# Adding footnotes in MLA vs Chicago: Key differences MLA and Chicago are two different styles of citation and formatting. Chicago style provides guidelines to different publishers of books and different academic fields. It is particularly used by the author of the fields of social sciences and humanities. It is a gateway to different kinds of genres and formats, from blogs to stories and imaginative fiction due to its broad coverage. Whenever a humanities paper needs to be referenced or cited, use the Chicago style of referencing. This style demands [free essay writers](https://youressaywriter.net/) to put citations at the bottom of the page or the end of the article. **MLA format**and citation style is the new version of the manual citation which focuses on how to quote sources. MLA style is commonly used by the students of literature, theatre or film. This style provides an organizational scheme to keep stuff straight when dozen of sources are used in a lengthy paper. This style provides guidelines about how to quote the sources in the body of the paper. MLA format also breaks down each aspect of your paper formation. ![](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/10/31/13/43/manuscript-203465__340.jpg) Students can ask to [free essay writer online](https://youressaywriter.net/) available on different websites if they do not have any idea about the formatting and citation styles. It is easy to use MLA or Chicago style if you know the difference between these styles. The key differences between these two styles in adding footnotes are as follows: **Footnotes in Chicago Style** Chicago style includes both the notes and bibliography style in it. Whenever a source is cited in the paper, a superscript number is placed in the text. This number corresponds to the footnotes which contain the details about the source. Footnotes are presented at the end of the paper. Footnotes can easily be inserted into the paper by using Microsoft Word. The superscript number or reference number present at the end of the sentence presents the footnotes. Footnotes are written after the punctuation marks except for the dash. Across the whole text, footnotes are numbered consecutively. With a new page or section, the numbering does not restart. The number of a citation followed by a period and citation itself is included in the footnote. The name of the author and the title of the text is always included in the citation. Citation always ends with the period. Information regarding the relevant publication is also included in the footnotes. The formatting of the footnotes is different for books, journal articles, websites or newspapers or [essay writer online free](https://youressaywriter.net/) available for help etc. **Footnotes in MLA Style** MLA recommends the limited use of the footnotes because these distract the readers from the main context. Many publishers encourage the use of the footnotes in the lieu of parenthetical references. Explanatory or digressive footnotes are discouraged by the MLA format and citation style. However, it allows using footnotes just for the bibliographic notes. The footnotes can be used in the MLA for the occasional explanatory notes. These footnotes consist of brief additional information about the text that might be too digressive for it. Footnotes are presented by the superscript Arabic numbers in the text. These are written after the punctuation mark or clause to which you want to cite. If the text consists of a long dash, the footnote will appear before the dash. The 8th edition of the MLA Handbook does not contain the guidelines to format footnotes. The formatting of the footnotes in the MLA citation depends upon the choice of the instructor or the publisher. The usage of footnotes is very different in MLA and Chicago format. Chicago style encourages the footnotes while MLA format discourages it. Some students find it challenging to understand these differences. They can contact [essay writer](https://youressaywriter.net/) to get their customized work.