query

[swatkat]

Which do you prefer, footnotes or end notes?

Comments

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Footnotes. I like instant gratification, kthanx!

Pourquoi?

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Oh, just curious! I was doing some editing and grumbling about references and it occured to me that I really love footnotes. And *hate* when everything's jumbled together at the end of the book. Especially the footnotes contain intelligent asides.

Also, can you imagine Pratchett with end notes?

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Pterry probably has a lot to do with my footnotes preference!

[ms-artisan.livejournal.com]

Footnotes in books, end notes in journals.

Must just be contrary.

[jaybee65.livejournal.com]

You are not alone! I prefer this, too.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Me three, actually, although I don't mind academic papers having footnotes. I like sk56's preferred system best - "footnotes for stuff I need to know to understand what I'm reading, and endnotes for the big excerpts of stuff that just adds to the environment."

[ms-artisan.livejournal.com]

Yes, I like that one too. It's all to avoid flipping around, isn't it?

[shutterbug-12.livejournal.com]

End notes! End notes! =) Footnotes drive me absolutely bonkers.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I OTOH heart footnotes. *End notes* drive me crazy!

[ellixian.livejournal.com]

Endnotes! Footnotes drive me crazy too, IDK why.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Hee. End notes drive *me* crazy.

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

Footnotes are easier to tie in with the text, IMO. <3

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

They are! I hate it when I have to shift back and forth, especially when the notes themselves are a wealth of information, or sometimes enhance your understanding of a point that is already pretty complex.

[wisdomeagle]

I like in-text cites and footnotes for additional information. Failing that, footnotes. Or endnotes for citations and footnotes for additional discussion. Anything to keep me from flipping to the back of the goshdarned book just to see "ibid" three trillion times.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Anything to keep me from flipping to the back of the goshdarned book just to see "ibid" three trillion times.

Word, man.

[sk56.livejournal.com]

I actually like a combo -- footnotes for stuff I need to know to understand what I'm reading, and endnotes for the big excerpts of stuff that just adds to the environment.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

That's the perfect system. I totally agree.

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

When I wrote my thesis last year, my entire class spent my whole 20-page first draft cracking up at my footnotes, and my professor remarked "if you were this snarky, yet concise in your paper, you'd have my job".

So yes, I LOVE footnotes.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Hee. I love them too. Academic papers should always have footnotes, I think.

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

my professor remarked "if you were this snarky, yet concise in your paper, you'd have my job".

I see your professor is still the defending champion.

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

End notes are my bane. That is, if they're consistently nothing but citations, then sure, end notes make sense, but if they include any commentary -- only understandable in the context of the main article -- one has to keep flipping flipping back and forth in order to get anything out of them.

This booklet (http://www.amazon.com/Hoegbotton-History-Ambergris-Duncan-Shriek/dp/B000ETADMM) has the best footnotes of anything I've ever read (and it made me a little jumpy about skipping any footnotes).