According to an AP English Language and Composition study guide:

      Footnotes are fairly new to the AP Language and Composition Exam. Footnotes provide information that the author feels is important and believes the reader may not know. Footnotes also provide a record of the author's research so that the reader can check the author's sources and know from where the author has derived his or her ideas. Thus, footnotes help distinguish between the author's ideas and the ideas that have influenced the author. Footnotes can also include a digression that the author feels is interesting but perhaps not sufficiently relevant to be included in the main text.

     There are two odd terms used in footnotes that you might not know. One is Ibid., which is short for the Latin word ibidem, which means, "the same place." It is the term used to indicate that the citation in the footnote is from the same source as the one that has preceded it.

     Footnote 1 (above) tells you that the work referenced by the author of the main text is by Michael Henderson. The name of Henderson's book follows. The information in the parentheses indicate the pages in the source where the information is found. The "Ibid." that follows in footnote 2 indicates that all of the information provided in footnote 1 is the same for footnote 2, except this time the relevant page number is 17.

     The second odd term you may encounter in footnotes is op. cit. This term is short for the Latin opus citatum/opere citato. It means the work referred to in the footnote has been previously cited. Thus, op. cit. is used for a second or later mention of a work when intervening entries have appeared. For example, there might be 15 more footnotes before Henderson appears again. If the reference is the same as the one indicated in footnote 1, then the entry might look like this:

Additional Footnote Informational Sources:

Tutorial on Footnotes & Endnotes

OWL Purdue Resource on Footnotes & Endnotes

Essential Questions:

1. What are footnotes?
2. What are endnotes? 
3. Why not just use a works cited page/bibliography--or traditional in-text citations?
4. How does using endnotes/footnotes lend a piece of writing more ethos/credibility?
5. What should you look for when evaluating an endnote/footnote?  

Your Assignment (Both classes):

Step One: In small groups, be able to answer each of the essential questions. Present the answers to these questions as a short PowerPoint slideshow. Use the resources linked above to guide your responses.

Step Two: Identify the different types of terms in this Kahoot quiz. Wait for the code to allow you in. 

Here are the terms most commonly used in footnotes:footnote terms.pdf

 Study these for the exam!

Stuller:

• Find each of the following types of footnotes/endnotes that appear on the AP English 11 exam. Use Walt Whitman's bank of letters to help you find different type of footnotes/endnotes, as, in many cases, historians have provided additional context or other information to each letter.
• Label each part of the footnote/endnote and/or explain what each part means.
• Types of Footnotes/Endnotes
• Parenthetical/Digression
• Author Source/Citation
• A footnote containing Ibid.
• A footnote containing op. cit.