Difference between annex and appendix

Question

I have a hard time determining when to use "annex" and when to use "appendix" for information added at the end of a document. I have checked the respective definitions in a number of dictionaries, and I have also googled the difference between the two, but I still find it hard to draw the line sometimes. The following are examples of situations where I find it hard to know which one to use:

1. John has a year's probationary employment at a company. Added to his employment contract, there is a document in which his boss writes a short progress report at four months, eight months and at the end of the probationary period. Is this document an annex or an appendix to the employment contract?

2. A company has an operational plan. Added to this plan are a number of excerpts from different policy documents and laws (one document for each excerpt). Are these documents annexes or appendices to the operational plan?

3. A school has a document detailing procedures for taking in exchange students. Added to this document is a checklist for processing applications and a welcome letter template. Are these annexes or appendices to the procedures document?

I'd be very grateful for any help I could get here...

Answer 1

An annex is an additional document that can stand alone, and contains material that cannot be placed in the main document. Generally (but not always), the author of an annex is different from the author of the main document.

An appendix cannot be supplied without the main document, and contains material which is intended to add greater detail, such as diagrams, notes, examples, etc, to assist understanding of the main document.

Using these, your examples would seem to be:

1. An annex. At the end of the employee's probationary period, the progress report can be read independently, and could be supplied to stakeholders within the company such as HR staff, to use e.g. when determining performance-related issues such as promotion, termination of employment, or increase of salary.

2. This sounds like an appendix. It contains excerpts from other documents which cannot stand alone and are intended to aid understanding of the main document.

3. Also an appendix. It is added to the main document and contains additional material to aid understanding, and use, of the main document.

if you repeatedly find yourself creating material which you cannot easily divide into appendices and annexes, consider whether editing can help them fit into one or other category.

Having very thoroughly considered all of the material, and made any re-arrangements that seem necessary, name and number them appropriately. Where I work, when we create reports and policy documents, we use the convention of naming appendices with letters of the alphabet, e.g. Appendix A, Appendix B. etc, and annexes have numbers starting at 1. You could look at material prepared by others to discover if there is a 'house style', and if you are writing in an academic setting, there is almost certain to be a style guide covering things like numbering of paragraphs, labelling of diagrams and charts, naming of annexes and appendices.