1. Use the same font for footnotes as the rest of the document. As a general rule, you should instead use the same font for your entire article. In Chicago footnote referencing, after giving complete source information in the first footnote, you can shorten subsequent citations from the same source to avoid repetition. These abbreviated footnotes should include the author's last name, an abbreviated title, and cited pages: 1. Alan C. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City: Animals, Birds, How to Write a Footnote of content. Add a superscript number after the word phrases for which you want to add a footnote. Footnotes are usually placed after punctuation. Write the footnote below the line at the bottom of the page. The footnote number must match the superscript number in the text. In most word processors, if you do not include a bibliography, you must give a full citation for the first footnote of each work and abbreviated footnotes for subsequent citations. A full footnote contains the same information as the citation in the bibliography, with some formatting differences, plus the page number of a particular information. Abbreviated footnote citations are a form of citation used to provide additional information or reference sources in academic or professional writing. They appear as superscript numbers in the main text, which correspond to detailed footnotes. These notes contain relevant information about the source, such as: