Assignment: Reasons for Footnotes
History is written by a process of argument. A good argument puts forward a point of view that is well grounded: it hasevidence to support it. Unlike practitioners of other fields such as engineering or the natural sciences, historians pose questions that rarely have definitive answers or solutions. The emphasis in history is on an analysis of past events using a variety of historical evidence. Because much of the historian's task is interpretative, there are strict requirements regarding the correct citation of sources. Scholars use footnotes and/or endnotes for a variety of reasons including:
• To make it clear to the reader which views are yours and which are the views of other writers;
• To allow you to acknowledge your intellectual debts to others if you decide to accept their views or information;
• To direct the reader by the most efficient signposts to the place where the information you have provided can be checked and verified or where further useful information is.
Correspondingly, there are a number of situations where you MUST cite your sources.
• Direct quotations
• Any material that has been paraphrased from an outside source
• Any reference to arguments or facts (i.e. budget figures, technical specifications) that have been garnered from an outside source
There are also circumstances in which you SHOULD footnote
• To provide the reader with a guide to the sources used in the formation of the author's original argument
• To provide the reader with a guide to sources that offer further information on ideas or arguments summarized in the author's text
• To offer the reader further details or discussion beyond what could be reasonably included in the main text.
• If information is not common knowledge to the average lay reader.
Bibliography Entry:
Cermark, Bonni, and Jennifer Troxell. "A Guide to Footnotes and Endnotes for
NASA History Authors." NASA History Program Office. Last modified January 27, 2010. Accessed July 20, 2015.
Full footnote:
1. BonniCermark and Jennifer Troxell, "A Guide to Footnotes and Endnotes for NASA History Authors," NASA History Program Office, last modified January 27, 2010, accessed July 20, 2015.
Shortened footnote (for subsequent citations):
2. Cermark and Troxell, "A Guide to Footnotes," NASA History Program Office.
When to Footnote/Endnote
1. When You Have Used Your Own Words, Use a Footnote/Endnote to Cite:
• someone else's ideas or arguments that you have paraphrased or summarized.
• information or numerical data that is not common knowledge.
For example:
9.7 million soldiers were killed during World War I. 1
However, information that is considered common knowledge within a discipline does not need a footnote. For example, the following would be considered common knowledge in history:
It is well known that World War I began in 1914 and was triggered by the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand.
Deciding what is common knowledge can be tricky. So...When in doubt, citeyour source!
2. Use Footnotes/Endnotes Immediately After Direct Quotations:
• If you use a source's exact words, this is referred to as a direct quotation. You must immediately follow it with a footnote/endnote.
For example:
Hurl-Eamon argues for the importance of studying the wives of soldiers, claiming that they provide "a window into a much larger issue in early modern labour history."1
• If you use a quotation that is longer than a hundred words (about 8 lines), set it off from the rest of your text as a block quotation. Block quotations begin on a new line and are indented using the indent button. Do not put quotation marks around block quotations. Block quotations are immediately followed by a footnote/endnote.
For example:
Hurl-Eamon argues for the importance of studying the wives of soldiers, claiming that:
Military wives are a window into a much larger issue in early modern labour history. Though eighteenth-century wives were expected to contribute to the household coffers and the male breadwinner ideology did not take hold until the following century at the earliest, significant aspects of early modern culture presumed wifely dependence. Husbands were expected to "maintain" their wives, and parish overseers prosecuted men who did not uphold their duty of giving wives sufficient food, clothing, and shelter for their survival.2
Bibliography Entry:
Trent University. "Chicago Style." Trent University Academic Skills Centre.
Full footnote:
1. "Chicago Style," Trent University Academic Skills Centre, accessed July 20, 2015.
Shortened footnote (for subsequent citations):
2. "Chicago Style," Trent University Academic Skills Centre.
Shortening Footnotes
The first footnote should give the full information about the source as described in the easy bib citation. However, subsequent notes can be shortened.
Shortened notes typically include:
• the author's last name, followed by a comma
• the main title of the work, shortened to about four words (properly formatted in quotations marks or italics)
• the page number, followed by a period.
Thus, the first note above would be a full note, and the second would be shortened.
5. Michelle Stacy, The Fasting Girl: A True Victorian Medical Mystery (New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 2002), 18.
8. Stacy, The Fasting Girl, 18.
Attachment:- WritingaThesis.rar