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A note is a string of text placed at the bottom of a
page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...
in a book or document or at the end of a chapter, volume, or the whole text. The note can provide an author's comments on the main text or citations of a reference work in support of the text. Footnotes are notes at the foot of the page while endnotes are collected under a separate heading at the end of a chapter, volume, or entire work. Unlike footnotes, endnotes have the advantage of not affecting the layout of the main text, but may cause inconvenience to readers who have to move back and forth between the main text and the endnotes. In some editions of the Bible, notes are placed in a narrow column in the middle of each page between two columns of biblical text.


Numbering and symbols

In English, a footnote or endnote is normally flagged by a superscripted number immediately following that portion of the text the note references, each such footnote being numbered sequentially. Occasionally, a number between brackets or parentheses is used instead, thus: which can also be superscripted. Typographical devices such as the asterisk (*) or
dagger A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use de ...
(†) may also be used to point to notes; the traditional order of these symbols in English is *, , , §, , . Other symbols, including the #, Δ, , , and , have also been used. In documents like
timetables A schedule or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things are ...
, many different symbols, letters, and numbers may refer the reader to particular notes. In CJK languages, written with
Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
, the symbol
The reference mark or reference symbol "※" is a typographic mark or word used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) writing. The symbol was used historically to call attention to an important sentence or idea, such as a prologue or footnote. ...
(called
reference mark The reference mark or reference symbol "※" is a typographic mark or word used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) writing. The symbol was used historically to call attention to an important sentence or idea, such as a prologue or footnote ...
; ja, komejirushi; ko, chamgopyo) is used for notes and highlighting, analogously to the asterisk in English.


Academic usage

Notes are most often used as an alternative to long explanations, citations, comments, or annotations that can be distracting to readers. Most literary style guidelines (including the Modern Language Association and the
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
) recommend limited use of foot- and endnotes. However, publishers often encourage note references in lieu of parenthetical references. Aside from use as a bibliographic element, notes are used for additional information, qualification or explanation that might be too digressive for the main text. Footnotes are heavily utilized in academic institutions to support claims made in academic essays covering myriad topics. In particular, footnotes are the normal form of citation in historical journals. This is due, firstly, to the fact that the most important references are often to archive sources or interviews which do not readily fit standard formats, and secondly, to the fact that historians expect to see the exact nature of the evidence which is being used at each stage. The MLA (Modern Language Association) requires the superscript numbers in the main text to be placed following the punctuation in the phrase or clause the note is in reference to. The exception to this rule occurs when a sentence contains a dash, in which case the superscript would precede it. However, MLA is not known for endnote or footnote citations, rather APA and Chicago styles use them more regularly. Historians are known to use Chicago style citations. Aside from their technical use, authors use notes for a variety of reasons: * As signposts to direct the reader to information the author has provided or where further useful information is pertaining to the subject in the main text. * To attribute a quote or viewpoint. * As an alternative to parenthetical references; it is a simpler way to acknowledge information gained from another source. * To escape the limitations imposed on the
word count The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and ad ...
of various academic and legal texts which do not take into account notes. Aggressive use of this strategy can lead to a text affected by "foot and note disease" (a derogation coined by
John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
).


Government documents

The
US Government Printing Office The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...
Style Manual devotes over 660 words to the topic of footnotes.
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
has guidance for footnote usage in its historical documents.


Legal writing

Former Associate Justice Stephen Breyer of the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
is famous in the American legal community for his writing style, in which he never uses notes. He prefers to keep all citations within the text (which is permitted in American legal citation).
Richard A. Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicag ...
has also written against the use of notes in judicial opinions. Bryan A. Garner, however, advocates using notes instead of inline citations.


