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Definitions in footnotes for Economics


alldaylongchilling

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Hey,

I read an exemplar extended essay my teacher gave me in economics. The student who wrote it defined the economic terms using footnotes. I would like to do the same, but the problem is that I need to cite sources which I'm doing using the MLA system..

Does anyone have any ideas on how I could still give definitions using footnotes or any other solution except for writing the definitions in the text??

Thanks a lot!

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I'm not entirely familiar with what the MLA style entails myself (nooo clue what style I used for my footnotes!), but can you not just find an economics textbook and use it as a reference for your definitions? I had to define a couple of things myself and I literally just referenced an old version of the dictionary.

If that's not your problem (citing the sources) and you mean you have a problem in that your footnotes are where you're documenting the sources (as opposed to using them for actual footnotes to the text), the easiest solution would probably be just to change the way you're doing your referencing. For instance, instead of using footnotes, it's absolutely fine to just put something like "according to A. Fielding (1976)... blahblahblah" and then at the back to have in your bibliography "Fielding, A (1976): Economics Book, Publisher.. etc.". That way you don't have to use up all your footnotes.

Hope I've not entirely misunderstood your problem! :P

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If you're asking how to give the definitions in the footnotes and cite the definitions still using MLA, then I think what you would do is footnote a definition and at the end of the definition, parenthetically cite the source. I'm not 100% sure on this. I've never done it before. But let's say you're defining inflation:

"1Inflation is characterized by the rise in prices and signifies that a particular currency's value has decreased (Sweetnsimple786)."

Then you would compile a works cited/bibliography page where one entry would be

"Sweetnsimple786's Understanding of Inflation. [insert rest of the citation]"

Does that make sense? I don't know if that's the proper way, but it seems like it would serve its purpose.

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