Session 5: Placement of Notes

1. at the foot of a page
2. in a margin
3. between lines of narrative text
4. in columns facing narrative text
5. on a page facing the narrative text
6. above or below columned or tabular material
7. in a note section at the end of a chapter and/or at the back of the book

There are some general rules for placing of notes:

1. Notes are generally inserted immediately after the full line of text in which they are referenced. You should memorize that notes are Cell 7-5 formatted, meaning they start in Cell 7 with runovers in Cell 5.
2. No blank lines are inserted either before or after a note. If you have more than one note reference on the same line, the notes appear in series (one right after the other) following a 7-5 format for each note in the series.
3. Special typefaces are generally ignored unless needed for emphasis
4. The reference indicator used following the referenced word is brailled before the note. A blank cell preceeds and follows the reference indicator. This means that, in many cases, the reference indicator begins the note in Cell 7.
5. Once the note is completed, the text continues at the left margin.

There are also specific rules for formatting of a notes section, typically found at the back of a textbook. These should begin on a new braille page, unless the notes section follows at the end of the chapter. The new braille page uses the centered word "NOTES" under the running head, separated by blank lines (top and bottom). If another word is used other than "NOTES", use that word.

A transcribers's note (TN) should also be inserted, using this language: "Note references are presented in the following order: print page number, reference indicator, braille line number."

An example is probably helpful. The braille version is available in a separate window. Note that a Cell 1-3 format is used (note starts in Cell 1 with runovers in Cell 3):

Ab Initio Molecular Theory

REFERENCES

1. See references 1 and 3 on pg. 136.

2. (a) L. Pauling, The Nature of the Chemical Bond, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1939, p. 58. The original Pauling scale has been redefined several times and has been extended to polyatomic systems. See: (b) J. K. Wilmshurst, J. Chem. Phys., 27, 1129 (1957): (c) A. L. Allred and E.G. Rochow, J. Inorg. Nucl. Chem., 5, 264 (1958).

3. See, for example, A. Rauk, L.C. Allen, and E. Clementi, J. Chem. Phys., 52, 4133 (1970).

1. Many notes begin on the page on which they are referenced and "wrap" over to the next page. This is common especially for notes at the bottom of the page. In this case, the entire note is brailled on the page containing the reference mark.
2. Some authors like "notes for notes". This is especially true in teacher's editions of textbooks, in which the publisher makes comments for the teacher overlaid on top of the student edition page. For example, take a look at the snapshot of a page (in a separate browser window) from a teacher edition of a student textbook. What the rule says is to add four cells to each "sub" note. In this case, we elected to start our first note in Cell 7 with runovers in Cell 5, and the teachers note started in Cell 11 with runovers in Cell 9. The braille is included for your study