HTML

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaSc ...
, the predominant markup language for web pages, has no mechanism for adding notes. Despite a number of different proposals over the years, and repeated pleas from the user base, the
working group A working group, or working party, is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. The groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdis ...
has been unable to reach a consensus on it. Because of this,
MediaWiki MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for MediaWi ...
, for example, has had to introduce its own tag for citing references in notes. It might be argued that the hyperlink partially eliminates the need for notes, being the web's way to refer to another document. However, it does not allow citing to offline sources and if the destination of the link changes, the link can become dead or irrelevant. A proposed solution is the use of a
digital object identifier A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they a ...
. In instances where a user needs to add an endnote or footnote using HTML, they can add the superscript number using , then link the superscripted text to the reference section using an
anchor tag An HTML element is a type of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document component, one of several types of HTML nodes (there are also text nodes, comment nodes and others). The first used version of HTML was written by Tim Berners-Lee in 1993 ...
. Create an anchor tag by using and then link the superscripted text to "ref1".


History

The London printer
Richard Jugge Richard Jugge (died 1577) was an eminent English printer, who kept a shop at the sign of the Bible, at the North door of St Paul's Cathedral, though his residence was in Newgate market, next to Christ Church in London. He is generally credited a ...
is generally credited as the inventor of the footnote, first used in the
Bishops' Bible The Bishops' Bible is an English translation of the Bible which was produced under the authority of the established Church of England in 1568. It was substantially revised in 1572, and the 1602 edition was prescribed as the base text for the King ...
of 1568.Chuck Zerby, ''The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes'', 2007, , p. 28 and ''passim'' Early printings of the Douay Bible used two closely spaced colons (actually squared four dot punctuation mark U+2E2C “⸬”) to indicate a marginal note.


