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 MLA
Formatting and Style Guide - Footnotes and Endnotes
by
Dave Neyhart and Erin E. Karper. Revision by Karl Stolley
www.owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
01.
MLA - General Format
02.
MLA - In-Text Citations: The Basics
03.
MLA - In-Text Citations: Author-Page Style
04.
MLA - Formatting Quotations
05.
MLA - Footnotes and Endnotes
06.
MLA - Works Cited Page: Basic Format
07.
MLA - Works Cited Page: Books
08.
MLA - Works Cited: Periodicals
09.
MLA - Works Cited: Electronic Sources
10.
MLA - Works Cited: Other Non-Print Sources
11.
MLA - Additional Resources
Footnotes and Endnotes
Because long
explanatory notes can be distracting to readers, most academic style
guidelines (including MLA and APA) recommend limited use of
footnotes/endnotes; however, certain publishers encourage or require
note references in lieu of parenthetical references (see the MLA
Handbook, Appendix B, and the MLA Style Manual, Appendix A, for
other systems of MLA citation).
MLA discourages extensive use of explanatory or digressive notes.
MLA style does, however, allow you to use endnotes or footnotes for
evaluative bibliographic comments, for example:
1 See Blackmur, especially
chapters three and four, for
an insightful analysis of this trend.
2 On the problems related
to repressed memory recovery,
see Wollens pp. 120- 35; for a contrasting view, see
Pyle.
You can also
use endnotes or footnotes for occasional explanatory notes or other
brief additional helpful information that might be too digressive
for the main text:
3 In a 1998 interview, she
reiterated this point even
more strongly: "I am an artist, not a politician!"
(Weller 124).
Numbering Endnotes and Footnotes
Footnotes in MLA format are indicated by consecutively-numbered
superscript arabic numbers in the main text after the
punctuation of the phrase or clause the note refers to:
Some have argued that such an
investigation would be
fruitless.6
Scholars have argued for years that this claim has no
basis,7 so we
would do well to ignore it.
However, note
references appear before dashes:
For years, scholars have failed to
address this point8-a
fact that suggests their cowardice
more than their
carelessness.
Do not use
asterisks, daggers, or other symbols for note references. The list
of endnotes and footnotes (either of which, for papers submitted for
publication, should be listed on a separate page, as indicated
below) should correspond to the note references in the text.
Formatting Endnotes and Footnotes
The MLA recommends that all notes be listed on a separate page
titled Notes (no quotation marks or italics), which should appear
before the Works Cited page. This is especially important for papers
being submitted for publication. The notes themselves are listed by
consecutive superscript arabic numbers and appear double-spaced in
regular paragraph format (a new paragraph for each note) on a
separate page under the word Notes (centered, in plain text without
quotation marks).
In the case that you need to format footnotes on the same page as
the main text, footnotes should begin four lines (two double-spaced
lines) below the main text. Single-space notes formatted as
footnotes on the page, but double-space between individual notes.
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