In some cases, footnotes are used to cite source material, but that approach is best reserved for academic or scientific books, whose audiences are most likely to be keenly interested in those details. This approach is useful when you want readers to take in the extra information at the same time as they are reading the text.

*Some researchers believe that he visited his family briefly the following year, but that claim has never been reliably verified. It was the last time he would ever see his family alive.* They can be linked to the relevant words or lines of text with an asterisk or, if they are numerous, with superscript numbers. Footnotes are most useful for asides and brief comments that you want to make regarding the text without interrupting its flow. This works best when the reference is simple and easy to express, such as, “…as Hillary Clinton told the Washington Post in a 2012 interview.”įootnotes: These are lines of text that appear in small type at the foot of the page. In text: Writing a reference directly into the text itself is the most reader-friendly way to cite your sources. It’s useful for you to understand the difference and determine your own preferences, especially if you are self-publishing. Most publishers have a house style and preference for how and when they use each method. There are four ways to deal with citations, explanations and references: In the text, in footnotes, in numbered endnotes, and in contextual endnotes.

Footnote endnote difference