| Using Content
Notes in MLA Papers
Using content notes is a good way to add depth to your
paper, to provide your reader with interesting additional material
and to impress your audience with the breadth and depth of your knowledge.
What are Content Notes?
MLA style makes use of parenthetical references to document certain
kinds of information (author and page number). This system works well
to allow you to direct your readers to the sources from which you
derived your paper.
But you can add another, very impressive dimension to your paper
by using notes—either footnotes or endnotes—to give your
reader additional information about your topic that might be interesting
and important but that might disrupt the flow of information if you
include it in the body of your paper. Use endnotes and footnotes to
provide material that supplements or explains the primary content
of your paper or to provide additional bibliographical information.
If you plan on using notes, ask your instructor which form he or she prefers.
Footnote Example
This example demonstrates the relationship between the text and the
note if the information is presented as a footnote. The footnote appears
at the end of the page beginning four lines below the text with a
short line called a separator between the text and the note. It is
single-spaced. Footnotes are numbered consecutively throughout the
paper, so notes 1,2 and 3, for instance, might appear on page 1 of
the paper, notes 4 and 5 on page 3, etc.
|
This
kind
of
authoritarian
dominion
over
wives
had
psychological
as
well
as
legal
implications
according
to
Robert
Thompson
(74-86).
He
contends
that
the
pervasiveness
of
such
attitudes
required
reciprocal
attitudes
of
subordination
or
deference
in
the
relationship.
These
attitudes
were
embodied
in
wife
and
child.1
Psychological
characteristics.
.
.
__________
1
For
a
different
point
of
view,
see
Ross, “Survival
Networks
:
Women’s
Neighborhood
Sharing
in
London
Before
World
War
I,”
History
Workshop
Journal
15
(1983)
:
3.
Ross
contends
that
working
class
women
never
learned
the
habit
of
deference
from
their
middle
class
counterparts.
|
**Disclaimer: This web-version of a footnote
example does not accurately depict what an MLA-style example
should look like
because of constraints
with HTML coding. We urge you to consult the discussion above the
example and the MLA Publication Manual itself (available in the
Academic Center,
room 122 of University Center) for a discussion of formatting.**
**Please note that the in the footnote example above, the footnote
is single spaced, while material on the Notes page, in the example
below, is double-spaced just as the text and the Works Cited page
are.
Endnote Example
The following example shows how the same material is presented as
an endnote. All the endnotes are numbered consecutively throughout
the paper. All the notes are then gathered together and presented
in numerical order on a separate page at the end of the text.
This page is labeled Notes and appears between the text and the
Works
Cited page. All bibliographical references made on the Notes page
will be cited in alphabetical order on the Works Cited page along
with the citations from the text itself. The Notes page and Works
Cited page are numbered in sequence with the rest of the paper.
|
This
kind
of
authoritarian
dominion
over
wives
had
psychological
as
well
as
legal
implications
according
to
Robert
Thompson
(74-86).
He
contends
that
the
pervasiveness
of
such
attitudes
required
reciprocal
attitudes
of
subordination
or
deference
in
the
relationship.
These
attitudes
were
embodied
in
wife
and
child.1
Psychological
characteristics.
.
. |
|
Notes 1
For
a
different
point
of
view,
see
Ellen
Ross, “Survival
Networks:
Women’s
Neighborhood
Sharing
in
London
Before
World
War
I.”
History
Workshop
Journal
15
(1983)
:
3.
Ross
contends
that
working
class
women
never
learned
the
habit
of
deference
from
their
middle
class
counterparts. 2The
working
class
neighborhood
in
Edwardian
England
was
a
hostage
to
its
own
ideas
of
respect
ability.
.
.
|
**Disclaimer: This web-version of a footnote
example does not accurately depict what an MLA-style example should
look like because of constraints with HTML coding. We urge you to
consult the discussion above the example and the APA Publication
Manual itself (available in the Academic Center, room 122 of University
Center) for a discussion of formatting.**
Note: All sources given in your content notes will appear on your
Works Cited page along with the material cited parenthetically in
text.
Uses for Content Notes
The list below shows examples of some of the common uses for such
notes. (We’ve single-spaced the
list below to save space. Your notes would be double-spaced.)
Provide a blanket citation:
3 For further studies supporting Jones’s conclusions
see Garrett (1999), Farmer and Wilson (1998, pp. 345-78), and Hart,
Bennet,
and Karloff (1998).
Give Contrasting Information:
2 On the other hand, Smythone (1987) notes a different
result altogether in his work, contending that the overall outcome
of Rommel’s
appeal was negative because external factors like the progress of
the war intervened.
Evaluate a Source:
4 While Berker’s (1996) summary implies that Kohlberg’s
theory of moral development is universal and ungendered, he obviously
fails to understand or account for the impact of Kohlberg’s
failure to include a representative sample of females in his study.
Cite a Major Source Requiring Frequent In-Text Citation:
1 All references to Huckleberry Finn can be found in McMichael,
et al (1990), Concise Anthology.
Explain Methods, Procedures, Tools:
5 The original research group for this anecdotal study
of childbirth practices in the early twentieth century were women
who had practiced
as midwives in New York City between 1900 and 1920. They were limited
to those who had registered with the city to practice under the aegis
of a licensed doctor.
This handout was created from information acquired from the 6th edition
of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and Turabian’s
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations,
6th edition. For complete guidelines on how to format the bibliographical
information
in notes,
see the MLA Publication Manual.
|
