How to Use Footnotes and Endnotes in Assignments to Cite the Sources?

For an impressive assignment, students need to have accurate and authentic information. However, you just can’t put down the data collected from different sources in your assignment. You have to cite the sources from where you have obtained the information otherwise your work would be considered plagiarized. Citations, referencing, footnotes, and endnotes are different methods to mention the sources in a systematic way. In this blog, our experts have explained what are footnotes and endnotes and how to do referencing in your assignments using them.

What Is a Footnote?

Footnotes are found at the bottom of the page. Unlike citations, they don’t not only indicate bibliographic information but they can also tell the reader about the additional information and comments of the author. When a fact or idea obtained from another source is mentioned in the assignment, a superscript number is placed within the body of the text. The corresponding information or comment can be found at the bottom of the page.

Here’s an Example:

What Is an Endnote?

Endnotes are mentioned at the end of the work, often on a separate page. When citing a source in a book, endnotes may appear at the end of a chapter or at the end of the book. Using endnotes creates an organized and cleaner look on each page. The use of endnotes also provides a smooth flow of reading since there aren’t any distraction on every page.

Here’s an Example:

Footnotes vs Endnotes

Footnotes can easily be found in the written work. When you want to see the source of the information mentioned on a page, you just see at the bottom of the page. While preparing an assignment or any other academic document, people prefer putting sources in footnotes because readers are more likely to see them. However, if the page has too many footnotes at the end, then it can become cluttered; thus difficult to read.

Since endnotes appear at the end of the document or a chapter, they are easier to put together. You need not to reformat every single page to fit them in. However, using endnotes sometimes irks the reader because if they want to read an endnote, they will need to jump to the end of the work to find the source, and then need to go back to the original place in the text

There is no major difference between the footnotes and endnotes as both of them serve the same purpose. Footnotes are the best option for assignments since they generally contain a few sources. However, if you have a lot of sources to mention in the work, then you can go for endnotes.

How to Use Footnotes or Endnotes for Citations?

Citation styles, such as ACS, Chicago A, Turabian, and OSCOLA require the use of footnote citations. On the other hand, endnotes are mentioned in the assignment in Vancouver, IEEE, AMA, NLM, AAA, and ABNT citation styles.

If you want to cite a source using a footnote or endnote, then you have to add a superscript number at the end of the sentence which has the information from that source. This number concur with a footnote or endnote citation, where you put in information, such as the author, title of work, date of publish, no. of pages, etc. Since every citation style follows a different structure, the information that you include may vary.

How to Insert Footnotes and Endnotes in an Assignment

No matter you are using Microsoft Word or WPS Office, you can easily insert footnotes and endnotes in your assignment. All you have to do is just follow these simple steps:

1.Place the cursor where you want to insert the superscript number.
2.Now go to the “References” tab and click on “Insert Footnote” or “Insert Endnote.” You will see a superscript number in the text.
3.The corresponding number for footnotes will appear in the footer and for endnotes, it will appear at the end of the assignment on a specific page.
4.You can type the source in your footnote or endnote citation from where you have obtained the information.

The footnotes will be numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. by default while endnotes will appear in Roman numerals, e.g. i, ii, iii. But, you can change it easily; all you have to do is click the small arrow in the footnotes/endnotes section and select the option you like from the dropdown menu. Each time you mention footnotes on a new page, they get arranged in the chronological order and that fit with the other footnotes on other pages.

Experts’ Suggestion on Using Footnotes and Endnotes

• Don’t use the same number or Roman numeral twice, even if the same source is used more than once.
• The font size used for footnote citations must be smaller than what’s used in the main text of your assignment. The font size used for the endnotes that appear at the end of a chapter is also smaller than the rest of the text. But the ones mentioned at the end of a book should have a standard font size.
• The footnote or endnote number is inserted immediately after the word to which the citation refers. If the footnote or endnote citation refers to a paragraph, then insert the superscript number after the final punctuation mark.
• Footnote numbering is generally reset with each new chapter, but you have an option to number them continuously throughout the assignment.
• Whenever you get an assignment writing task, always refer to your university’s style guidelines to find out whether you should use footnotes, endnotes or in-text citations.

So, this was all about using footnotes and endnotes in our assignment writing. In case it seems an arduous task to you, then you can reach to us any time and ask us to compose your assignments with systematic footnotes and endnotes. We will leave no stone unturned in providing the best work to you that would leave an everlasting impact on your professor!