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How to Use Footnotes in a Research Paper

There are two basic styles guides that you can choose to follow when writing a research paper. APA (American Psychological Association) format is recommended when writing a social sciences research paper. Social sciences include sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, psychology, education and history. For other types of research papers, you can use MLA (Modern Language Association) format. You can use footnotes when you have to cite more than one source at a time, when you feel like you need to comment on a particular source, or when you need to include extra information that doesn't easily fit into your paper's text.

Instructions

- 1
  Enter a number in superscript after the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence that you are footnoting. To type a superscript, highlight the number and choose the superscript option from the font menu on your word processing software. For example, your first footnote will have a number 1 at the end that's smaller than the average size font and located slightly above the rest of the line.
- 2
  Include the footnote on the bottom of the same page where the original text is. Put the coordinating superscript number at the beginning of the footnote. In MLA format, drop four spaces down from the text to start the footnote.
- 3
  Indent each footnote five spaces on the first line. If the footnote is more than one line, the rest of the lines should be flush with the left side.
- 4
  Double-space all of your footnotes in APA format. Single-space the footnotes for MLA format.

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