Are you willing to use footnotes in your research paper? Do you know everything you need to know about their use in academic writings? Get assistance from this agency for an outline of the all the crucial things you need to know about research paper footnotes.

The use of footnotes is one of the methods of citing that is mainly utilized in philosophy and history research papers. They are more hectic than other methods of citation but they are necessary especially if the sources used need short explanations and elaborations. It appears as a superscript immediately after a quote or paraphrase. A reference of the footnotes used is added at the bottom of each page.

They are very essential for lengthy papers such as theses and dissertations. It helps the author to keep track of the sources used in the write up. Many people prefer to use footnotes in their drafts to prevent them from forgetting the information sources. This is an easy and convenient way of referencing as you write. They can further be converted to endnotes.

What are the crucial things you need to know about footnotes?

• Footnotes can be temporary or permanent

Many people use footnotes to keep track of their references in their draft but they remove them in the final draft and use the standard methods of citation according to either MLA or APA format. Some convert them to endnotes at the end of the research paper. Hence, the footnotes are a necessity when writing a research paper but they must not necessarily appear in your final research paper.

• Footnotes can be inserted automatically using Microsoft Word

Hasn’t technology made our work easy? There is a function in MS Word that allows you to automatically insert footnotes throughout the paper and even number them. It is so efficient that it adjust appropriately when you make changes in your paper. This is an excellent way of keeping track of your references regardless of the method you will use to cite at the end of the research paper.

For this feature in Microsoft Word, click Insert, Reference, Footnote and you are ready to go.

• The basic structure of a footnote

The use of footnotes is very easy. You simply insert a standard citation which contains the name of the author, the year of publication or modification, the title and the page number. In subsequent pages, you only include the author’s surname and the page number. You can then have the superscripted numbers at the appropriate places.

• Footnotes are nowadays less popular but they are still used for various purposes

The popularity of footnotes has decreased significantly but it is used widely to keep track of reference sources even though it will not appear in the final research paper. Hence, it is important to know how to insert them for ease of citation.