Literary device

At times, notes have been used for their comical effect, or as a literary device. *
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
's ''
Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...
'' (1939) uses footnotes along with left and right marginal notes in Book II Chapter 2. The three types of notes represent comments from the three siblings doing their homework: Shem, Shaun, and Issy. *
J. G. Ballard James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass med ...
's "Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown" (1967) is one sentence ("A discharged Broadmoor patient compiles 'Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown,' recalling his wife's murder, his trial and exoneration.") and a series of elaborate footnotes to each one of the words. * Mark Z. Danielewski's ''
House of Leaves ''House of Leaves'' is the debut novel by American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published in March 2000 by Pantheon Books. A bestseller, it has been translated into a number of languages, and is followed by a companion piece, '' The Whalestoe Le ...
'' (2000) uses what are arguably some of the most extensive and intricate footnotes in literature. Throughout the novel, footnotes are used to tell several different narratives outside of the main story. The physical orientation of the footnotes on the page also works to reflect the twisted feeling of the plot (often taking up several pages, appearing mirrored from page to page, vertical on either side of the page, or in boxes in the center of the page, in the middle of the central narrative). * Flann O'Brien's ''
The Third Policeman ''The Third Policeman'' is a novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written in 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation ...
'' (1967) utilizes extensive and lengthy footnotes for the discussion of a fictional philosopher, de Selby. These footnotes span several pages and often overtake the main plotline, and add to the absurdist tone of the book. *
David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', whi ...
's ''
Infinite Jest ''Infinite Jest'' is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. Categorized as an encyclopedic novel, ''Infinite Jest'' is featured in ''TIME'' magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. ...
'' includes over 400 endnotes, some over a dozen pages long. Several literary critics suggested that the book be read with two bookmarks. Wallace uses footnotes, endnotes, and in-text notes in much of his other writing as well. *
Manuel Puig Juan Manuel Puig Delledonne (December 28, 1932 – July 22, 1990), commonly called Manuel Puig, was an Argentine author. Among his best-known novels are '' La traición de Rita Hayworth'' (''Betrayed by Rita Hayworth'', 1968), ''Boquitas pint ...
's ''Kiss of the Spider Woman'' (originally published in Spanish as ''El beso de la mujer araña'') also makes extensive use of footnotes. * Garrison Keillor's ''
Lake Wobegon Days ''Lake Wobegon Days'' is a novel by Garrison Keillor, first published in hardcover by Viking Press, Viking in 1985. Based on material from his radio show ''A Prairie Home Companion'', the book brought Keillor's work to a much wider audience and a ...
'' includes lengthy footnotes and a parallel narrative. *
Mark Dunn Mark Dunn (born July 12, 1956 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American author and playwright. He studied film at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) followed by post-graduate work in screenwriting at the University of Texas at ...
's '' Ibid: A Life'' is written entirely in endnotes. *
Luis d'Antin van Rooten Luis d'Antin van Rooten (November 29, 1906 – June 17, 1973) was a Mexican-born American actor. He was sometimes credited as Louis Van Rooten. Van Rooten was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and emigrated to the United States with his parents when ...
's '' Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames'' (the title is in French, but when pronounced, sounds similar to the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
''"Mother Goose Rhymes"''), in which he is allegedly the editor of a manuscript by the fictional François Charles Fernand d’Antin, contains copious footnotes purporting to help explain the nonsensical French text. The point of the book is that each written French poem ''sounds'' like an English nursery rhyme. *
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...
has made numerous uses within his novels. The footnotes will often set up running jokes for the rest of the novel. *B.L.A. and G.B. Gabbler's meta novel ''
The Automation ''The Automation'' is an indie, mythpunk novel by an anonymous author using the dual pen names B.L.A. and G.B. Gabbler, about the god Vulcan's Automata which function off their human Master's souls. Gabbler is known as the "Editor" and annota ...
'' makes uses of footnotes to break the
fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...
. The narrator of the novel, known as "B.L.A.," tells the fantastical story as if true, while the editor, Gabbler, annotates the story through footnotes and thinks the manuscript is only a
prose poem Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...
attempting to be a literary masterwork. * Susanna Clarke's 2004 novel ''
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' is the debut novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Its premise is that magic once existed i ...
'' has 185 footnotes,Grady Hendrix
"Do You Believe in Magic?"
, ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' (24 August 2004). Retrieved 5 January 2009.
adumbrating fictional events before and after those of the main text, in the same archaic narrative voice, and citing fictional scholarly and magical authorities.Michael Dirda
"Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell"
, ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' (5 September 2004). Retrieved 5 January 2009.
*
Jonathan Stroud Jonathan Anthony Stroud (born 27 October 1970) is a British writer of fantasy fiction, best known for the ''Bartimaeus'' young adult sequence and '' Lockwood & Co.'' children's series. His books are typically set in an alternate history London ...
's ''
The Bartimaeus Trilogy The ''Bartimaeus Sequence'' is a series of young adult novels of alternate history, fantasy and magic. It was written by British writer Jonathan Stroud and consists of a trilogy published from 2003 to 2005 and a prequel novel published in 2010 ...
'' uses footnotes to insert comical remarks and explanations by one of the protagonists, Bartimaeus. * Michael Gerber's ''
Barry Trotter Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 1950 ...
'' parody series used footnotes to expand
one-line joke A one-liner is a joke that is delivered in a single line. A good one-liner is said to be pithy – concise and meaningful. Comedians and actors use this comedic method as part of their act, e.g. Jimmy Carr, Tommy Cooper, Rodney Dangerfield, Norm ...
