View source for Note (typography)

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In [[publishing]], a '''note''' is a brief text in which the author comments on the subject and themes of the book and names supporting [[citation]]s. In the [[book|editorial production]] of books and documents, typographically, a note is usually several lines of text at the bottom of the [[page (paper)|page]], at the end of a chapter, at the end of a volume, or a house-style [[Typography|typographic usage]] throughout the text. Notes are usually identified with superscript numbers or a symbol.<ref name="OCEL709">''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) p. 709.</ref>

'''Footnotes''' are informational notes located at the foot of the thematically relevant page, whilst '''endnotes''' are informational notes published at the end of a chapter, the end of a volume, or the conclusion of a multi-volume book. Unlike footnotes, which require manipulating the page design (text-block and page layouts) to accommodate the additional text, endnotes are advantageous to editorial production because the textual inclusion does not alter the design of the publication.<ref name="OCEL709"/> However, [[graphic design]]ers of contemporary editions of the Bible often place the notes in a narrow column in the page centre, between two columns of biblical text.

== Numbering and symbols ==
In English-language [[typesetting]], footnotes and endnotes are usually indicated with a [[superscript]] number appended to the pertinent block of text. Typographic symbols are sometimes used instead of numbers, with their traditional ordering being:

# [[Asterisk]] (*)
# [[Dagger (mark)|Dagger]] (†)
# [[Dagger (mark)|Crossed dagger]] (‡)
# [[Section sign]] (§)
# [[Vertical bar]] (‖)
# [[Pilcrow]] (¶)<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Bringhurst |year=2005 |title=The Elements of Typographic Style |edition=3.1 |location=Point Roberts, WA |publisher=Hartley and Marks |pages=68–69 |quote=But beyond the&nbsp;... double dagger, this order is not familiar to most readers, and never was.}}</ref>

Additional typographic characters used to identify notes include the [[number sign]] (#), the Greek letter [[Delta (letter)|delta]] (Δ), the diamond-shaped [[Lozenge (shape)|lozenge]] (◊), the [[Arrow (symbol)|downward arrow]] (↓), and the [[manicule]] (☞), a hand with an extended index finger.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/papers/FOR_2005_04_001.pdf |title=Toward a History of the Manicule |date=2005-04-01 |access-date=2013-06-28 |website=The Centre for Editing Lives and Letters |last=Sherman |first=William H. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008235230/http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/papers/FOR_2005_04_001.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-08}}</ref><ref>Many of these symbols are used, for example, in [[John Bach McMaster]], ''History of the People of the United States''</ref>

== Location ==
Footnote reference numbers ("cues") in the body text of a page should be placed at the end of a sentence if possible, after the final punctuation. This minimizes the interruption of the flow of reading and allows the reader to absorb a complete sentence-idea before having their attention redirected to the content of the note.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-12-19 |title=How to Write Footnotes: Rules and Examples |url=https://www.grammarly.com/blog/footnotes/ |access-date=2023-06-10 |newspaper=How to Write Footnotes: Rules and Examples &#124; Grammarly Blog |language=en}}</ref><blockquote>The cue is placed after any punctuation (normally after the closing point of a sentence). ... Notes cued in the middle of a sentence are a distraction to the reader, and cues are best located at the end of sentences.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Waddingham |first=Anne |title=New Hart's rules: the Oxford style guide |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford university press |isbn=978-0-19-957002-7 |edition=2nd |location=Oxford |pages=332–334 |chapter=}}</ref></blockquote>

== 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]]) recommend limited use of foot- and endnotes. However, publishers often encourage note references instead 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 that do not readily fit standard formats, and secondly, to the fact that historians expect to see the exact nature of the evidence that 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 about. The exception to this rule occurs when a sentence contains a dash, in which case the superscript would precede it.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Lab|first=Purdue Writing|title=MLA Endnotes and Footnotes // Purdue Writing Lab|url=https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_endnotes_and_footnotes.html|access-date=2022-01-11|website=Purdue Writing Lab|language=en}}</ref> However, MLA is not known for endnote or footnote citations, and 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]] 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]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rogers|first=Timothy|title=Rupert Brooke: Man and Monument|journal=English|year=1968|volume=17|issue=99|pages=79–84|doi=10.1093/english/17.99.79}}</ref><ref>
Candida Lycett Green (Betjeman's daughter), quoted in [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/passedfailed-an-education-in-the-life-of-candida-lycett-green-writer-475699.html "Passed/Failed: An education in the life of Candida Lycett Green, writer"], interview by Jonathan Sale. ''The Independent'', Thursday 27 April 2006.</ref>

