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Does anyone here use Endnote when writing humanities papers? I have tried to use it in the past but figured it was a steep learning curve. I installed it again just now and would like to finally know how it works.
Nope, I format my notes myself and just type them in as text. I keep a copy of 16th Edition, Chicago on my desk at home. It has been my experience that none of the programs out there for formatting notes get them right 100% of the time and I end up double checking them anyway. So I have dispensed with trying automated methods and just do it myself.
Phid don't try to use the quick and easy path. It leads to the Dark Side. Prepare your end notes yourself. It is the only way.
Really, licensed copies of Endnote are provided by major universities to aid in the research process. Even outside the humanities, it's used by professionals. It's not some fly-by-night program….from what I gather it's the primary tool used by scholars when keeping track of citations.In the past, like scout I have just placed footnotes in on my own and have kept track of journals and books I've used (sometimes with the help of bibme). The reason I'm interested in Endnote is because of what I hear about it (great for organizing, keeping track of articles, bibliography, etc). Time will tell if this is true for me.
It is better to avoid software so that you can remember the formatting yourself. You will be teaching this stuff to students one day anyway, so better get used to it.
It is better to avoid software so that you can remember the formatting yourself. You will be teaching this stuff to students one day anyway, so better get used to it.
Yes, that is what they say. But really, we all know that in the future, it will be computers teaching students who use computers to write their papers. As the students rely more and more on their computers, the computers will effectively become the students. So in the end, it will be computers teaching computers. 😉
It is better to avoid software so that you can remember the formatting yourself. You will be teaching this stuff to students one day anyway, so better get used to it.
Yes, that is what they say. But really, we all know that in the future, it will be computers teaching students who use computers to write their papers. As the students rely more and more on their computers, the computers will effectively become the students. So in the end, it will be computers teaching computers. 😉
And History teachers will be, well, history. 🙂
Ok, so I have used Endnote X4 on a few papers so far, and I am impressed. It has made footnoting and bibliography creation much easier. There was a learning curve and support for it is not easy to come by, but through trial and error I have managed to make it work. If anyone needs any help while getting started I can try to explain it more easily than other places can.
I say embrace technology. Nothing wrong with understanding how to do it the “original” way, but I agree, everything is digitized. No more typewriters and at least from what I have seen, no professor wants handwritten papers, so the computer is the default standard and I know my main history instructor makes it a point to not only teach history, but to teach the proper use of technology for college level learning and for future history majors.
I have no problem with students using software apps to help them, but they need to understand the format too. It's not that hard to learn, and it's a healthy exercise to boot. Papers don't have to be mechanical drudgery, but they shouldn't be too easy either.
I imagine more and more professors are using things such as Endnote, especially those under 40 or so. I agree that one has to know how to format citations, especially because it's important to know when others (like students) do it right or wrong.Before I was using this, I would finish up a paper and then have to search through all my footnotes and write in "Smith, 93" or "Ibid., 48" wherever I had subsequent citations. If I had more than one work by a single author, I would have to pay closer attention as well. Needless to say, with a paper that has 70+ footnotes, it gets difficult (and time consuming) to fix everything and make sure it's perfect if you're rushing to turn it in. Now I get the citations inserted correctly as I write the paper, and it spits out a bibliography at the end so I don't have to worry about formatting that, either.
I find it harder to use footnote apps than to just do it yourself. MS Word's bibliography thing is helpful, but I'd still rather do it myself and make my own bibliography database.
I always did my footnotes as I wrote the paper and did the bibliography by hand in just a few minutes. I actually enjoyed doing it for some reason.
Funny as I look back at this thread. Within about a year or two of writing this, I was using Endnote all the time for papers. I would say it’s an essential piece of software. Not only does it make formatting footnotes and bibliographies easier, but it makes organizing and keeping track of sources used so much easier. No professional scholar should be without it.
