The only real difference is the placement – the footnotes appear at the bottom of the relevant page, while the endnotes all appear at the end of your document. If you want your reader to read your notes immediately, footnotes are more likely to grab your reader`s attention. Endnotes, on the other hand, are less intrusive and don`t interrupt the flow of your paper. Another great use of footnotes is to define or explain a word or idea that may require additional explanation for a general audience. A definition or explanation can be given in the footnote without visual or logical disturbances in the text. The two most common forms of reference in legal writing are in-text references and footnotes. The main difference between them is that references in the text are usually included in the text itself, while footnotes are given at the bottom of the page. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) requires the use of footnotes instead of quotations in the text. Other styles, such as the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA), also allow the use of footnotes. However, while CMS requires footnotes for citations and additional information, the APA and MLA recommend using footnotes only for additional information.
Footnotes are the least intrusive way for an author to provide quotes or additional information on a topic. In some cases, such as when using the Chicago style, footnotes are often used instead of citations in the text with a bibliography at the end of the article. Footnotes allow an author to guide their reader to additional information or further study without disrupting the flow of the sentence. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) uses footnotes as the primary method of citing sources. Although in-text quotations can be used, footnotes are the most typical of this style. As with MLA, footnotes should follow punctuation unless the punctuation is a hyphen. There are more specific rules for placing and numbering footnotes for this style, which can be found in the Purdue Online Writing Lab. In general, it is only in these circumstances that it is appropriate to use footnotes in legal drafting: U.S. legal texts are also known to omit a footnote at the end of almost every sentence, while texts from other countries do much less, usually only after a direct quotation. The reason American journals use so many footnotes is that most American law journals are edited by law students.
UK and European journals are peer-reviewed, meaning that an article will only be accepted if it passes with other academics and/or practitioners. Therefore, the text of the article is reviewed before being accepted for publication. U.S. students are not experts in their field, so they must manually check the content of each individual footnote to ensure it supports the stated thesis. Therefore, U.S. law journals contain excellent sources for researchers, as footnotes direct the reader to a variety of verified information and additional resources. Because American footnotes contain so much information, it makes sense to place them on the same page as the text they support, rather than at the end of the article or book. Sometimes you may be asked to include them, especially if you used a parenthetical citation style.
A “Works cited” page is a list of all works from which you have borrowed material. Your reader may find this more convenient than footnotes or endnotes, as he or she doesn`t need to wade through all the comments and other information to see the sources you got your material from. A “Works viewed” page is a complement to a “Works cited” page that lists all the works you use, whether they were useful or not. There are entire books on how to quote legal authorities. If you are writing a detailed research paper such as a thesis or dissertation, you should consult one of these books in order to properly cite your sources. Your law librarian can help you find these resources. Also, you should be aware that each jurisdiction has its own conventions on how to cite legal authorities, so the case citation style, for example, may not seem consistent when citing documents from different countries, even if the individual citations are correct. Or you can also use endnotes/footnotes for occasional explanatory notes (also known as content notes) that link to brief additional information that might be too digressive for the main text: Although the rules for footnotes vary depending on the citation style used, there are two different purposes for footnotes: “OSCOLA” refers to the Oxford Standard Citation of Legal Authorities, which is available free of charge on the website of the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford (www.law.ox.ac.uk).
The faculty publishes two publications: “Big OSCOLA”, which is more than 300 pages, and “Little OSCOLA”, which is about 30 pages. Both documents give you detailed instructions on how to cite cases, laws, books, journals, and other legal documents. Most people should start with Little OSCOLA unless they are doing a postgraduate degree at Oxford or are asked to use Big OSCOLA. The OSCOLA system reflects a common understanding of how UK judicial authorities should be cited and is a good place to learn how UK and EU cases should be referenced. Notably, the OSCOLA system offers a citation methodology that contradicts American usage, and those whose work involves a large number of American cases may prefer to consult the latest edition of the Bluebook, available in many academic libraries, for American sources. In most cases, students can include their citations in the body of their essays. The quotation can be placed in parentheses in the middle of the sentence (Hansel v Gretel) or can follow the sentence. Hansel vs. Gretel.
The only exception for students is for long-term research projects, where teachers can request footnotes or endnotes. If the problem is entirely up to you, all you have to do is decide which form of notes you find most useful. Footnotes can be thought of as interrupting the flow of text, but they also help the reader follow the argument, especially when the text compares and contrasts different sources. Footnotes are also more useful than endnotes if they contain background information rather than mere sources. In most cases, British and European authors include nothing other than the citations themselves in their footnotes or endnotes, possibly with a “See also” reference to additional material. American authors, on the other hand, fill their footnotes with additional information about the content.