==Government documents==
The [[US Government Printing Office]] Style Manual devotes over 660 words to the topic of footnotes.<ref>{{cite web | title=Chapter 15: Footnotes, indexes, contents, and outlines | work=U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual | url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2008/html/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2008-17.htm | access-date=October 26, 2015 }}</ref> [[NASA]] has guidance for footnote usage in its historical documents.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Guide to Footnotes and Endnotes for NASA History Authors |url=https://history2.nasa.gov/footnoteguide.html |access-date=July 10, 2024 |work=NASA History Style Guide}}</ref>
<!-- Editors: There are more examples/sources in https://web.archive.org/web/20030221040123/http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/pubstyle/ch4_1.htm -->

==Legal writing==
Former Associate Justice [[Stephen Breyer]] of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] 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).<ref>{{cite news | title=In Justice Breyer's Opinion, A Footnote Has No Place | date=1995-07-28 | url =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1DC163EF93BA15754C0A963958260 | work =[[The New York Times]] | access-date = 2008-04-30 }}</ref> [[Richard A. Posner]] has also written against the use of notes in judicial opinions.<ref name=Posner2001>{{cite journal|last1=Posner|first1=Richard A.|title=Against Footnotes|journal=Court Review|date=Summer 2001|url=http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/courtrv/cr38-2/CR38-2Posner.pdf|access-date=2014-10-13|publisher=American Judges Association}}</ref> [[Bryan A. Garner]], however, advocates using notes instead of inline citations.<ref>{{cite web|last=Oddi |first=Marcia |url=http://indianalawblog.com/archives/2005/01/indiana_courts_99.html |title=Indiana Courts - Footnotes in Judicial Opinions |publisher=The Indiana Law Blog |date=2005-01-07 |access-date=2015-11-04}}</ref>

==HTML==
{{Tone|date=February 2024|section}}

[[File:Wikipedia footnote - William Booth (forger) - 2020-07-28.png|thumb|A footnote on the Wikipedia article "[[William Booth (forger)]]", rendered as a "pop up" over the relevant text ]]

[[HTML]], the predominant [[markup language]] for web pages, has no mechanism for adding notes. Despite a number of different proposals over the years, the [[working group]] has been unable to reach a consensus on it.<ref>{{Cite web |title=[whatwg] Footnotes, end notes, side notes |url=https://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2008-April/014485.html |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=lists.whatwg.org}}</ref> Because of this, [[MediaWiki]], for example, has had to introduce its own <code><nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki></code> 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.<ref>[[Jill Lepore]]. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150125141230/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/26/cobweb The Cobweb]", ''[[The New Yorker]]'', 26 January 2015 issue. Retrieved 25 January 2015. Archived from [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/26/cobweb the original].</ref> One solution is the use of a [[digital object identifier]]. As of 2024, the HTML Living Standard has provided several workarounds for including footnotes based on their length or type of annotation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=4.14 Common idioms without dedicated elements |url=https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics-other.html#footnotes |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=html.spec.whatwg.org}}</ref>

In instances where a user needs to add an endnote or footnote using HTML, they can add the superscript number using <code><nowiki><sup></sup></nowiki></code>, then link the superscripted text to the reference section using an [[anchor tag]]. Create an anchor tag by using <code><a name="ref1"></a></code> and then link the superscripted text to "ref1".

==History==

{{Expand section|date=July 2019}}

The London printer [[Richard Jugge]] is generally credited as the inventor of the footnote, first used in the [[Bishops' Bible]] of 1568.<ref>Chuck Zerby, ''The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes'', 2007, {{ISBN|1931229058}}, p. 28 and ''passim''</ref>

Early printings of the Douay Bible used a four-dot punctuation mark (represented in [[Unicode]] as U+2E2C “⸬”) to indicate a marginal note.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} It can often be mistaken for two closely-spaced [[Colon (punctuation)|colons]].

==Literary device==
At times, notes have been used for their comical effect, or as a literary device.

