Footnotes are awesome.  I love footnotes.

I looked up in the MLA style guide recently how to format footnotes.1  Instead I found out something I wasn’t looking for at all, which is that MLA actively discourages the use of footnotes; they prefer endnotes or abbreviated citations.

The theory, I believe, is that footnotes impinge on expository clarity.2    It’s ironic, because I find endnotes to be much more disruptive than footnotes.  You have to bookmark the endnotes section and keep flipping back to it.  Or else scan over the notes to find out which notes are significant and then try to remember when you come a note number that you care about.  

There’s something reassuring about the notes and comments on the bottom of the page.  It’s like having a conversation with the writer. 3  

My favorite footnotes are in Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.  It’s an amazing and deep work that explores the role of ideology in early capital formation.  Fiction-wise, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest definitely takes the prize.

Footnotes are like the original hyperlinks.  Analog links.  I think that’s worth preserving.4    

Why care about this, for writing, for change for communications?  Because it’s worth thinking about how we present and process information.  The form has an impact as well as the content.

-Chris

1.  This is because I am a bit obsessive about grammar, punctuation, and formatting.  (In a good way.)  For writing, but also for PowerPoints and graphics.  I don’t love it when the symmetry or alignment of graphics isn’t perfect.  Also, it’s fun to break these rules when indicated.

2.  Presumably, footnotes are a distraction because the reader has to jump around in the text.

3. …who can insert some meaningful or fun digressions or make ancillary points, in addition to citations.  I sometimes find myself telling a story and calling out a ‘minor footnote’ or a ‘major footnote’ for a good side point.

4. So I decided to defy the MLA and use as many footnotes as  I want.