If you are telling readers they may want to check out multiple other books that pertain to a certain topic you are discussing, but you don't want to clog up the page and take the reader out of the writing, that would be a good place to use a footnote.Ī citation would look similar to APA, with superscript numbers following the punctuation in a phrase or clause. The MLA guide primarily uses footnotes to direct readers to additional source reading that may be helpful or interesting to them, known as bibliographical notes. Unlike APA, MLA does not encourage the use of explanatory footnotes, but it is allowed if necessary. The Modern Language Association created the MLA style guide, which is widely used in both secondary and post-secondary educational settings.

It should be noted that APA does not typically recommend footnotes because they can be more expensive to print, so you should only use them if you feel the additional notes are crucial to your piece of writing. Its corresponding note should be located on the bottom of the page following the same superscript number. When creating the citation, the number should be in superscript following a piece of punctuation. No citation information is needed, so if you need to add a footnote to give the reader more information, you can simply list the note down below with the additional information immediately following the footnote marker. APA requires citations to be parenthetical, so their footnotes look different than some other guides. In APA style, footnotes are only used to offer a clarifying explanation, rather than to cite information. Its primary function relates to the social science field, but it has become the default choice for many other fields as well.

APA, or American Psychological Association, is the primary guide used in colleges and academia.

Footnote vs endnote symbols