvine, 1990).
16.3.5.2 CITATIONS AND COMMENTS. If a note includes both a citation and a substantive comment, put the citation first with a period after it, followed by the comment in a separate sentence.
To come to Paris was to experience the simultaneous pleasures of the best contemporary art and the most vibrant art center.1
N:
1. 1. Natt, “Paris Art Schools,” 269. Gilded Age American artists traveled to other European art centers, most notably Munich, but Paris surpassed all others in size and importance.
When you include a quotation in a note, put the citation after the terminal punctuation of the quotation.
Property qualifications dropped out of US practice for petit juries gradually during the nineteenth century but remained in force for grand juries in some jurisdictions until the mid-twentieth century.2
N:
1. 2. “A grand jury inquires into complaints and accusations brought before it and, based on evidence presented by the state, issues bills of indictment.” Kermit Hall, The Magic Mirror: Law in American History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 172.
Be judicious in your use of substantive comments in notes. If a point is critical to your argument, include it in the text. If it is peripheral, think carefully about whether it is important enough to mention in a note.