Citations 101: Becoming an Endnotes Rockstar

Writing a book or research paper is an exhaustive process in and of itself. Then suddenly, you’re finished—and what’s left for you to do? Citations. The word alone makes you hang your head with stress over accomplishing yet another tedious feat.

However, citations don’t have to be difficult—especially not when you’re using endnotes.

Unlike a bibliography, endnotes use superscript numbers that correspond to a numbered note on the endnotes page. Let’s take a look at how this in-text citation would appear in your manuscript:

Similar to Bob Dylan, I too live “like a rolling stone,”⁴ but I try to keep my mind focused on the present.

Notice how the superscript (⁴) is placed after any punctuation and immediately follows the material pulled from the source being cited. This is the basis for all superscript placement in-text. Easy, right?

For those of us less tech savvy, to make the superscript number in Microsoft Word, place your cursor where you want the number to go and click, then click the superscript number key in the home menu (which looks like this: x²). Type in the number of the superscript, and voila! You have a superscript.

Note that endnotes appear in chronological order, so your first in-text citation will begin with one (¹), the second in-text citation will be two (²), and so on and so forth until you have completed your citations.

Again, on the endnotes page, where the full citations appear, the notes will be numbered chronologically on the page in order of appearance, corresponding to their superscript number in-text (1=¹, 2=², etc.).

Now for the brunt of endnote citations, you’ll need to write out the full citations following the correct format from the Chicago Manual of Style on the endnotes page. My editor tip is to bookmark and write down every citation or piece of resource information as you go. This will save you from backtracking to find all your sources again when it comes time for citations.

Chicago Manual of Style Formatting Rules for Citations

Listed below are the formats for commonly cited sources that you can use as templates for your endnotes. Don’t worry if you can’t find every piece of information, just do your best to fill in the blanks and provide as much accurate information as possible.

This website may also come in handy when researching and formatting citations.

Once you’ve finished, title the endnotes page “Notes,” and just like that, you’re an endnotes rockstar!

Web Source

1. First name Last name, “Title of Web Page,” Name of Website, Publishing Organization, publication or revision date if available, access date if no other date is available, URL.

Example

8. “Illinois Governor Wants to ‘Fumigate’ State’s Government,” CNN online, January 30, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.

Book

1. First name Last name, Title of Book (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

Example

1. Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums (New York: Viking Press, 1958), 128.

Book by Multiple Authors

The same formatting is used here as for a book, but two or more authors should be listed in the order they appear as authors, and not necessarily alphabetically.

Example

2. Scott Lash and John Urry, Economies of Signs & Space (London: Sage Publications, 1994), 241-51.

Film

1. Title of Work, directed/performed by Firstname Lastname (Original release year; City: Studio/Distributor, video release year), medium.

Example

1. Joe Versus the Volcano, directed by John Patrick Shanley (1990; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2002), DVD.

Television

1. TV Series Name, season #, episode #, “Episode Title,” directed by First Name Last Name, written by First Name Last Name (if relevant), featuring Actors’ First Names Last Names (if relevant), aired Month Day, Year, on Network, URL (if applicable).

Example

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 2, episode 9, “The Measure of a Man,” directed by Robert Scheerer, written by Melinda M. Snodgrass, featuring Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and Whoopi Goldberg, aired February 13, 1989, in broadcast syndication, Paramount, 2012, Blu-Ray.

Songs/Musical Recording

1. Name of group/composer/performer, “Title,” contributing personnel, recording date, Recording Company or Publisher, track number on Name of Album, year of release, medium.

Example

1. Bob Dylan, “Workingman’s Blues #2,” recorded February 2006, track 3 on Modern Times, Columbia, compact disc.

Audiobooks or Recording

6. First name Last name, Title, read by Firstname Lastname (City: Publisher, year), medium, running time.

Example

6. Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, read by Claire Danes, et al. (Newark: Audible, 2017), Audible audio, 12 hr., 7 min.