However, these rules are not clarified in The Chicago Manual of Style (and other American English style guides). This means that the footnote number comes before the period, even though it is at the end of the sentence. The footnotes are used to reference single entities within the sentence, but one of those entities comes at the end of the sentence.Īccording to The Oxford Guide to Style, it’s good practice to write it in the same way as the example. Here, we are met with an interesting problem. I did not go to The Bank 1 or The Cliff 2.The debate comes from footnoting specific words. There is a bit of debate about this one, depending on the style guide used. Footnotes Before or After Period?įootnotes should always come after a period or full stop when included at the end of a sentence. You could have mentioned “they thought about the war,” 3 instead of worrying about whatever else you said.We do not know what to do about the service, 2 but we’re looking into it.The only time they would come before a comma is if the footnote refers to one word rather than most of the sentence. This allows you to stick to the most common style guides when trying to figure out the best place to put them. Footnotes Before or After Comma?įootnotes should always come after commas. Since only one word is being referenced, it’s common to place a footnote after the word rather than the punctuation. The capacities 3 and the liabilities 4 should be featured here.The only exception is if there’s a specific word you want to refer the reader to rather than the sentence as a whole: It should not come directly after “Event.” 1Īs you can see, “1” is used as the footnote reference. I did not know what to tell her about The Southern Event.Most famous style guides, like AP Style, The Chicago Manual of Style, and The Oxford Guide to Style, agree that footnotes come after punctuation like this:

This is most apparent in The Oxford Guide to Style. The only time you wouldn’t place them after punctuation is if the footnote only refers to a single word. Footnotes Before or After Punctuation?įootnotes are always placed after punctuation when referring to a whole sentence or quotation in your writing. This article will explain how to punctuate footnotes. It allows your reader to refer to something later that might give them a source or way to understand something in your writing. Footnotes introduce superscript numbers or symbols to your writing.

Endnote footnote citation