1. Footnotes and Endnotes what’s the difference between them why have them?
Footnotes, as the name implies, are at the foot of the page on which the information you are citing appears in your paper. Endnotes come at the end of the paper. Otherwise there’s not difference between the two. Readers prefer footnotes.
2. Why use them anyway?
Footnotes/Endnotes are used to give credit to the creator of an idea or both an idea and language that you are using in your paper. Not giving credit is theft, which incidentally is what the root of plagiarism means in Latin. Theft in any guise is wrong and will not be tolerated in this course.
2. Dealing with your word processing program to create endnotes/footnotes:
Most of you probably use either Word Perfect (Corel) or Microsoft Word. For those who use the first of these two programs you can access the footnote/endnote function through the pull-down menu marked "Insert," in which you will find a "footnote/endnote" option. Place the cursor arrow here and select that option. At this point the program will lead you through the process (which usually involves just clicking on "OK"). For those who use Microsoft Word you can either use the pull-down menu "Insert" or you probably have the option of a key-stroke command (usually indicated in the pull-down "Insert" menu). Again once you give the initial command, the computer will do the rest.
The word processing program should automatically place a superscript number in your text and boot you down to the bottom of what will now be a split screen (the upper one for your text, the lower one for your footnotes or endnotes). You can the hide the footnote/endnote screen if you want once you have completed your footnote/endnote or you can choose to leave the screen split.
You should go through roughly the same process each time you insert a
footnote or endnote, though as you become familiar with the keystrokes etc.
you'll find you don't even notice what you're doing.
3. The Basics of a Footnote/Endnote Entry
a. Footnotes (and endnotes) are not like bibliographic entries
in format.
First, the author's first name always comes first and then the last name (the opposite of a bibliographic entry).b. A full entry is not required once you have made one full entry in your essay:Secondly, less punctuation and information are required for a footnote/endnote. Here are some standard full entries.
For a Book:
Author First Name Author Last Name, Title in Italics (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), pages to which you want to refer the reader.For an Article:
Author First Name Author Last Name, "Title of Article," Title of Journal volume of journal, magazine or newspaper, issue number (Year and Month of Publication): pages to which you want to refer the reader.
For consecutive citation of a book, for example, you would see the following in your footnote/endnote screen:1 Author First Name Author Last Name, Title in Italics (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), pages to which you want to refer the reader.
2 Ibid. (if citing from the same page) or Ibid., page #. (if citing from another page of the same book)
For later citations of a book after the main entry that are not consecutive you would see the following on your footnote/endnote screen:
1 Author First Name Author Last Name, Title in Italics (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), pages to which you want to refer the reader.
2 Entry for some other author's work.
3 Author Last Name, A few key words from the title, pages to which you want to refer the reader.