For the past however many years, undergrad and masters I have never had to use foot or endnotes. Now in the final year of PhD i am of the impression I have no way of getting out of using them if my research is to look, read and feel like an academic piece of work. I am already struggling to get my thoughts into chapters and the foot/end notes seem to throw off my trail of thoughts. I am wondering if I should add them all in during my editing period?!?

Does anyone have any advise as to best practice with flipping end/foot notes?:$

I'm in psychology and I have been told that endnote/footnotes look sloppy in our discipline - like you couldn't be bothered to work out how to put it in the text. I don't think I will have any in my thesis hopefully. I also submitted a paper to a journal recently who asked that the footnotes were removed and put back in the text - they were right it looked much better!

If you don't want to add them then don't, although I would follow the style of your field.

I have loads of endnotes, it is kind of expected, and I need the extra words. The thing is, they are supposed to add information to expand upon a point you have made in your text, rather than being germaine to the argument. so for example I have said at one point that even when working on a joint project, craftsmen still felt pride in their work and the part they played in the whole. The end note contains a bit more information about this, and adds that this was noted when the resoration process was going on in York Minster, where workers had carved their names into their contribution, as a sort of permanent record. You could take the point in the main text as written, or you could look in the endnote to see the justification. you need to choose endnotes or footnotes, and find which one you should be using in your discipline.

I have about 500 footnotes in my thesis. This is normal for my subject (humanities). They include a mix of references to primary and secondary sources, and the opportunity to develop points more fully as appropriate.

I found it easier to write them as I went along, otherwise the task of filling them in afterwards would have been too much. I still had a few to sort out at the end, but just a small number.

Yes, depends what field you're in. I'm in social sciences, and like Sneaks, don't use foot notes at all, everything is in the text. We tend to think that if something is important, it should go in the text and don't use foot or end notes. If your discipline hasn't required them to now, you still might not need to use them.

Thanks for all the responses. I am in Social Sciences so will check which style is used. Though I do like the idea of keeping everything in the text.

Thanks again!:-)