s in the text into paragraph-long comedic monologues that would otherwise break the flow of the narrative. *
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author, YouTube content creator, podcaster, and philanthropist. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including '' The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is ...
's ''
An Abundance of Katherines ''An Abundance of Katherines'' is a young adult novel by John Green. Released in 2006, it was a finalist for the Michael L. Printz Award. The novel includes an appendix by Daniel Biss, a close friend of Green, that explains some of the more c ...
'' uses footnotes, about which he says: "
hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
can allow you to create a kind of secret second narrative, which is important if, say, you're writing a book about what a story is and whether stories are significant." * Dr Carol Bolton uses extensive footnotes to provide the modern reader with a cipher for a novel about the travels of the fictional Spanish travelle
Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella
an early 19th-century construct of Robert Southey's, designed to provide him with vehicle to critique the societal habits of the day. *
Jasper Fforde Jasper Fforde (born 11 January 1961) is an English novelist, whose first novel, '' The Eyre Affair'', was published in 2001. He is known mainly for his '' Thursday Next'' novels, but has published two books in the loosely connected '' Nursery Cr ...
's ''
Thursday Next Thursday Next is the protagonist in a series of comic fantasy, alternate history mystery novels by the British author Jasper Fforde. She was first introduced in Fforde's first published novel, '' The Eyre Affair'', released on 19 July 2001 by ...
'' series exploits the use of footnotes as a communication device (the ''footnoterphone'') which allows communication between the main character’s universe and the fictional bookworld. *
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
's '' Natural History of the Dead'' uses a footnote to further satirize the style of a history while making a sardonic statement about the extinction of "humanists" in modern society. *
Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. A Huguenot, Bayle fled to the Dutch Republic in 1681 because of religious persecution in France. He is best known for his '' Histori ...
's '' Historical and Critical Dictionary'' follows each brief entry with a footnote (often five or six times the length of the main text) in which saints, historical figures, and other topics are used as examples for philosophical digression. The separate footnotes are designed to contradict each other, and only when multiple footnotes are read together is Bayle's core argument for Fideistic skepticism revealed. This technique was used in part to evade the harsh censorship of 17th-century France. *
Mordecai Richler Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and '' Barney's Version'' (1997). His 1970 novel '' St. Urbain's Horseman'' and 1989 novel ...
's novel '' Barney's Version'' uses footnotes as a character device that highlights unreliable passages in the narration. As the editor of his father's autobiography, the narrator's son must correct any of his father's misstated facts. The frequency of these corrections increases as the father falls victim to both hubris and
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
. While most of these changes are minor, a few are essential to plot and character development. *In
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...
's ''
Pale Fire ''Pale Fire'' is a 1962 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire", written by the fictional poet John Shade, with a foreword, lengthy commentary and index written by Shade's neighbor and academic co ...
'', the main plot is told through the annotative endnotes of a fictional editor. *''Bartleby y Compañía,'' a novel by
Enrique Vila-Matas Enrique Vila-Matas (born 31 March 1948 in Barcelona) is a Spanish author. He has authored several award-winning books that mix genres and has been branded as one of the most original and prominent writers in the Spanish language. He is a foundi ...
, is stylized as footnotes to a nonexistent novel. *The works of
Jack Vance John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names. ...
often have footnotes, detailing and informing the reader of the background of the world in the novel. *
Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program '' The Colbert Report'' from 2005 ...
's ''
I Am America (And So Can You!) ''I Am America (And So Can You!)'' is a 2007 satirical book by American comedian Stephen Colbert and the writers of ''The Colbert Report''. It was released on October 9, 2007, with the audiobook edition released several days earlier. The book ...
'' uses both footnotes and margin notes to offer additional commentary and humor. *
Doug Dorst Doug Dorst is an American novelist, short story writer, and creative writing instructor. Dorst is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. He is the current director of the MFA Program in Creati ...
's novel '' S.'' uses footnotes to explore the story and relationship of characters V.M. Straka and F.X. Caldeira. *
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...
and Neil Gaiman's collaboration, ''
Good Omens ''Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch'' is a 1990 novel written as a collaboration between the English authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The book is a comedy about the birth of the son of Satan and the c ...
'', frequently uses footnotes to add humorous asides.


See also

*
Annotation An annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. It can be a note that includes a comment or explanation. Annotations are sometimes presented in the margin of book pages. For anno ...
* Citation *
Hyperkino Hyperkino is a standardized system of referencing and annotating films on digital carriers – attaching related content and analysis to individual frames. The name of the method, Hyperkino, is based on the intertwining of the concepts of textual c ...
*
Ibid. Ibid. is an abbreviation for the Latin word '' ibīdem'', meaning "in the same place", commonly used in an endnote, footnote, bibliography citation, or scholarly reference to refer to the source cited in the preceding note or list item. This ...
*
Nota bene (, or ; plural form ) is a Latin phrase meaning "note well". It is often abbreviated as NB, n.b., or with the ligature and first appeared in English writing . In Modern English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the atten ...


References


Further reading

*Denton, William (2014). ''Fictional Footnotes and Indexes''. Miskatonic University Press. *Grafton, Anthony (1997). ''The Footnote: A Curious History''. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
. . *Zerby, Chuck (2002). ''The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes''. New York: Simon & Schuster. {{Authority control Bibliography Reference Metadata