Footnotes and Endnotes: Misused and Misunderstood
Among the formatting elements of Malaysian postgraduate theses, footnotes and endnotes occupy an unusual position: they are simultaneously overused by some candidates (who fill them with substantive discussion that belongs in the main text) and entirely avoided by others (who are uncertain about when they are appropriate). Both patterns represent a misunderstanding of what these devices are for and how they function in scholarly writing.
Footnotes and endnotes serve specific, limited functions in academic writing. Understanding these functions allows candidates to deploy them precisely when they add value and to omit them when they merely clutter the page or interrupt the reading experience.
Footnotes versus Endnotes: The Basic Distinction
Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced, marked by a superscript number or symbol in the text. Endnotes appear at the end of a chapter or at the end of the entire document, marked by the same superscript system.
In practice, footnotes are more reader-friendly because they allow immediate reference without requiring the reader to turn to the end of the chapter. Endnotes, by contrast, are less visually disruptive to the main text and are preferred in some disciplines and institutions where the appearance of a clean page is valued.
Malaysian university thesis guidelines differ on whether footnotes, endnotes, or both are acceptable. Check your institution’s thesis manual for specific requirements before choosing between them.
When Footnotes and Endnotes Are Appropriate
1. Supplementary Information That Would Interrupt the Main Argument
The most legitimate use of footnotes in academic writing is to provide information that is genuinely relevant to the reader’s understanding but would interrupt the logical flow of the main argument if placed in the body text.
For example: if you are discussing a theoretical model in the body of your literature review and wish to note that an alternative version of the model was developed by a researcher working in a different national context — relevant background but not central to your argument — a footnote is appropriate. The main text maintains its focus; interested readers can access the supplementary information without interrupting the argument for those who do not need it.
2. Extended Source Commentary
When you wish to comment on a source in more detail than is appropriate in the main text — noting methodological limitations of a cited study, drawing attention to a minority view within the literature, or explaining why a seemingly relevant source was not used — a footnote provides space for this commentary without disrupting the flow of the main argument.
3. Clarification of Terminology
When using a term in a specific technical or restricted sense that differs from common usage, a footnote can define or clarify the term without requiring a lengthy definitional passage in the main text. This is particularly useful in interdisciplinary research where terms may carry different meanings in different disciplinary contexts.
4. Citation Notes in Some Citation Styles
In citation styles that use footnote citation (such as OSCOLA for legal writing, Chicago notes-bibliography for humanities, or some historical disciplines), footnotes are the primary mechanism for citing sources. In these systems, the footnote replaces the in-text parenthetical citation of APA or Harvard style. Malaysian students in law, history, and some humanities disciplines should check whether their faculty uses a footnote-based citation system.
When Footnotes Are Not Appropriate
Understanding when not to use footnotes is as important as understanding when they are appropriate.
Do not use footnotes for substantive arguments. If a point is important enough to make, it belongs in the main text. Placing a significant analytical claim in a footnote is a signal that the argument structure needs revision — the claim either needs to be incorporated into the main text or omitted entirely.
Do not use footnotes to include evidence you could not fit into the main text. A common misuse in Malaysian theses is placing additional supporting evidence in footnotes when the main text argument is already adequately supported. If you find yourself doing this, the footnote evidence is probably redundant.
Do not overuse footnotes to the point of visual disruption. A page with more text in footnotes than in the main body is a page with a structural problem. If you regularly have multiple long footnotes per page, the material in the footnotes needs to be reconsidered — much of it probably belongs in the main text or should be omitted.
Formatting Footnotes and Endnotes in Malaysian Theses
The formatting of footnotes is specified in your university’s thesis manual. General conventions that apply across most Malaysian institutions:
Footnotes are typically set in a smaller font than body text (10pt when body text is 12pt is standard). They are separated from the body text by a short rule or line. They are numbered consecutively either throughout the chapter or throughout the entire thesis, depending on institutional requirements — check your thesis manual.
The note indicator in the text is a superscript number, placed after the punctuation if at the end of a sentence: This finding is consistent with the results reported by Ahmad et al. (2021).3 In some citation styles, the footnote number precedes punctuation — check the specific requirements of your citation style.
Footnotes in Different Citation Systems
In APA citation style (which most Malaysian postgraduate students use), footnotes are used only for content notes and copyright attribution — never for source citations. All source citations in APA use the in-text parenthetical author-date format. A footnote in an APA-format thesis should never contain a bibliographic reference in the format Author, A. (Year). Title. Publisher.
In Chicago notes-bibliography style, the footnote is the primary citation mechanism. Every source citation appears as a footnote (or endnote), typically in a short form after the first full citation. Students in disciplines that use Chicago style should familiarise themselves with the full citation format required for footnotes in that system.
Conclusion
Used precisely and sparingly, footnotes and endnotes are valuable scholarly tools that allow complex academic arguments to be presented with clean, readable main text while preserving access to supplementary information for interested readers. The key discipline is to ask, for every potential footnote: is this genuinely supplementary, or does it actually belong in the main text? If the answer is the latter, revise the main text to include it rather than relegating it to a footnote.
