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12 Contestability of the Past

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An assignment may you require that you make footnotes to identify the sources you have referred to in your text.  Footnoting is also referred to as the Notation or Oxford style of in-text referencing. 

In this system a small superscript number is placed in the text to indicate the source of your information or ideas. Corresponding to this brief in-text notation is the full reference given at the "foot" of the page. A bibliography of all your sources is placed at the end of your report. Use Citemaker to create full citations in the APA 7th edition format. 

Checkout the video below to see how to footnote in under 2 minutes!

How to footnote

Video Transcript

0:00 Word processing software tools enable you to footnote easily. Your footnote should be placed at the end of a sentence, and follow any punctuation marks. In Word select "References" from the top tabs, then select "Insert footnote". The superscript number is inserted and Word quickly drops you down to the foot of the page.
0:27 At the foot or bottom of the same page, the same superscript number allows you to provide the full details of the source.
0:35 If you are frequently citing a particular work in your essay, give the full details of the work in your first footnote. In subsequent footnotes for this work, use the shortened format of: author surname, abbreviated title and the page number.
0:54 Direct quotes under 30 words included in the body of your essay are enclosed in single inverted commas, and followed immediately with a superscript number, that refers to a footnote at the bottom of your page
1:08 Your Bibliography should only includes items you have referenced in your assignment. They are listed on a separate page at the end of your assignment titled: Bibliography, and are arranged in Alphabetical order by author's surname, then a comma, then the first initial. The citation should follow the APA 7th Edition style which is the current format.

1:40  Please note that the footnote entries are arranged in a different order: the author's first initial comes first then a full stop and then the surname. Please observe this important convention of footnoting.

Footnotes example in text and bottom of page

To make an in-text citation a superscript number is inserted at the point in your essay where you cite another author's work. At the bottom of the same page  ( foot of the page) the superscript number is used to link to the full details of the author's work cited. 

Footnote in-text example:

... was by no means the first to make this classical connection. As Dr. Peter Londey says of Bean he 'turned for inspiration to the new, young radical democracy of Athens in the fifth century BC'.1 Yet an early report of the Gallipoli landing indicated that the strain of the battle caused discipline to break down and for many soldiers to 'lose they way'.In the intervening years public opinion has oscillated between these two points of view, remaining steadfastly 'pro ANZAC' until the end of the 1950s,3 then anti-war during the 1960s and 1970s, 'settling in the last decade to somewhere in the middleground'.4

At the foot of the page: 

__________________________________________________________

P. Londey, 'A Possession Forever: Charles Bean, the Ancient Greeks, and Military Commemoration  
in Australia', Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 53, no. 3, 2007, p. 345.
M. Lake and H. Reynolds, What's Wrong with ANZAC?: The Militisation of Australian History, Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, 2010, p. 8.
Londey, 'A Possession Forever', p. 352.
Lake and Reynolds, What's Wrong with ANZAC?, p. 38.

Explanatory Note:

  • In the above example,  The full details of the work are give in the first footnote and then in subsequent footnotes, the shortened format of: author surname, abbreviated title (i.e. no subtitle), and the page number. See footnotes 3 and 4 in the example above for the shortened footnote format.
  • Always include the full details of the work in your Bibliography or Reference List.
  • In the footnote citation, the author's Firstname initial is given first rather than the surname. If you create your Bibliography list in APA 7th edition, you'll need reverse the author surname and firstname for your footnote citation.

In-text citations using footnotes

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