Pro Tip Tuesday #15: Make endnotes clear without context

If your book or article will be published with endnotes rather than footnotes, you can make the reader’s experience of flipping back and forth less annoying by making sure discursive notes are worded specifically enough to make sense in isolation. Avoid using “this,” “it,” “he,” etc., to refer back to something in the main text; instead, repeat the subject. Compare the following examples:

Version 1 (too vague!):

1. Now the August Wilson Theatre.
2. On this issue, see [citation].
3. This has been assumed to be accurate by other writers.

Version 2 (specific enough!):

1. The Guild Theatre is now the August Wilson Theatre.
2. On the issue of the victim’s agency in The Rite of Spring, see [citation].
3. This depiction of the dancers has been assumed to be accurate by other writers.