Difference Between Endnotes And Footnotes: You sure must have noticed small numbers printed over some words while you read, some appear at the end of the sentences in a form of superscript in a book or document. When you see this number and you decide to look down at the end of the page (foot of the page), or at the end of the book, you will see other numbers which matches the one in the book or page itself.
Footnotes and endnotes are used by authors for lots of reasons and purposes. Those reasons could be for bibliographical information, copyright permission, outside sources, explanatory information, citations or some additional details about the topic under consideration. It is important to know that these numbers being used in footnotes and endnotes are placed at the end of a sentence which they are referencing or at the end of any punctuation marks (except for dash) which they refer to and as always, the numbers are reflected at the end of the page or end of the book or document. Both the footnote and end notes starts with the number one (1). In this article, you will get to see the differences between an endnote and a footnote.
Footnote note and endnote are the information which are published at the end of a page or the end of a book, these information are abbreviated addition to the ones above, and it is a detailed information of the referenced sentence.
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What is Footnote?
As the name implies, footnote is a note which appears at the bottom of the page, which is used to site relevant sources, to reference and to provide additional information or details with regards to the numbered part on the page. In simple terms, it is used to add more information in a page.
The use of footnote is expressed through the use of number or symbol placed at the end of the sentence which it is referencing and a corresponding number at the foot of the page. It can be used in books, documents, articles, reports, papers, etc.
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What is Endnote?
An endnote is a note that is found in the end of a document, books, articles, research papers, essays, etc. it contains the source which the facts or information’s and extraneous information’s which were used in the text were gotten. They are mainly used to site authors and titles of the source they were gotten from and they are then arranged in a chronological order, depending on the references used. The endnotes are denoted by numbers or symbols like the asterisk.
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Differences Between Footnote And Endnote
The differences between endnotes and footnotes will be looked into below.
1. A footnote is a note which appears at the bottom of the page, which is used to site relevant sources, to reference and to provide additional information or details with regards to the numbered part on the page. In simple terms, it is used to add more information in a page. The use of footnote is expressed through the use of number or symbol placed at the end of the sentence which it is referencing and a corresponding number at the foot of the page. While An endnote is a note that is found in the end of a document, books, articles, research papers, essays, etc. it contains the source which the facts or information’s and extraneous information’s which were used in the text were gotten. They are mainly used to site authors and titles of the source they were gotten from and they are then arraigned in a chronological order, depending on the references used.
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2. A footnote gives extraneous information to the reader and makes reference to a particular part of the text while an endnote is used to give credit or reference to the text, appearing at the end of the book.
3. Footnotes are used in the footer or end part of the page. While, endnotes appear at the end of the paper on separate pages (after the last write up) of the document, article, book or the section of the book.
4. Footnotes appear on the bottom of the page with no title above it, while endnotes appear at the end of the book, paper, or document with the title “Notes” boldly written at the top of the page. Instead, a short horizontal line is drawn above the note, so as to separate it from the main body of text.
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5. Endnotes are always place before a bibliography depending on the writing style, while a footnote just appears at the end of the pages and has no business with bibliography.
6. Footnote is nothing short of an abridge extension of an in-text excerpt. While an endnote is used mainly by the writer or author to quote references and to provide information about the external sources used in the work.
7. A superscript number refers to an endnote which contains all of the publishing information and the page number for the information referenced. In place of numbers, most online scholarly research articles insert hyperlinks between the note number and the actual note.
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8. The endnote provides all the publishing information it is referring to in a test while the footnote does nothing of such.
9. Footnotes are shorter than endnotes, this is because most information already exist in the text, while endnotes are longer as it includes all information.
10. Endnotes could be distracting for the reader, this is because they would always have to flip to the end of the book to find the corresponding number and decipher what it is talking about. In footnote, you do not need to undergo such stress as the corresponding number and the note are at the end of the page.
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11. The use of footnotes could be stressful when it is time to edit or format your work as this could cause it to start getting mixed up in other pages, therefore giving you more things to edit. On the other hand, endnotes do not cause this kind of mix up or confusion.
12. Mostly, footnotes and endnotes are not used in the same document, book, or paper, it is either one or the other and once one is chosen, it is used consistently. This however, depends on the style of writing, in the Chicago writing style, you can use either footnotes or endnotes with citations which follow the format that was used in the footnotes or end notes. In APA and MLA style, footnotes or endnotes are not used for citations, however, they can be used to provide additional information to the document.
13. The font size of the footnote is completely different from the font size of the text while the endnote font size could be the same with the text.
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In conclusion, the footnote and endnote are two very important part of a text, this is because they are used to convene necessary information to the reader by the author. This information is not highlighted on the title of the text but it could come in the middle of the text, or at the end of the sentence. For these reasons, these notes, (footnote and endnote) are very important because they aid the writer or author in providing relevant information without overburdening the reader or disrupting the reading. The author or writer, always uses different numbering for the two so that the reader can tell the difference between the footnote and the endnote and in turn referred to the correct note.
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.