A GUIDE TO PREPARING FOOTNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

GENERAL ADVICE: You should be sure to footnote all quotations, as well as the ideas/interpretations of others.  Students have a tendency to rely too much on block quotes.  If you find an interpretation in a secondary work (e.g. Brinkley, American History) that you want to incorporate into your paper, paraphrase what the author has to say and then footnote it.  Limit direct quotation to the words of historical actors, like Thaddeus Stevens, or to the particularly memorable phrases by the historians you are reading, such as Eric Foner's characterization of what African Americans gained from Reconstruction: "nothing but freedom."1 Be certain always to identify in the text of your paper the person whom you are quoting.  Click here for guidance on citing online sources.

SAMPLE FOOTNOTES:

1. Eric Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction (New York: Harper & Row, 1990), 128.

2. Alan Brinkley, American History: A Survey, vol. 2, Since 1865, 10th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999), 431.

3. James Pike, "The Prostrate State," Documents to accompany Brinkley, American History, 291.

4. Foner, 132.

5. Ibid.

6. J. C. A. Stagg, "The Problem of Klan Violence: The South Carolina Up-Country, 1868-1871," Journal of American Studies 8 (December 1974): 303.

7. Frederick Douglass, An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage. Available [Online]: <http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/suff.html> [14 December 1999].

SAMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey. Vol. 2. Since 1865. 10th ed. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1999.

____________. Documents. To Accompany American History: A Survey. Vol. 2. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999.

Douglass, Frederick. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage. Available [Online]: <http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/suff.html> [14 December 1999].

Foner, Eric. A Short History of Reconstruction. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.

Stagg, J.C.A. "The Problem of Klan Violence: The South Carolina Up-Country, 1868-1871." Journal of American Studies 8 (December 1974): 303-18.