What is the difference between Footnotes and Endnotes?

Both footnotes and endnotes are used and located in a piece of writing on a paper. They are seldom confused at most would believe they have the same function. For clarification, a footnote, as the name suggests, can be located at the bottom of a page while an endnote is found at the end of a document or a chapter.

In simpler terms, you can put footnotes on every page of the document you are writing but you can only put endnotes on the last page of a chapter or the whole document. Usually, footnotes contain short texts to show citations while endnotes contain longer and more texts. They also have a different numbering system to help the readers whether they will be looking at a footnote or endnote for more information.

The main difference between footnotes and endnotes are the placement of the notes within the document. The references are known to be placed at the bottom of the page while the endnotes are usually placed at the bottom of the document.

This means that the endnotes can only be seen when the whole document is over or when the section is already done, but you may find the footnotes on each page. The footnotes can be essential if in case you do not know the main points of the page that you have just read. This will help you know what details you should focus on to understand the rest of the document.