Footnotes and endnotes provide additional information about what is being said in the body of the text without interrupting the flow of that text. They may contain reference details, such as the name of the author, the title of the work, and the page number where the information can be found. They may also provide parenthetic or interpretive explanations of technical material.
Note
Footnotes and endnotes should not contain essential information because their very location indicates that the author does not consider them required reading.