Footnotes and Endnotes

Footnotes and Endnotes

Footnotes

In the Notes-Bibliography version of Chicago style, footnotes take the place of parenthetical citations used by other styles, and although they may appear somewhat similar to bibliographical citations, there are some key differences. Note numbers are placed at the end of the clause or sentence to which they refer and should be placed after all punctuation, except for the dash. In-text note numbers are superscripted; in the footnotes, numbers are regular font (i.e., not superscripted) and followed by a period.

The first line of a footnote should be indented (which can be accomplished by hitting “Tab”). The preferred font size for footnotes is the same as the text (12 pt.) but can be the smaller default size (10 pt.) depending on the instructor’s preference. Footnotes should be single-spaced with a space between each note (see examples below).

To insert a footnote in Microsoft Word:

  1. Click the space at the end of the sentence where you want to insert the footnote
  2. Click “References” on the top menu
  3. Click “Insert Footnote”

The note number will appear at the end of the sentence, while the footnote will appear at the bottom of the page.

Books

Footnotes for books generally include:

  • Name of author/s
  • Title (italics for book titles, quotation marks for works in an anthology or collection)
  • Place of publication
  • Publisher
  • Year of publication
  • Page number/s

The following are a few examples of footnotes for common types of books:

Book with One Author

1. Vladimir Nabokov, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1995), 66.

Book with Author and Editor

1. Michel Foucault, Think, Write, Speak: Uncollected Essays, Reviews, Interviews, and Letters to the Editor, ed. Brian Boyd and Anastasia Tolstoy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2019), 201.

Work in an Edited Collection

1. Paul Lewis and Dan Currie, “The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allen Poe and the City of Boston,” in Born in the U.S.A.: Birth, Commemoration, and American Public Memory, ed. Seth C. Bruggeman (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), 217-39.

Periodicals

Periodical footnotes usually include:

  • Name of author/s
  • Title (in quotation marks)
  • Name of periodical (in italics)
  • Issue and volume number (if available)
  • Date published
  • Page number
  • URL (for online sources)

The following are examples of footnotes for common types of periodicals:

Scholarly Journals

1. Ethan G. Sribnick, “The Origins of Modern Child Welfare: Liberalism, Interest Groups, and the Transformation of Public Policy in the 1970s,” Journal of Policy History 23 no. 2 (2011): 153.

Magazines

1. Megha Mahindru, “Sixties Mumbai Garage Rock Band Gets Vinyl Reissue,” Rolling Stone, September 6, 2013, 75.

Newspapers

1. Bergen Evans, “New World, New Words,” New York Times, April 9, 1961.

Online Magazines

1. Nora McGreevy, “Meet Augie, the 20-Year-Old Golden Retriever Who Might Have Just Set an Age Record," Smithsonian Magazine, July 7, 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-augie-golden-retriever-who-might-have-just-set-record-180975253/.

Online Journals

1. Jennifer Mittelstadt, “Philanthropy, Feminism, and Left Liberalism, 1960-1985,” Journal of Women’s History 20, no. 4 (Winter 2008): 116, https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.0.0039.

Web Sources

For web source footnotes, include:

  • Name of author/s
  • Title of web page (in italics)
  • Name of website
  • Publishing organization
  • Publication or revision date (if available)
  • Access date (if no other date is available)
  • URL

The following are two example footnotes for web sources:

Web Page

1. Ethan Rice, “Ramos, Basilio, Jr.,” Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, July 26, 2016, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fralv.

Blogs

1. George R. R. Martin, “Words for Our Times,” Not a Blog (blog), July 11, 2020, https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2020/07/11/words-for-our-times-2/.

Endnotes

To insert an endnote, follow the same steps as for footnotes, only click “Insert Endnote” instead. The format for endnote citations is the same as for footnotes. Title the page with the list of endnotes “Notes.”

Microsoft Word’s default endnote settings have Roman numerals, but like footnotes, endnotes should have Arabic numerals (i.e., 1., 2., 3., 4., etc.). To change this setting, right-click the note and go to “Note Options.”

Shortened Notes

Once a source has been cited in a full footnote or endnote, for the remainder of the essay, use an abbreviated note containing:

  • The author’s last name
  • A shortened, “key-word version” of the title no more than four words long
  • Page number

Author-Title Note Example: Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 48.

For a footnote or endnote containing the same source as the previous one, use a shortened version of the citation containing the author’s last name and the page number.

Author-Only Note Example: Foucault, 48.

Work Consulted

Footnotes and endnotes information can be found in A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 9th edition, by Kate Turabian.

Page last updated January 24, 2024.