How to Write Endnotes

Footnotes and endnotes can be used for a few different reasons within a written document. Reasons to use footnotes and endnotes include to cite additional references that may be of interest to the reader and to incorporate additional information that isn’t essential to your main point. Endnotes differ from footnotes in that endnotes are included at the end of the document on a separate page before the works cited page, while footnotes are incorporated at the bottom of a given page.

Instructions

MLA Style

1. Open up two word processing documents. One will be for your written document, while the other will be for your endnotes page. For the endnotes page, change the line spacing, located under the paragraph options of the “Format” menu, to “Double.”

2. Change alignment options to “Center” and font options to “Bold.” Title the endnotes document “Endnotes.” Press “Enter” on your keyboard to start a new line and change alignment options back to “Left.” Also, turn the “Bold” format option off.

3. Write your paper in the other word processing document you have opened. When you get to a spot where you would like to insert an endnote, add a superscript number at the end of that sentence.

   In the endnotes document, indent the first line of the endnote five spaces and write your note. To complete your endnote, insert the superscript number that corresponds to the one in your written document at the end of the endnote.

Tips & Warnings

• To make a number superscript, highlight the typed number and go to the “Font” option of the “Format” menu. Check the “Superscript” option listed under “Effects.”

References

• “Keys for Writers”; Ann Raimes; 2005
• A Research Guide for Students: How to Write Footnotes and Endnotes in MLA Style

Resources

• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)