NJ Family Legal Blog is a great family law blog which provides some good insight and information as it relates to family law in New Jersey.
However this morning in my RSS reader was a POST from them with actual footnotes in the post.
This was a first for me. I have not seen this before even in a legal blog. My first reaction was to unsubscribe and remove them from my RSS reader. And then I stopped myself. Then, I just wanted to know why do some lawyers feel the need to include footnotes in a blog post. Even if you target audience is fellow attorneys, why put footnotes in a post. I decided that perhaps the individual who wrote this post did not understand that no one wants to read a post with footnotes in it. Get a clue, this is a blog post, not a law review article. No one is going to be impressed you know how to footnote. And quite frankly, you most likely will turn your audience off.
“If something is so important that you think it needs a footnote, put it in the body of the text.” Don’t use footnotes.
I disagree. I thought that the NJ Family Legal Blog posting was fine.
Granted, I saw the blog's webpage, not the RSS feed, but footnotes on a webpage can serve the same purpose as on a piece of paper–they avoid interrupting the flow of the article but are there in case the reader wants to identify and/or locate the source.
Judging by the length of the post, it looks like the firm just re-purposed an article it wrote for print publication.
Also, the firm's tag line ("pertinent information as it relates to New Jersey Family laws") sounds like it was written by someone who would put footnotes in a blog post, if you know what I mean.
On the otherhand, the firm is to be commended for making some bold color choices that really make its website stand out (see http://foxrothschild.com/Attorneys/Attorney.aspx?….
Well, in full disclosure, I have a blog that directly competes, but I have to agree with Grant. The footnotes don't have a place in blog posts. The blog is targeted at prospective clients, and I'm not sure they care what case should be cited in the post. Especially when the author missed the chance to link to the actual case…
Anyways, it's generally a good blog – I think the footnotes are misplaced.
Victor J. Medina
"…no one wants to read a post with footnotes in it."
Yeah. Who wants clarity, references to established literature, or further reading options all without cluttering up the flow of the text?
"No one is going to be impressed you know how to footnote."
Yeah. SO many people footnote to impress others. That's how I got my first girlfriend! "Hey baby… IBID!" lol
"…you most likely will turn your audience off."
Actually, you may be right on this one. But this is a really sad state of affairs. It drives me nuts when I find newspaper articles that specifically refer to a medical study or legal case and don't provide enough information to actually go look it up ourselves. I'm sorry, but I don't always wholeheartedly trust a reporter's interpretation of certain complex publications. I wish there were more footnoting and citing in the world. Of course it would be best if it could be slipped into the flow of the article, but that's not always practical or necessary. Put it off to the side, or down at the bottom or maybe even on another page if necessary but give me as many options as I could possible want.
Oh, and in full disclosure, I am a librarian so there may be a little bias there… lol