HIS 211: Quick-reference guide to writing footnotes

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Books

First reference: Author, title (underlined, or italics if available), place of publication, publisher, date, page reference.

Example: J. K. Nyerere, Freedom and Unity: A Selection from Writings and Speeches, 1952-65 (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1967) p.196.

Subsequent references: Author (surname only unless ambiguous), abbreviated title (underlined, or italics if available), page reference.

Example: Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, p. 50.

NOTE:
(i) The abbreviation for "page" is "p." (not "pg.")
(ii)The abbreviation for "pages" is "pp."
(iii) Underlining is equivalent to italics in indicating a book title. Use underlining in handwritten work. Use italics in word-processing. Do not use both (i.e. do not write Freedom and Unity.)


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Articles

First reference: Author, title of article (in quotation marks), title of journal (underlined, or italics if available), volume/number and date of journal, page reference.

Example: H. Zins, "The International Context of the Creation of the Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1885", Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies, vol. 11 no. 1 (1997), p. 55.

Subsequent references: Author, abbreviated title of article, page reference.

Example: Zins, "International Context", p. 56.


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Chapter in book

Example: M. Odell, "Local Government: Tradition and Modern Role of the Village Kgotla", in L. Picard (ed.), The Evolution of Modern Botswana (London: Rex Collins, 1985). Subsequent references: Odell, "Local Government".


Note that the title of the article or chapter is in quotation marks, while the title of the whole book or journal is in italics/underlining.


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Editors

Where a book consists of pieces by several authors, it will usually be referred to by the title and the editor's name. The format is the same as for other books, but "(ed.)" is put after the editor's name to indicate that this is an editor rather than an author. For more than one editor, use "(eds)".

First reference: F. Morton and J. Ramsay (eds), The Birth of Botswana: A History of the Bechuanaland Protectorate from 1910 to 1966 (Gaborone: Longman, 1987)

Subsequent references: Morton and Ramsay (eds), The Birth of Botswana.

Works by more than one author: Where there are two or three authors, give all the authors' names. (Note the distinction between multiple authors of a single work and a collection of pieces by different authors.)

First reference: R. Molefi, F. Morton and L. Ngcongco, "The modernists: Seepapitso, Ntebogang and Isang", in F. Morton and J. Ramsay (eds), The Birth of Botswana: A History of the Bechuanaland Protectorate from 1910 to 1966 (Gaborone: Longman, 1987) pp. 11-29.

Subsequent references: Molefi, Morton and Ngcongco, "The modernists".


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Multiple authors

Where there are more than three authors, all the authors' names should appear in the first reference, but in subsequent references only the first name, followed by et al. (a Latin abbreviation meaning "and others").

First reference: P. Curtin, S. Feierman, L. Thompson and J. Vansina, African History (London and New York: Longman, 1978), p. 10.

Subsequent references: Curtin et al., African History, p. 12.

All authors' names must be given in the Bibliography.


Further points:

(i) Op. cit.: The Latin abbreviation op. cit. ("in the work cited") is used in some footnote systems, but is not used in ours.
(ii) Ibid.: The Latin abbreviation ibid. ("the same") is used when a footnote is the same as the one immediately before it.


Copyright © 2004 Bruce Bennett
Last updated 15 September 2004.