use of footnotes

Fuinseog

I was wondering when you need to use footnotes? At college I used them in any work I wrote but that was for academic consumption. I want to write a book on a topic from Irish history for non academic consumption. I notice some books have them, while others simply have a 'selected bibliography' at the end.

Black Swan

Fuinseog wrote: »

I want to write a book on a topic from Irish history for non academic consumption.

If your target audience is "non academic," perhaps place notes and references at the end of the book, organised by chapter? For an example, see The Lessons of History (1968), by Will and Ariel Durant, which is a short summary work with a "Notes" by chapter at its end beginning p. 105.

Agent Weebley

If it is non-fiction, then footnotes on each page would save flicking back and forth for those that want to fact check.

If it was published online then you would use hyperlinks, right?

Edith Grossman's Don Quixote, had footnotes on each page, even though it was fiction, since she was justifying her most excellent colloquialism translations, as well as sentence modification to suit the meaning.

That's the version I read - fantabulous story

snip---
Miguel de Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547, in Alcala de Henares, Spain. At twenty-three he enlisted in the Spanish militia and in 1571 fought against the Turks in the battle of Lepanto, where a gunshot wound permanently crippled his left hand. He spent four more years at sea and then another five as a slave after being captured by Barbary pirates. Ransomed by his family, he returned to Madrid but his disability hampered him; it was in debtor's prison that he began to write Don Quixote. Cervantes wrote many other works, including poems and plays, but he remains best known as the author of Don Quixote. He died on April 23, 1616
snip---

pickarooney

He died on the very same day as Shakespeare... weird 1











































1. Actually, due to the different calendars in use in Spain (Gregorian) and England (Julian) at the time, Cervantes death took place a full ten days before that of Shakespeare.

Agent Weebley

pickarooney wrote: »

He died on the very same day as Shakespeare... weird 1

1. Actually, due to the different calendars in use in Spain (Gregorian) and England (Julian) at the time, Cervantes death took place a full ten days before that of Shakespeare.

That was an AbFab comment . . . on so many levels.