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Turabian Writing Guide: Footnotes

This research guide provides a brief introduction to Turabian 9th edition.

Writing Center

The Liberty University Writing Center is available to provide writing coaching to students. Residential students should contact the On-Campus Writing Center for assistance. Online students should contact the Online Writing Center for assistance.

Footnotes (Notes-Bibliography Style)

When you first employ a source in a paper, you will use a detailed footnote for the citation.  If you needed to cite the same source again, however, you would then use a shortened version for further footnotes.  The initial detailed footnote contains full reference information and relevant page numbers.  Shortened footnotes, on the other hand, typically only contain the authors' last names, a shortened title, and the page numbers.  In the following examples, the first footnote shows the detailed version, while the second footnote shows the shortened version.

Finally, footnotes should be indented. This is not fully indicated in the examples below but examples in context can be seen here.

Book with a Single Author

1 Katie Kitamura, A Separation (New York: Riverhead Books, 2017), 25.

2 Kitamura, Separation, 91-92.

Book with Two or More Authors

1 Sharon Sassler and Amanda Jayne Miller, Cohabitation Nation: Gender, Class, and the Remaking of Relationships (Oakland: University of California Press, 2017), 114.

2 Sassler and Miller, Cohabitation Nation, 205.

Books with Four or More Authors

For books with numerous authors, list only the first author followed by "et al."

1 Eichengreen et al. The Korean Economy: From a Miraculous Past to a Sustainable Future (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2015), 94-96.

2 Eichengreen et al. Korean Economy, 120.

Books with an Editor

1 John D’Agata, ed., The Making of the American Essay (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016), 19–20.

2 D’Agata, American Essay, 48.

Chapter or Other Part of a Book

1 Mary Rowlandson, “The Narrative of My Captivity,” in The Making of the American Essay, ed. John D’Agata (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016), 19–20.

2 Rowlandson, “Captivity,” 48.

Translation of a Book

1 Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words, trans. Ann Goldstein (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), 146.

2 Lahiri, In Other Words, 184.

Ebook

For online ebooks, include a URL or the name of the database. For other types of ebooks (such as e-reader files), name the format at the end of the citation. If no fixed page numbers are available, cite a section or chapter number in the notes or, if possible, track down a different version with fixed page numbers.

1 Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, trans. Constance Garnett, ed. William Allan Neilson (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1917), 444, https://archive.org/details/crimepunishment00dostuoft.

2 Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, 504–5.

3 Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 88, ProQuest Ebrary.

4 Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, 100.

5 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2007), chap. 3, Kindle.

6 Austen, Pride and Prejudice, chap. 14.

Journal Article

Most articles were originally print journals and don't need a doi, permalink, or database listing in the citation. For articles only available online, include the doi address (the address begins with https://doi.org/).  

If an article has four or more authors, list the first author followed by an "et al."

1 Ashley Hope Pérez, “Material Morality and the Logic of Degrees in Diderot’s Le neveu de Rameau,” Modern Philology 114, no. 4 (May 2017): 874, https://doi.org/10.1086/689836.

2 Pérez, “Material Morality,” 880–81.

3 Shao-Hsun Keng, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem, “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality,” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 9–10, https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.

4 Keng, Lin, and Orazem, “Expanding College Access,” 23.

5 Peter LaSalle, “Conundrum: A Story about Reading,” New England Review 38, no. 1 (2017): 95.

6 LaSalle, “Conundrum,” 101.

Magazine Article

1 Dara Lind, “Moving to Canada, Explained,” Vox, September 15, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11608830/move-to-canada-how.

2 Lind, “Moving to Canada.”

Newspaper Article

1 Farhad Manjoo, “Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy of the Camera,” New York Times, March 8, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/technology/snap-makes-a-bet-on-the-cultural-supremacy-of-the-camera.html.

2 Manjoo, “Snap.”

Book Review

1 Fernanda Eberstadt, “Gone Guy: A Writer Leaves His Wife, Then Disappears in Greece,” review of A Separation, by Katie Kitamura, New York Times, February 15, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/books/review/separation-katie-kitamura.html.

2 Eberstadt, “Gone Guy.”

Thesis or Dissertation

1 Guadalupe Navarro-Garcia, “Integrating Social Justice Values in Educational Leadership: A Study of African American and Black University Presidents” (PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2016), 44, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

2 Navarro-Garcia, “Social Justice Values,” 125–26.

Website Content

If a website doesn't list a date of publication, posting, or revision, include an access date.

1 “Privacy Policy,” Privacy & Terms, Google, last modified April 17, 2017, https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

2 Google, “Privacy Policy.”

3 “History,” Columbia University, accessed May 15, 2017, http://www.columbia.edu/content/history.html.

4 Columbia University, “History.”

Audiovisual Content

1 Kory Stamper, “From ‘F-Bomb’ to ‘Photobomb,’ How the Dictionary Keeps Up with English,” interview by Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR, April 19, 2017, audio, 35:25, http://www.npr.org/2017/04/19/524618639/from-f-bomb-to-photobomb-how-the-dictionary-keeps-up-with-english.

2 Stamper, interview.

3 Beyoncé, “Sorry,” directed by Kahlil Joseph and Beyoncé Knowles, June 22, 2016, music video, 4:25, https://youtu.be/QxsmWxxouIM.

4 Beyoncé, “Sorry.”

Examples are adapted from Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers and the Turabian 9th Edition Quick Guide.