Several common errors with Turabian footnotes . . .

Failing to indent the first line
Adding a p. for page number
Putting the author's last name first
Using a period instead of a comma
Adding a punctuation mark in front of the parentheses
Neglecting the parentheses around the publication information
Leaving out the period in the Ibid. abbreviation
Failing to double-space between footnotes
Failing to single-space within footnotes

Examples of Turabian footnotes done properly

Failing to indent the first line of the footnote:

(the wrong way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

(the right way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

Adding a p. for page number:

(the wrong way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), p. 89.

(the right way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

Putting the author's last name first, as in the bibliography:

(the wrong way to do it)
1. McCollister, Peter, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

(the right way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

Using a period instead of a comma after the author's name:

(the wrong way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister. The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

(the right way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

Adding punctuation mark in front of the parentheses:

(one wrong way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve. (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

(another wrong way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve, (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

(the right way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

Neglecting parentheses around the publication information:

(the wrong way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve. Dallas: DBU Press, 2009, 89.

(the right way to do it)
1. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

Leaving out the period used in the Ibid. abbreviation:

(the wrong way to do it)
2. Ibid., 54.

(the right way to do it)
2. Ibid., 54.

Failing to double-space between footnotes:

(the wrong way to do it)
2. Ibid., 54.
2. Ibid., 54.

(the right way to do it)

2. Ibid., 54.

2. Ibid., 54.

Failing to single-space within footnotes:

(the wrong way to do it)
1. David Threatt, Scripture and the Christian Worldview:

Why We Can't Have the One without the Other (Dallas: DBU

Press, 2010), 23.

(the right way to do it)

1. David Threatt, Scripture and the Christian Worldview:
Why We Can't Have the One without the Other (Dallas: DBU
ress, 2010), 23.

A bunch of footnotes well done (like a steak):

1. Amy Powell, The Disparate Rhetorical Strategies of Writing Center Staff at Religious and Secular Universities (Dallas: DBU Press, 2010), 23.

2. Ibid., 25.

3. Peter McCollister, The Natural Gifts of the Twelve (Dallas: DBU Press, 2009), 89.

4. Powell, 25.

5. Ibid.

6. Joshua Sanders, Information as Marketability: How Both Entertainment and Manufacturing Are Being Replaced by Information in the American Economy (Dallas: DBU Press, 2059), 103.

7. Rane, 72.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid., 45

10. Jared Linam, Why Big Business Needs the Writing Center (Dallas: DBU Press, 2065), 11.

11. Powell, 18.

12. William Greene, Beliefs in Fiction: Comparing the Worldviews of J. R. R. Tolkien and Douglas Adams (Dallas: DBU Press, 2020), 30.

12. William Greene, Calvin's View of Apologetics: Faith and Reason in a Circle (Dallas: DBU Press, 2022), 89.

11. Powell, 54.

11. Greene, Beliefs, 21.

Original material copyright © Mark J. Boone. All rights reserved.