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You hear about footnotes and endnotes from time to time. What's the difference between footnotes and endnotes, when are you supposed to use them, and exactly how do they go on the page? There is no editorial difference between a note at the bottom of the page and a note at the end of a whole article. You use whichever your editor likes best, or whichever you think looks coolest. Endnotes are slightly more common these days, if that helps. You must use one or the other if you quote somebody, to show where you found their words. If you paraphrase them without actually quoting, it's still a good idea. There is no one universal format for doing this, or for 'citing', as it's called, or sometimes 'documenting'. In science and legal writing, very often a name and a date will do, in parentheses (Finsterhoffer 1988). Just what this short citation refers to is made clear in a bibliography, or list of everything the project refers to, at the very end. If these short citations tend not to bother with page numbers, it's because in some professions reference articles tend not to be more than a few pages long. The tighter and more common formula goes like this. Put your cursor where your quoted passage ends. Go to Insert (on the Microsoft Word toolbar), click on Reference, then Footnote, and then select Endnotes (as I do, because endnotes are less distracting than footnotes) and hit the Insert button. When you see a blank place to type, put this: Henry Benry, "Mating Patterns in Freshwater Shrimp," Vermin Quarterly 212 (1987): 47. Ever after, if you use this same source again, just say: Benry, 35. That cite in bibliography format, if you want to put a list of everything you've read at the very end of your project, goes like this: Benry, Henry. "Mating Patterns in Freshwater Shrimp." Vermin Quarterly 212 (1987): 33 - 48. This format will make most editors happy. It derives from The Chicago Manual of Style (from the University of Chicago Press, currently in its 15th edition) which is the closest the English language has to a single editing standard for citations (and punctuation and a lot of other things). There are other style sheets (as these reference books are confusingly called). Always use the one your editor wants. But in the absence of an editor, Chicago style is safe to follow. There is referencing software you can buy. This keeps track of your research titles, does fast cites for you, and compiles bibliographies like lightning. Get to know the various packages before you buy any. They're quite powerful, but they tend to be written with particular professions in mind. So they may try to force you to use formats you don't want to use. Meanwhile, do it like I've shown, and you'll be fine. dissertation
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