Jack Dougherty Yesterday it happened again. Every time I teach a class or give a guest lecture about the research-to-writing process, I pose this question: Do you currently use a bibliography management tool to keep track of books and articles you’ve read, so that you can easily cite them in your writing? While of my undergraduates have never used these tools, I continue to be surprised by gatherings of graduate students in reading-intensive fields, such as history, where only half of the audience raise their hands. And when I talk further with the half who use these tools, many confide that they still don’t fully understand how to effectively utilize them. Probably because it’s still uncommon for scholars to openly teach, share, and learn ways of composing our written works, despite the fact that it’s the primary way we evaluate the quality of our students and faculty. This mismatch between the high value we place on writing, and the limited ways we teach about the process, never ceases to amaze me. To address this problem, I’ve blended a three-minute visual demonstration on why and how to use a bibliographic management tool into my broader presentations on the research-to-writing process. This demo is relevant to anyone working on long-form expository writing with source citations, including undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. Incorporating a bibliographic management tool into your workflow may improve the quality of your scholarship, or at minimum, preserve your sanity. While there are several applications on the market, my favorite is, a and open-source application from the at George Mason University. Many people describe Zotero as “iTunes for your books and articles.” But it does much more. And in case you missed this, let me repeat that it’s free. In my three-minute presentation I briefly demonstrate basic ways to use Zotero, such as capturing sources from the web and citing them in the preferred format of your academic field (such as Chicago-style endnotes in history, or APA or MLA in-line citations and bibliographies in the social sciences and literature fields). If you’re an educator for students doing long-form expository writing, consider designing your own quick demo to show in class. Or invite a student to do it. Or point your class to my, which appears at the bottom of this page. Or assign them to read this essay. Zotero for Firefox (left) and Zotero Standalone icon (right) 3) Capture Sources from your Browser into your Zotero Library When browsing sources online, Zotero-friendly websites will display small icons in the search bar (such as a miniature book or article). Click the icon to automatically capture the source metadata into your Zotero library, including any PDF files or web snapshots, if available. Telstra join me software t5400. For example, try saving a book citation from or, or an article from or, or a news story from. In Zotero Standalone, right-click to save current page Also, you may manually enter Zotero entries for items not available on the web. For any Zotero item, type in your reading notes or tags, or sort into hierarchical folders (called collections) by topic. 4) Choose Your Academic Citation Style After creating your Zotero library items, you can easily insert them into your writing using any academic citation style. Three of the most common citation styles are: • Many historians use Chicago-style endnotes or footnotes — — • Many social scientists use APA inline citations with works cited — — • Many literature scholars use MLA inline citations with a bibliography — — You can set your Zotero Preferences to any of these formats, plus many others.
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