Using Footnotes

Last week I added a small feature to this website, changing the way it renders footnotes. That prompted me to write this quick note about how I use footnotes, and how that influences the best way to render them.

In my early years of writing, I avoided using footnotes. My general view was that if it was important enough to worth writing about, it should make its way into the main text, otherwise it should be discarded. That attitude saw me through my early books and my articles (including this site) up till the late noughties.

But then I was writing an article about the technology work done on Obama's 2008 campaign. I found I wanted to add a bunch of details about what was done, but that made the article feel like a laundry list, burying any narrative thread. I found that moving a lot of details to footnotes allowed the main article to be more coherent, but still meant the details were in there for the curious reader. That became the crux of my use of footnotes, they were for details that I wanted to include, but not derail the main thrust of the prose.

My original approach to footnotes was to have a reference as a short link [1] to the body of the footnote at the end of the article. The reader can click on the link, jump to the footnote body at the end, and then use the back button to return to where they were reading. The new rendering allows the reader to click the reference, as before, but now the footnote opens up under the paragraph, so the reader doesn't have to scroll2. I still keep the footnotes section at the end of the article, in case the reader prints the article out.

Another rendering I've seen for footnotes is the sidenote, where the footnote text is put to one side of the page†. The trouble with this rendering is that it's too easy for the reader's eye to glance over and read the sidenote's text. This then breaks the reader's flow of the main text, and thus defeats the purpose of using a footnote. I like the need to click on the reference, because then it's easier for the reader to refrain from the effort to do it. They then will only click as a deliberate act - and I want the decision to follow the footnote to be a conscious choice.3

Since the reader has to click on the footnote reference to reveal the text, I don't think a small superscript fits the bill. So instead I've used a light grey box, hopefully subtle enough to fade into the background, but large enough to invite a reader's finger when using a phone or tablet.

---