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Hi,
In several endnotes, I would like to include commentaries for example, consider the following:
S. B. Nelson, Nelson's Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Book of Fayette County Pennsylvania, (Uniontown, PA: S. B. Nelson Publisher, 1900), digital version from print, page 358. Google Books. (http://google.books.com : May 2011).
A public record, such as a license, for the ferry was not found, but it is left to his son in the will in 1793.
Would my commentary ("A public record...") immediately follow the endnote on the same line as in: "...May 2011. A public record..."; or should it appear like a new paragraph within the same note as shown above...?
To me it is easier to read, and easier to see that there is a commentary when made a separate paragraph within the same note. Isn't that really the key? To make the text most readable? Please help!
pbaum, customarily the
pbaum, customarily the commentary immediately follows the citation to which it is attached, on the same line and in the same "paragraph." If you are writing for yourself and you want to break the commentary off into a new paragraph, no one will "take away your license" to do research or writing. If you are writing for an editor, odds are good the editor will follow custom.
Okay, thank you very much!
Okay, thank you very much!
pbaum, reading this I wonder
pbaum, reading this I wonder why an annotation concerning public records is attached to a citation for a book, rather than (say) for a tax assessment list, and why the will reference would not be at least briefly explained in your main text instead of consigned to an endnote annotation. Of course, I do not know what the main subject of your text is.
To be sure, I have not seen ferries taxed in the late 1700s in Fayette County, but the annotation "ferriman" as occupation might well appear next to a name in those tax lists. I have looked at a lot of Fayette County tax rolls, but mainly for German, Georges and Springhill Townships.
Good hunting,