Formatting Footnotes in MLA Style

Generally, you'll need the same information for your footnote that you'll use for your bibliography. The basic entry is:

Placement of footnotes

Footnotes are numbered sequentially throughout your paper, starting with 1. Your footnote must be on the page where it is cited - if you put the notation for footnote 2 on page 3, your footnote must also be on page 3. Indent 5 spaces to start your note. Subsequent lines are not indented (the opposite of a bibliographical citation). Footnotes are placed four lines (two double spaces) below the last line of text on your page. Use single spacing within your note, but double spaces between each different note. If you have to continue a footnote onto the next page, add a solid line across the new page two lines (one double space) below the last line of the text and continue the note two lines (one double space) below the solid line. Footnotes for the new page follow as usual (after a double space).

Examples for first notes

A book by one author      1Herman J. Viola, The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1976) 28.
An anthology      2Kenneth Muir, ed., Shakespeare: The Comedies (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965).
A book by two or more authors      3Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West (New Haven: Yale UP, 1986) 212.
A book by a corporate author      4Detroit Institute of Arts, American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997) 48.
An article in a reference book      5"John Mix Stanley," Grove Dictionary of Art, 1998.
An article in a journal      6David Van Biema, "Beyond the Wardrobe," Time 7 Nov. 2005: 111.
An article in a newpaper      7Eric Lipton, "Deal to Replace Schools After Katrina Is Faulted," New York Times 11 Nov. 2005, national ed.: A1.
A document from an internet site

 (includes title of document, title of page, author of page if known, source of page, last updated, date accessed and URL) 

      8"Yum! China," Yum! China Division, 2005, Yum Brands, Inc., 11 Nov. 2005 <http://www.yum.com/about/china.asp>.
An entire internet site 

(includes title site, author of site, source of site, last updated, date accessed and URL)

      9Cedar Grove: The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, ed. Elizabeth Jack, 2004, Green County Historical Society, 11 Nov. 2005 <http://www.thomascole.org/index.html>.
An online book 

(includes author of book, title of book, editor of page, date posted, source of book, date accessed, and URL)

      10Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments, ed. Bruce Hoffman, 2002, January 2002, Crimetheory.com, 11 Nov. 2005 <http://www.crimetheory.com/Archive/Beccaria>.
An article from an online database 

(includes author of article, title of article, print source of article, print publication date and pages, title of database, source of database, name of provider, date accessed, and URL)

      11Randall C. Griffin, "The Untrammeled Vision: Thomas Cole and the Dream of the Artist," Art Journal 52.2 (Summer, 1993) 69-70, JSTOR, JSTOR, The Lovett School, Atlanta GA, 11 Nov. 2005 <http://www.jstor.org>.
An article from an online periodical (not found through a database) 

(inculdes author of article, title of article, title of periodical, date of periodical, date accessed, and URL)

      12Carlyle Adler, "Colonel Sanders' March on China," Time Asia Magazine 17 Nov. 2003, 11 Nov. 2005 <http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501031124-543845,00.html>.

 

Examples for subsequent notes

After fully documenting a work, you can use a shortened form in subsequent notes. The author's last name, followed by the relevant page numbers is usually enough:

     13Viola 345-47

If you have cited two or more works by the same author, include a shortened form of the title in each reference after the first:

     14Viola, Indian 278.

     15Viola, Image 1-3.