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Footnotes _are_ great when done right, but I have to say that inline citations are incredibly frustrating as a reader, because they're harder to skip over. A fo
by barryvan 6y ago
Footnotes _are_ great when done right, but I have to say that inline citations are incredibly frustrating as a reader, because they're harder to skip over. A footnote marker is small enough that your eye can continue over it, whereas a citation like (Just-OK 2020) is much harder to read.
My personal preference is to use footnotes as you suggest -- as a "here's more information for the curious" option -- whereas citations should be linked to a "references" section -- either at the end of the chapter or the book or the overall article.
- abnercoimbre 6y ago> [...] a "references" section -- either at the end of the chapter or the book or the overall article. So footnotes retain the numbering system (1, 2, 3, etc.) throughout the chapter text, but how would you mark sentences for whom a reference is available?
- barryvan 6y agoI'd probably use numbering for the references, and use the array of symbols* available for footnotes -- given that most pages shouldn't have more than a handful of footnotes, and you can restart your symbol order on each page. That's more difficult on longer-form web content, admittedly. * See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_(typography)#Numbering_and_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_(typography)#Numbering_an... for a sampling. These can be doubled if necessary -- so , ††, etc.
- just-ok 6y agoThat’s definitely true, re: inline citations getting in the way. When I typeset, I typically have citations use the ^[1] form I described above (like on Wikipedia) to alleviate this, and typically also use a lighter font color to make them easier to ignore.