• Software Every Student Should Have

    • A good word processor. Many computers these days are "preloaded" with text editors and off-brand word processors. These freebies are nice, but not what you need for research papers. If you don't want to spring for the best-in-class product, Nota Bene, get a student copy of Word or WordPerfect. Having a reliable, full-featured word processor, with a good speller (!) is, really, a "must-have" for student writers.

    • Home access to the internet. Once upon a time it was acceptable to have access to the internet only through the school's computer labs, but if you want to do well in your studies, you'll make sure you have a connection at home, where you write. You will be able to check information on sources you are citing, verify information in your arguments, and send questions to your teachers.

    • A database program for your notes and bibliographic information on source works. Don't risk losing valuable research time by writing your comments in notebooks that get lost, or tracking source works for authorities on notecards (that can get lost). For the price of a nice sweater, you can get Citation, an excellent program that will help you organize your notes, store information on your source works in a safe place, and write your bibliographies for you, automatically.

  • How Citation Software Can Help You With Your Dissertation and Course Papers

    • Citation Special Pricing for Students
        • Citation is available to students during our special Google promotion for $59 (reg. price $149). Visit the secure order form, or bookmark the site for terrific student savings.

    • The Research Phase
        • As you are researching the topic and issues to be covered in your paper or dissertation, you can use Citation to organize information on potential sources you've identified. When you are reading an article or book, for instance, you will often notice a work mentioned in a footnote that seems like a source work you should include in your own research. If you enter a record in Citation for this work, with the keyword "readlist," you can use Citation later to print a bibliography of these potential sources.

        Having Citation accessible from your word processor's Tools menu makes it easy and efficient to keep track of all the source works you need to consult and have consulted, along with your notes, during the research phase.

    • You'll have a working "reading list" that will help you focus and plan your research efforts.
        • As you are researching the topic and issues to be covered in your paper or dissertation, you can use Citation to organize information on potential sources you've identified. When you are reading an article or book, for instance, you will often notice a work mentioned in a footnote that seems like a source work you should include in your own research. If you enter a record in Citation for this work, with the keyword "readlist," you can use Citation later to print a bibliography of these potential sources.

        Having Citation accessible from your word processor's Tools menu makes it easy and efficient to keep track of all the source works you need to consult and have consulted, along with your notes, during the research phase.

    • You'll have a complete list of works consulted to include in your bibliography.
        • Every work you consult during the research phase will be entered into your bibliographic database, so there won't be any risk of excluding works from your final bibliography that you consulted (and which perhaps influenced your argument), but did not actually cite.

    • It will be easier to take and track all your notes.
        • As you are researching your topic, you will want to take thorough and careful notes that you can use later as you are structuring your discussion and writing. All too often, the harried life of graduate school makes keeping all your notes where you can easily locate them, sort through them, and use them in your writing difficult. Notecards are easily misplaced and word processing documents with notes are sometimes not very effective in helping you organize all the notes on a topic.

        Citation provides you with special note forms in the database and advice to help you organize and store all your research notes. You will be able to keep all your notes at your fingertips, with complete information about the sources from which they came (including the page numbers for pinpoint references in your footnotes), the specific topics and sections of your papers to which the notes pertain.

    • You will have more time to focus on your writing (because the software will help you hunt down notes and references).
        • It may seem daunting, at first, to elect to use a database program to help organize your notes and bibliographic information for your dissertation -- when you have so little time, and so much to do, learning another software program might not seem a wise expenditure of time.

        It is very wise, though, and here's why: Citation requires no more than an hour or so to learn (in most cases, actually, you'll be up and using the program in a matter of minutes). This is because Citation is set up to let you enter information in a way that looks and feels familiar to you - using "notecards" with "labels" for different types of information. The first time you have a paper due at 8 in the morning, and you use Citation to snap out your bibliography with a click, you'll realize just how much time (and frustration!) you can save by using Citation.

        It is true, of course, that one of the reasons you'll be able to generate your bibliography with a click is that using Citation's system helps you to make a habit of entering bibliographic information on your source works as you are reading.

        But it is also true that Citation will automate the process of formatting citations, a feature that will helps conserve your intellectual energy: right now, when you type citations, you have to remember which "bits" to include, how the author's name should be presented, where the italics (or underscoring) goes, and where to put commas instead of periods. With Citation, you won't have to worry about any of that. You'll have a form that tells you what information to enter, and Citation takes care of the formatting. You'll always enter bibliographic information in the same way, in the same place, using one set of rules. Learning to use Citation might take an hour, but it can save you many, many hours of work and worry that contribute very little indeed to the substance of your paper.

    • APA, MLA, and Turabian StyleGuides for Citation help you deal with unusual and unorthodox sources.
        • Most bibliographic works are simple to enter into Citation. Books, articles, and essays are the most common types of works cited, and these source works require no special assistance for adding them to your Citation database, since Citation's data entry forms have fields that clearly indicate the type of information that should be entered.

        If you have a question, though, about how to enter a particular type of work in your database, (a technical report, for instance, a government agency pamphlet, an editorial . . . .) Citation provides you with StyleGuides based on the samples in the APA, MLA, and Turabian Manuals, so that you can easily locate a sample record for the type of source work, enter the data, and let Citation format the citation properly for you when you are ready to submit your paper or dissertation.

    • Preparing a dissertation or thesis prospectus will be a lot easier.
      • You'll be able to browse through & sort your notes by topic easily and efficiently.
          • As you are preparing your prospectus, you will be able to browse through all the notes you've taken on any topic simply by clicking on a list box of your keywords, so you can review the notes and sources you will be using as you are writing.
      • Generate the Bibliography for the Prospectus with a click.
          • All the source works you've used, and intend to use as you write, will be in your Citation database. To generate the bibliography requires only a click.

    • Writing the dissertation or paper
      • You'll be able to browse through & sort your notes by topic easily and efficiently.
          • As you are writing, you will be able to browse through all the notes you've taken simply by clicking on a list box of your keywords, so you can review the notes and sources you will be using as you are writing. Everything will be there, in one easily retrieved and easily searched file.

          Citation provides you with output formats as well, so you can print all of your notes on the topic covered in a particular chapter to a document you can take with you to a coffee shop (or your favorite spot for reflecting and gearing up to write).

      • Generate footnotes and bibliographies with a click.
          • All the source works you need to cite in your paper or dissertation will be in your Citation database. You can use the Short List View of your database to easily locate the source you want to cite, and, of course, Citation automatically formats the references for you in the style required by your professor or graduate school.