my life

Yeah, endnotes suck. I’ve been tempted to do either the exact same thing (rip out the entire portion of the book that contains the endnotes) or somehow procure a second copy of the book for similar, if less destructive, results. Given that, I do see a slight argument in favor of endnotes: some of the notes were quite long, and had they been placed as footnotes, some pages might have been little more than a single line of body text and a gigantic footnote below it. This suggests to me two things: that the endnotes shouldn’t be so damn long that their hypothetical footnote incarnations would be unwieldy, and that more reasonably-sized versions of the endnotes should be added as footnotes. If there is information that is just vital to include that would make the footnotes too large, they* should end the footnote with “Additional information found at endnote 4″ or something like that.

*"they” = the publishers or whoever’s being bitchy and bastardly about footnotes. Additional information found at endnote 1. :p

Also, I’ve just realized a parallel in the different ways the two of us treat our footnotes in our posting styles: you have paragraph-specific footnotes as the one above does, while I (except for here) have post-specific footnotes, which appear as the one below does. Yours are obviously closer to page-specific footnotes; mine, chapter-/book-specific footnotes. Of course my posts are not known for excessive length, so I’m not going to change my style just for that.

IN CLOSING: I agree that endnotes are stupid little things that are annoying, but since I’m not in the midst of writing a thesis and don’t, at the moment, need to read books that get a kick out of being less accessible, I’m only responding here to a post on someone else’s blog.

K
1. See, publishers/whoever, this would be far preferable to having nothing but a reference. I’ve made the point clear and now am simply going to expand on it with less-necessary information. It would work real good.
Actually, because I’m me, I’m going to ramble on about something else: the use of endnotes in the context of HTML or something similar with hyperlinks and anchors. I don’t mind endnotes if it’s possible to click on the little number that references it and zip right to the note, so long as I can click somewhere after reading the note to zip back to the noted spot in the text. That is the magic of the Intertron, and it works well, but it doesn’t have a good physical analogue (dead trees version) yet. When we get cheap OLEDs or whatever and physical books that are actually computers, then we can have elegant endnotes with HTML capabilities and I won’t mind. Until then, it would be nice if they just weren’t done.
The sad part is that the audience I would most like this to be for is publishers/whoever in the past, and it’s sorta hard to talk to them. So instead I’m talking to people reading this blog and rambling on because I can!
That’s about it.
You may return to your regularly-scheduled lives now.

Diana,

My understanding was that endnotes are at the end because it’s easier to typeset than footnotes at the foot of the page. In this day of electronic typesetting it doesn’t make much difference, but may publications’ style definitions (including the placement of notes) were written long ago.

In general I prefer footnotes because they’re easier to find if I want to see if they say something useful. However, in cases where I’m studying a piece very carefully I prefer endnotes because I can photocopy those pages and have them alongside the main work as I read it. (It’s usually cheaper than buying a second copy and less destructive than tearing out the relevant pages. The library doesn’t like it when I do that.)

As for notes in electronic documents, I’ve become partial to the popup window for that purpose. Many shopping Web sites use them for providing larger photos of products without taking shoppers away from the all-important “add to shopping cart” button.

Dave

That’s the strange bit, you see…footnotes were the accepted standard until right about the time electronic typesetting made them easy…at which point endnotes became popular.

One of my profs mentioned this, from her experience, and I must say I’ve noted that it is, with rare exceptions, true. So that can’t be the explanation.

They’re just trying to piss us off, I tell you. :)

d

Diana,

Could it be a case of the emperor’s new clothes? “If you complain then you’re OBVIOUSLY not a scholar!”

Although with the recent tales of fabricated research that’s been published in peer-reviewed journals, maybe your suspicion that endnotes are placed to discourage follow-up has some merit.

Maybe you should publish an article about it.

Dave

I thought the only people who care about the accessibility of notes are scholars….:)

d

The only acceptable reason to have a footnote is to cite a reference. In this case, an endnote works almost as well.
Authors who put actual information in footnotes should be thrown to ruthless editors.

Ah! A person with a different viewpoint! :)

Whence your rules, Judy? Are you a footnote/endnote reader?

d

Ahhhh–I have no problem with one line of text, followed by a page of footnotes, except, if the footnote requires that much, it should be included in the text. Otherwise, the footnote should leave a paper trail. Only.

I find myself agreeing with the notion that there are limits to how long a footnote should be. If it is important tangential information, there comes a certain point where it should just be called “Appendix A.”

Here’s another annoyance of endnotes I didn’t mention earlier, and I suspect those doing theses/dissertations/papers requiring copious copies would agree: endnotes mean I have to spend at least another dime/quarter (copies are a quarter at the Archives here!)–sometimes several extra. Endnotes also mean I occasionally forget to copy them, then have to waste time finding/ordering the book again just so I can get the reference to X.

d