

Footnotes are the best option if you’re only providing a small amount of supplemental material and you want to make sure that the reader sees it. Generally speaking, both footnotes and endnotes serve the same purpose. The good things about endnotes are the visual looks of the document won’t be affected and will look clean. Endnotes are written in a separate sheet. One drawback, though, is that if you want to read an endnote, you’ll need to page forward to the end of the work to find it, and then you’ll need to page back to your original place in the text. Endnotes on the other hand, adds the string of texts at the end of chapter, that is if what the author writing is a book or at a different page if it is an article or a document. The use of endnotes also creates a cleaner look on each page, since there aren’t any distractions from the smooth flow of reading. Advantages of Using EndnotesĮndnotes are easier to compile and print, since you don’t have to reformat individual pages to fit them in. However, if a writer relies too much on footnotes, the page can become cluttered and difficult to read. Many writers prefer putting supplemental material in footnotes because there’s a greater chance that the reader will see it. When you want to read a footnote, you just glance down to the bottom of a page. The main advantage of using footnotes is that they’re easier to find. The ones that appear at the end of a chapter are sometimes in a font that’s smaller than what’s used for the rest of the text. Endnotes that appear at the end of a book typically use a standard font size.

In a book, they may appear in a specific section at the end of the book or at the end of a chapter. They’re traditionally printed in a very small font, much smaller than that used for the main text.Įndnotes, on the other hand, appear at the end of a written work, sometimes on a separate page. Footnotes appear at the bottom of the same page as the in-text reference they explain. The main difference between footnotes and endnotes is where they appear within a written work.

This makes it easy to match the relevant text with the supplemental information. Each footnote or endnote begins with the corresponding number or symbol used in the text. When there are only a few footnotes or endnotes, you might see asterisks ( *) and other non-alphanumeric symbols. At the end of a sentence in-text, you’ll see a small number in superscript showing that there’s a footnote or endnote addressing it. They may also contain bibliographic information, background material, or references. They usually explain or expand upon material in the text. Similarities and Differencesįootnotes and endnotes both include material that’s supplemental to the text itself.
ENDNOTE VS FOOTNOTE HOW TO
Read on if you want to know more about when and how to use them. They usually show up in academic writing. What are they exactly? Footnotes appear at the bottom of each page they refer to, while endnotes appear at the very end of a text. What do you do? That’s where footnotes and endnotes come in.
