Write the quote or paraphrase inside the body of the text. For MLA users, footnotes are used as either bibliographic or explanatory notes; this means that footnotes typically do not serve as a citation method, as the works-cited page holds that function. Instead, according to MLA guidelines, footnotes "refer to other publications your readers may consult" or "refer to brief additional information that might be too digressive for the main text."
Insert the footnote after the sentence's end punctuation. Click on "Insert" in the top menu button for Microsoft Word. Scroll down until you reach "Footnote." Click on "Footnote." Word automatically has footnotes formatted as numbers. If you want numbers, simply click "OK." If you wish to customize the footnote's appearance, click "Options" and make the appropriate changes.
Type the appropriate material within the footnote. If it is a bibliographic footnote, follow MLA formatting for a book. The Online Writing Center at Purdue provides the following example of a bibliographic footnote: "On the problems related to repressed memory recovery, see Wollens 120-35; for a contrasting view, see Pyle 43; Johnson, Hull, Snyder 21-35; Krieg 78-91."
Insert the appropriate information for an explanatory note. Purdue's Online Writing Center provides this example for an explanatory footnote: "In a 1998 interview, she reiterated this point even more strongly: "I am an artist, not a politician!" (Weller 124)."
Type the material that is going to receive the footnote. Purdue's writing lab states that writers should next "insert a number formatted in superscript following almost any punctuation mark." Keep in mind that hyphens are not acceptable punctuation marks to hold a footnote.
Follow the steps from step 2 in the MLA formatting section to insert the footnote format of your choice.
Type in the required information to the footnote. APA footnotes are typically explanatory. Purdue's writing center provides the following example: "1 While the method of examination for the wooly-wooly yak provides important insights to this research, this document does not focus on this particular species."