What's better at the end of a (v long!) online essay about science?
"Footnotes" vs "End Notes" vs "Notes"
I dislike "End Notes" - they're the things no-one except the most wonky (ie, me) reads at the end of a book
"Footnotes" is very academic
"Notes" just seems... abbreviated
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Given that your interest is in finding a home for longer discursions, I wonder if it'd be pair an explicit "detours" section with placing more confined stuff in marginal notes.
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I'm strongly inclined to have just 1 way of dealing with all material parenthetical to the main text. I know it's common to have 2+ ways, but I never like it as a reader, & it's confusing as a writer
Separate "Further reading" sections are fine, esp in general audience books
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Every single time: a decision. And many are lineball. This makes the writer confused, and if the writer is confused the reader certainly will be...
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As a reader, I find this to be almost perfect: gwern.net/Sidenotes. Not something I'm capable of implementing easily myself as a writer though.
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Thanks. I know lots of people love that approach, and goodness knows a lot of my writing is done that way. But I don't like it - it's the wrong form for the function (and doesn't work on mobile).
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