* [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' (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]]'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]]'' (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]]'' (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]]'s ''[[Infinite Jest]]'' 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]]'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]]'' includes lengthy footnotes and a parallel narrative.
*[[Mark Dunn]]'s ''[[Ibid: A Life]]'' is written entirely in endnotes.
*[[Luis d'Antin van Rooten]]'s ''[[Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames]]'' (the title is in [[French language|French]], but when pronounced, sounds similar to the [[English language|English]] ''"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]] 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]]'' makes uses of footnotes to break the [[fourth wall]]. 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]] attempting to be a literary masterwork.
*[[Susanna Clarke]]'s 2004 novel ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell]]'' has 185 footnotes,<ref name=Hendrix>Grady Hendrix, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090116184351/http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-08-24/books/do-you-believe-in-magic/1 "Do You Believe in Magic?"] , ''[[The Village Voice]]'' (24 August 2004). Retrieved 5 January 2009.</ref> adumbrating fictional events before and after those of the main text, in the same archaic narrative voice, and citing fictional scholarly and magical authorities.<ref name=Dirda>Michael Dirda, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57806-2004Sep2?language=printer "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202153839/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57806-2004Sep2?language=printer |date=2 February 2016 }}, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' (5 September 2004). Retrieved 5 January 2009.</ref>
*[[Jonathan Stroud]]'s ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'' uses footnotes to insert comical remarks and explanations by one of the protagonists, Bartimaeus.
*[[Michael Gerber (parodist)|Michael Gerber]]'s ''[[Barry Trotter]]'' parody series used footnotes to expand [[one-line joke]]s in the text into paragraph-long comedic monologues that would otherwise break the flow of the narrative.
*[[John Green]]'s ''[[An Abundance of Katherines]]'' uses footnotes, about which he says: "[They] 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."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Green |first1=John |title=Footnotes |url=http://www.sparksflyup.com/2006/08/footnotes.php |access-date=28 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061125233911/http://www.sparksflyup.com/2006/08/footnotes.php |archive-date=2006-11-25 |date=2006-08-07 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Dr Carol Bolton uses extensive footnotes to provide the modern reader with a cipher for a novel about the travels of the fictional Spanish traveller [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275996974_Through_Spanish_Eyes_Robert_Southey's_Double_Vision_in_Letters_from_England_By_Don_Manuel_Alvarez_Espriella_%281807%29 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]]'s ''[[Thursday Next]]'' 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]]'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]]'s ''[[Dictionnaire Historique et Critique|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 [[Fideism|Fideistic skepticism]] revealed. This technique was used in part to evade the harsh censorship of 17th-century France.
*[[Mordecai Richler]]'s novel ''[[Barney's Version (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]]. While most of these changes are minor, a few are essential to plot and character development.
*In [[Vladimir Nabokov]]'s ''[[Pale Fire]]'', the main plot is told through the annotative endnotes of a fictional editor.
*''[[Bartleby & Co.]]'', a novel by [[Enrique Vila-Matas]], is stylized as footnotes to a nonexistent novel.
*The works of [[Jack Vance]] often have footnotes, detailing and informing the reader of the background of the world in the novel.
*[[Stephen Colbert]]'s ''[[I Am America (And So Can You!)]]'' uses both footnotes and margin notes to offer additional commentary and humor.
*[[Doug Dorst]]'s novel ''[[S. (Dorst novel)|S.]]'' uses footnotes to explore the story and relationship of characters V.M. Straka and F.X. Caldeira.
*[[Terry Pratchett]] and [[Neil Gaiman]]'s collaboration, ''[[Good Omens]]'', frequently uses footnotes to add humorous asides.
*The short story "The Fifth Fear" in Terena Elizabeth Bell's [[Short story collection|collection]] ''[[Tell Me What You See (2022 book)|Tell Me What You See]]'' uses footnotes to make the [[science fiction]] story resemble a historical document.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lutwick-Deaner |first=Rachel |date=2023-01-20 |title="Tell Me What You See" Is A Timeless Collection About Unprecedented Times |url=https://southernreviewofbooks.com/2023/01/20/tell-me-what-you-see-terena-elizabeth-bell-review/ |access-date=2023-04-13 |website=Southern Review of Books |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Feather |first=Heavy |date=2023-01-16 |title=Dave Fitzgerald Reviews Terena Elizabeth Bell's Story Collection Tell Me What You See |url=https://heavyfeatherreview.org/2023/01/16/tell-me-what-you-see/ |access-date=2023-04-13 |website=Heavy Feather Review |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Douglas Adams]] used footnotes frequently in his [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]] series.

==See also==
* [[Annotation]]
* [[Citation]]
* [[Hyperkino]]
* [[Ibid.]]
* [[Nota bene]]
* [[WP:Citing sources|Wikipedia style guide for references]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Denton |first=William |year=2014 |title=Fictional Footnotes and Indexes |publisher=Miskatonic University Press }}
*{{cite book |last=Grafton |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Grafton |year=1997 |title=The Footnote: A Curious History |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=0-674-90215-7}}
*{{cite book |last=Riess |first=Peter |year=1984 |title=Toward a Theory of the Footnote |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter |oclc=717030605 }}
*{{cite book |last=Zerby |first=Chuck |year=2002 |title=The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes |location=Montpelier, Vt. |publisher=Invisible Cities Press |isbn=1931229058 }}

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