Endnotes, similar to footnotes and parenthetical citations, are used to list sources used within a piece of writing, most commonly a research paper. This is done to avoid the appearance of plagiarism on the part of the writer. Endnotes are most commonly used by students of the humanities and social sciences. Endnotes are frequently used because they do not disrupt the flow of the paper's text.
Endnotes are a list of sources that appears after the conclusion of a piece of writing, but before the bibliography. As you write your paper, you use outside sources to back up your ideas and analyses. After referring to your first source within the body of your paper, place a small number 1 in superscript following the pertaining clause or after the punctuation at the end of the sentence. Continue to number your notes chronologically from here until you have concluded your paper.
After you place the small number following the idea or sentence you are using that source for, you will then document the source on a Notes page at the end of your paper. Note number 1 on the Notes page will correspond to the source you used within the body of the paper for that number. Notes should be typed one after another and should be double-spaced.
Although endnotes all share similar properties, how they are specifically formatted will depend on which style guide you are required to use. Remember that APA, MLA, and Chicago styles all require that citations are constructed differently in terms of where and how data like author, title, copyright date, and publisher are placed. Refer to your specific style requirements before finalizing your endnotes.
Many people confuse endnotes with footnotes. Please be aware that they are not the same thing. Although they both use a superscript numbering system within the body of the text, footnotes are placed at the bottom of every page of text and not at the end of the paper. They also disrupt the flow of the paper by taking up space at the bottom of every page.
Do not confuse your endnotes page for a bibliography. Endnotes list specific pages numbers for every source, while bibliographies are simply an alphabetical list of the sources you used. In a bibliography, each source will only appear once while on an endnotes page, sources appear as often as you use them.