Sample Footnotes

BOOK

First time you cite the source:

William J. Duiker, Sacred War: Nationalism and Revolution in a Divided Vietnam (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995), 37.

(Note that in footnotes, the author’s name is first name first. Only in bibliography entries do you cite the author last name first.)

Short form (used after you’ve cited a source once already)

Duiker, 47.

(Note that in the short form you only need the author’s last name, a short title for the book – usually the part that comes before the colon – and the page #.)

If you’re using two sources authored by Duiker in your paper, the short form needs to make a distinction between the two so it would look like this:

Duiker, Sacred War, 47.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

First time you cite the article:

Robert Dallek, “Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam: The Making of a Tragedy,” Diplomatic History 20 (Spring 1996), 148.

(Note that in footnotes, the author’s name is given first name first and each element of the cite is separated by commas.)

Short form:

Dallek, 147.

If you’re using two sources authored by Dallek in your paper, the short form needs to make a distinction between the two so it would look like this:

Dallek, “Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam,” 147.

ARTICLE IN AN EDITED COLLECTION

First time you cite the article:

Gareth Porter, “Explaining the Vietnam War: Dominant and Contending Paradigms,” in Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars, eds. Mark Bradley and Marilyn Young (New York Oxford University Press, 2008), 69.

Short form

Porter, 69.

Porter, “Explaining the Vietnam War,” 69. (If you have two sources by Porter)