Research Tips: Footnotes & Parenthetical Citation

Footnotes

These are examples of different footnotes, as if they were in sequential order. The blue text afterward explains the rationale for that formatting - take note!

1a. Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, foreword by David Henry Hwang (New York: HarperCollins, 1997), 21.: Note: First time a source is cited. All information is required, unless you follow the instructions in (4) below.
1b. Peasant Ho as quoted in Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, foreword by David Henry Hwang (New York: HarperCollins, 1997), 21.: Note: Example represents how to refer to a quotation lifted from a book or article.
2. Ibid., 35. See also Tariq Ali and Susan Watkins, 1968: Marching in the Streets (New York: Free Press, 1998), 56. The graphic image used in Ali and Watkins' study is especially illustrative of the process described by Jiang.: Note: When a source is immediately repeated, you may use "IBID." If you do not use IBID., skip to (4) below. Please note that IBID. always takes a period. Footnotes also may be used to expand on ideas and to direct readers to sources not necessarily cited in the text, as in this case.
3a. Bertram Gordon, "The Eyes of the Marcher: Paris, May 1968 -- Theory and Its Consequences," in Gerard J. DeGroot, ed., Student Protest: The Sixties and After (London: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998), 39-53.: Note: This is the format for a chapter located in a collection of essays. Since this is the first time the sources is cited, full information is given.
3b. Joann Dimwit, "Raising the Flag," Journal of Inconsequential Studies, 29 (1972), 25.: Note: This citation shows how to refer to an article in a scholarly journal.
4a. Jiang, 57. If you give a complete citation in your bibliography, you may use the short version in your text.: Note: Whenever a source is used again (but not immediately following an earlier citation), you must cite the last name of the author followed by the page number.
4b. Jiang, Red Scarf Girl, 57. Include a shortened title if you use two sources by the same author.
5. JoAnne Fisher, "The Chinese Cultural Revolution," New York Times Magazine, June 1968, 53-72; "Will Mao Stop?," Time, 27 May 1968, 5.: Note: These are the proper formats for newspapers and magazine articles.
6. Lecture notes from presentation by Prof. Eric Zolov, 20 January, 2000. Franklin & Marshall College.: Note: This is the format for class notes or other public presentations.
7. Quoted from the video, The Legacy of Mao (Boston: WGBH Productions, 1997). See also the Hollywood production dealing with Vietnam, Full Metal Jacket (Dir. Oliver Stone, 1987).: Note: This is the format for video and films.
8. Harvey Wallbanger (Prof. of History, Franklin & Marshall College), interview by author, tape recording [or notes from conversation"], Lancaster, PA, 15 March 2000.: Note: This is the format for oral interviews.

Parenthetical Citation

References in the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited. The information in your parenthetical references in the text must match the corresponding information in the entries in your lists of works cited. To avoid interrupting the flow of your writing, place the parenthetical reference where a pause would naturally occur (preferably at the end of a sentence), as near as possible to the material documented.

Author's name in text

MLA style

Tannen has argued this point (178-85).
You only need to indicate page numbers, since the author's name appears in the text.

APA style

Tannen (1994) has argued this point.
Date of publication is placed after author's name.

Chicago style

Tannen (1994) has argued this point.
Date of publication is placed after author's name.

Author's name in list of works cited

MLA style

This point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85).
Author's name and page numbers are placed at the end of the attributed text.

APA style

This point has already been argued (Tannen, 1994).
Author's name and publication date (separated by a comma) are placed at the end of the attributed text. Omit year from subsequent citations after first citation within paragraph.

Chicago style

This point has already been argued (Tannen 1994).
Author's name and publication date are placed at the end of the attributed text.

Multiple authors' names in text

MLA style

Others, like Jakobson and Waugh (210-15), hold the opposite point of view.

APA style

Others, like Jakobson and Waugh (1978), hold the opposite point of view.

Multiple authors' names in list of works cited

MLA style

Others hold the opposite point of view (e.g., Jakobson and Waugh 210-15).

APA style

Others hold the opposite point of view (Jakobson & Waugh, 1978).

Chicago style

Others hold the opposite point of view (Jakobson and Waugh 1978).

Citing two or more works by the same author or authors

MLA style

Shakespeare's King Lear has been called a "comedy of the grotesque" (Frye, Anatomy 237).
The book title (underlined) or journal article (in quotes) is provided. If there is no author, then only the book title or journal article would appear.

APA style

Shakespeare's King Lear has been called a "comedy of the grotesque" (Frye, 1982, p. 237).
Include page numbers if only specific parts of a publication are used. If there is no author, then only the book title or journal article would appear, example, (Anatomy, 237)

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