This is embarrassing, but can anyone point me in the direction of a guide to the correct way to cite news articles and other resources for the non-fiction book I'm writing? I'm talking about the specific, physical way to get MS word to put whatever I need on the page. I'm autistic, so sometimes it's hard for me to figure out things that everyone else seems to just already know. I know I need a works cited page for my book, because I have several references to news articles, as well as images from the internet. But I'm not exactly sure how to do it. Is this just the old MLA rules we were supposed to follow for papers we wrote in high school, or is the system slightly different for books? Am I supposed to leave references at the bottom of the page or the back of the book, and again, how exactly do I do that on my computer? I was sure there would be some Youtube videos out there about this subject but I couldn't find any. Anyone who can point me in the right direction, even just through just sharing links to pre-existing guides, would be much appreciated.
The notes at the bottom of the page are called footnotes, and the ones at the end of the book are called endnotes. You can google 'how to make footnotes and endnotes in ___________' (name of word processor). As an example, here's a page on how to do it in Word: Insert Footnotes and Endnotes in Word (... and now I see word is indeed what you're using. Sorry, didn't notice that before.) Sorry, but I don't have an answer for the rest of your questions.
Unless you are writing for a publisher with a preference, it's your choice whether to use footnotes or end notes. Personally, I prefer footnotes. HOWEVER -- if you will be doing both a printed edition and an e-book edition, it is my understanding that e-books always use end notes. That might influence your decision. I found several YouTube videos on how to insert footnotes and end notes in Word. Most of them were - well, "terrible" is as good a word as any to describe them. Here's a link to one that seems fairly clear and understandable: That said, Word will not write the foot note for you. All it does is insert the number and take you to the bottom of the page, where you type in the citation information. Let's suppose you wanted to cite a statistic about the 1993 banana harvest in Brazil from a New York Times article that appeared on August 13, 2020. The name of the publication should be in italics, and the name of the article should be enclosed in quotation marks. So a proper citation would be something like: 2. John Doe with Jane Doe, New York Times, "Brazilian Banana Harvest Below Average Due To Drought," August 13, 2020, Section 2, p. 5 I like to set footnotes in slightly smaller type. If the body of my book is set in 11-point type, I would set the footnotes in 10-point. Here are a couple of links to discussions about whether it's better to use footnotes or endnotes: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/should-you-use-footnotes-or-endnotes/ https://www.dictionary.com/e/footnotes-vs-endnotes/ I found a number of other articles on the question, and they all seemed to agree that current usage is more in favor of endnotes, not because they are better but because they are easier and cheaper for the publisher if the text gets edited after the book has been typeset. If you will be typesetting and formatting your book yourself, that's not a concern. Word will handle it automatically.
Wait a minute -- I just re-read your opening post. This is for a NOVEL? I've never heard of citing a news article in a novel. Are you going to be actually citing real-world articles from real newspapers, or is the novel going to be mentioning fictional articles in fictional newspapers? I'm confused. The title of your post says "Novel," but the text of your post says "non-fiction."
I am assuming you are writing a non-fiction book, and that is why you need to know what reference system to use to cite a newspaper article. Depending on the subject of your book, you might have to use a different style guide. I think the most used are the MLA and the Chicago Manual of Style. Here is a comprehensive guide where you can find which style you should use. This link is for the Chicago Manual of Style (aka CMOS), under "CMOS Formatting and Style Guide" at the bottom on the right panel, you can read in which fields this style is used: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/chicago_style_introduction.html On the left handside, there are links to all the other styles, and under the same label of "Formatting and Style Guide" you can find the fields each of them is preferentially used. Alternatively, you can pick a published book in the field you want to publish in and check which style the book uses. Note that style guides are not only for formatting footnotes and references, but also provide guidelines on how to format chapters, indexes, etc. Hope this helps.
