Franklin Style Manual Online

Formatting differences between reference list entries and in-text notes

Before coming to the more detailed reference‐list guidelines, it is worthwhile to recall that in‐text notes should refer directly to specific entries on the References page. While in‐text notes essentially repeat the key information of corresponding entries on the References page, for the benefit of readability, those details have slightly different formatting when appearing in the body of the text. Here is a quick summary of how the same information appears differently formatted in the body of the paper versus in the reference‐list entries covered below.

  • Authors’ initials are omitted in in‐text citations unless necessary for distinguishing between two authors with the same last name. However, when the authors are introduced in the main flow of the sentence, you can always put initials or full first names (if you find it helps your purposes). When mentioning more than one author in the main flow of the sentence, use the full word and before the last author, rather than just an ampersand (&).
  • The year alone appears in in‐text notes, no matter whether the full date is listed on the References page. Be sure, however, to provide distinguishing lowercase letters that have been attached to year to distinguish multiple entries by the same author in the same year (see example I. among the in‐text notes above).
  • Titles are required in in‐text notes for unsigned sources only, but you can list the title in the main flow of the sentence if you feel it helps you better position and introduce an important source. No matter where you list titles in the body of the paper, capitalize all major words, instead of just the first word and proper nouns (as is expected on the References page). Also, in the body of the paper, titles that are not italicized, should appear within quotation marks; italicized titles appear as such on both the References page and in the paper itself.



Last Updated: 06/8/2012 17:14