this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2024
658 points (99.1% liked)

Science Memes

11205 readers
2611 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] tryptaminev@feddit.de 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is all nice and well, until your footnotes are half a page of explanation that was impossible to fit in the text directly.

[โ€“] jadero@mander.xyz 11 points 8 months ago

At that point, I think pulling it out to an appendix is the right thing to do. Whenever I find a book with appendices, I do one of two things.

  1. If an appendix looks like "prerequisite" material, I read it first.

  2. If it looks like "further reading" or "deeper dive" material, I note where it's referenced in the main text and return to it later.

The main reason I prefer footnotes to end notes is the separation of concerns. When a book has end notes, they are usually mixed with citations. I don't mind managing 2 bookmarks or the eReader linking back and forth, but I really dislike following the reference to find that it just points at a whole other book.