Traditional Footnotes with Superscript Numbers
This system of small raised numbers signalling footnotes, followed by a
bibliography, used to be the standard method of documentation. It is still
preferred by some humanities disciplines (including History) and some sciences
because it interrupts the essay very little. It's easier for the reader to
follow, but harder for the writer to set up.
See the example below for a demonstration, and also keep these points in
mind:
- When you refer to a source the first time, you need to
provide
the author/editor name (first name followed by
last name),
title (books in italics; articles in
quotation marks);
[in parentheses ( )] place of publication: publisher,
date of publication;
page number of citation.
(see below notes 1 and
2)
- When you refer to a source the second time, you can shorten the
note by using only the author's last name, an abbreviated title, and the page
number (se below, note 4). That's easier than learning the old-fashioned
system of Latin abbreviations such as op. cit. ("in the same
work") and ibid. ("in the same place").
- In listing a Web page as a source, include the date you read the page as
well as the URL. That information lets your reader judge whether he or she is
seeing the same version of the Web page you looked at. See below.
The excerpt below follows the system set out in Turabian, Manual for
Writers, 6th edition (LB2369 T8 1996). You may also want to consult the
Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (Z253 C45 2003).
Example:
When Hamlet protests to his mother, "Leave wringing of your
hands" (III.iv.35),1 he is naming a universally recognizable gesture.
As Singh says, similar broad physical movements are "still the most direct way
of indicating inner turmoil."2 Zygmundi confirms their continuing
usefulness in contemporary productions of other sixteenth-century
plays.3 Renaissance audiences would have recognized hand-wringing as
a signal for inner distress,4 specifically for a condition that the
Elizabethan author Reynolds named "ague of the
spirits."5
Notes
1William Shakespeare, Hamlet, in The
Norton Introduction to Literature, 8th ed., ed. Alison Booth, J. Paul
Hunter, Kelly J. Mays, and Jerome Beaty (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001), 996.
2Jasmine Singh, "Renovating Hamlet for
Contemporary Audiences," UTQ 67 (Summer 1998): 434.
3David Zygmundi, "Acting Out the Moralities for
Today's Audiences," Termagant Society Online,
http://www.nouniv.ca/soc/termagant/moral.html; accessed 22 August 2004.
4 Singh, "Renovating Hamlet," 436
5Peter Reynolds, The Player's Chapbooke,
1587; quoted in Aline Mahieu, Acting Shakespeare (Toronto: Gibson, 2003),
69.
Bibliography
Brown, Joan. The Renaissance Stage. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2000.
Mahieu, Aline. Acting Shakespeare. Toronto:
Gibson, 2003.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. In The Norton
Introduction to Literature, 8th ed., ed. Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, Kelly
J. Mays, and Jerome Beaty. 941-1033. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.
Singh, Jasmine. "Renovating Hamlet for
Contemporary Audiences." UTQ 67 (Summer 1998): 431-42.
Zygmundi, David. "Acting Out the Moralities for Today's
Audiences." Termagant Society Online.
http://www.nouniv.ca/terma/moral.html. Accessed 22 August
2006.
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A Note on Electronic Sources
To refer to sources such as videos or Internet documents, follow your chosen
system as far as possible in giving author, title, and date; you may not be able
to give the equivalent of publisher or page numbers, but should supply URLs.
Include whatever extra information to help your reader recognize and find the
item—for instance, the type of medium if that might be ambiguous; the sender's
address for e-mail messages and online postings; and the date you read a Web
page, to indicate the version..
These examples show ways to include the necessary information in various
formats (thus the various types of indentation, abbreviation, and line spacing).
You may notice that different disciplines use different types of electronic
sources. See also the electronic references included on previous screens as
examples of the different systems.
e.g. [film on laser disc, listed by director:
note in endnote/footnote system]:
7Hitchcock, Alfred, dir. Suspicion.
Perf. Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. 1941. Laser disc. Turner,
1995.
e.g. [e-mail message: MLA system, item in
Works Cited]:
Sills, Laine. <lsills@mcmaster.ca> "Took that First
Step!" Personal e-mail to Margaret Procter. 16 Nov. 2006.
e.g. [e-mail message: APA system, reference in
text] N.B. Don't cite personal communications such as e-mail in the
reference list of an APA document, because they cannot be consulted by other
readers. Just give basic information in your text, like this:
The most recent experiments in walking also use this
method (L. Sills, personal communication, November 16, 2006).
e.g. [Web document: MLA system, item in Works
Cited]:
Procter, Margaret. "Writing an effective admissions
letter." Writing at the University of Toronto. 11 May 2006
<http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/admiss.html>
e.g. [Web document: APA system, item in
Reference list]:
Procter, M. Writing an Effective Admissions Letter.
Writing at the University of Toronto. Retrieved September 30, 2006 from
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/admiss.html
e.g. [article in online journal: MLA system,
item in Works Cited]:
Hill, Robin. "What Sample Size is Enough in Internet
Survey Research?" Interpersonal Computing and Technology 6:3 (July 1998).
<http://nau.edu/ipct/1998/n3/hill.html>
e.g. [article in online journal: APA system,
item in Reference list]:
Hill, R. (July 1998). What sample size is enough in
Internet survey research? Interpersonal Computing and Technology, 6:3.
Retrieved October 25, 2006 from http://nau.edu/ipct/1009/n3/hill.html
e.g. [posting to newsgroup, numbered-note
system]:
1. Sills A. <alison.sills@utoronto.ca> Are
blue stragglers still in the running? [online posting]
<comp.edu.astro.evolution> 13 Nov. 2005.