FOOTNOTES

I just wrote one of my other blogs on Footnotes in the Bible. And it made me think of footnotes in general. Do you use footnotes when you write? I like footnotes. But before I say anything more, need to admit that footnotes are not popular in these days for a number of reasons. Maybe foremost among those reasons is that editors don't like them. That may not be a strong enough statement. Many editors hate them. And what writer wants to offend an editor? Magazines don't use them at all. If you are writing for a magazine, don't bother. Or rather, find a way to say what you need to without using a footnote. Having said all that, I still like to use them for several reasons.

First, I use them to maintain a little subtlety. I occasionally think of something to say that requires a certain amount of wit or background knowledge to understand. As a reader, I like to figure those things out. Years ago I wrote a magazine article entitled, Filling The Unforgiving Minute. This comes from Kipling's poem, IF. The magazine needed me to tell readers where this came from in the text. But I am now including that article in a book I am writing on hope. Here I would like to give readers the opportunity to remember where the line comes from. But I also want to write a note to those who don't remember.

We also need footnotes to record Sources for what we write. This is crucial for technical writing, or for arguments that make a point. I once heard a joke on preachers who rattle off a lot of statistics in their sermons.

"87% of all quoted statistics are made up on the spot."

If someone wants to quote me in a speech or in writing, I want them to know where I got what I have written.

And footnotes are great for Clarification. In a note I can say, "I meant this." or "I didn't mean that."

I also like to make side Comments in some of what I write. You might call these wisecracks. In my book, JOY, I quoted something from The Magician's Nephew, by C.S.Lewis. I said in the text that this book was the sixth in the Narnia Chronicles and a prequel to the other books. But in a footnote I commented on a publication of the Narnia books that listed The Magician's Nephew as the first book in the series because it would have been first chronologically. I said those who listed the book so were "Philistines."

For whatever reason, footnotes are a means of adding depth to what we write. And even though most readers are in too much of a hurry to bother with them, there is pleasure in such notes for those who take the trouble to read them.

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