Doctoral Writing Help

Using Word?

If no better answers come along:

You might post in the computer section, list the program you use if not word.

I've never done footnotes on a computer but they are supposed to just automatically take care of themselves so if there are problems look in the help files - like you probably haven't already.

If it is Word you are using, you might try openoffice/staroffice, or I have a couple of older office suites of different flavors you could try.

 

If they are printing on the wrong page you may have to unclick or click the 'use printer matrix' in options somewhere. Google it to find it for sure and then try itl I had that problem once upon a time.

 

I am assuming that the requirement is for Turabian.

My suggestion is that you obtain Wordperfect. There are versions available that are one or two versions back for as little as $12. It handles Turabian a whole lot better than Word.

If you are insistent on staying in Word your will pobably need to check your preferences for your refernences as "under text" as opposed to "end of page".

 

I switched from Word Perfect back in my seminary days because handling footnotes in turabian style was somewhere between cumbersome and well nigh impossible.

I never had any real problem once I started using Word and figured out how tot make the style for footnote text.

 

I've had the same problem.........one prof told us that it was a bug in Word, and that somone at school had spent 7 hours on the Microsoft help line trying to figure it out. Allegedly it does it with no pattern, and also is supposed to add a line all the way across the bottom of the page. I can't confirm that, though. When it happened to me, it was not on a dissertation, just a class paper. I just ignored it until I was finished, then would rephrase sentences near the footnote to increase or decrease the length of the sentences, so that the footnotes would appear on the correct page. (if you bump the footnote to the next page, it sometimes comes out correct.) But I had a real frustrating time with this.

I suppose end notes are out of the question.........?


Someone out there has developed a template (*.dot file) for both Word and Wordperfect. but I don't know where to find them.

 

I did my DMin project using WordPerfect (many moons ago) and had no problems. I wrote my PhD dissertation using Nota Bene. While the NB learning curve was high, it was well worth the trouble. Of course, I would not recommend anyone at the writing stage to start with a new program.

Which edition of Word are you using? Perhaps you could back up a step or two. I remember students writing their dissertations with Word a few years ago and they didn't seem to have any unsolvable problems. BTW, does SBTS still have the Style Manual laying out the set up for Word?

Bill

 

PastorSBC,

We have a Turabian format expert in our association. Scott Wright's wife proofreads dissertations. She might have some tips for you.

 

Interestingly, I used WP since the old DOS 4.2 version, or something like that, in the late 1980's, again if I remember right. WP always worked well.

Word, on the other hand, I've always had a disdain for. I love the reveal codes feature in WP. Nota Bene has been described at WordPerfect on steroids when it comes to reveal codes. The great thing about NB is that you can choose from the style manuals in the menu the one you need. We even had a special SBTS-tweaked Turabian.

The aggravating thing about Word is that you have no reveal codes.

Word, though, should be working. Not to insult anyone's intelligence, but sometimes the most insignificant setting can be off or overlooked and cause much aggravation. I would have someone go over my settings to make sure I hadn't overlooked something. I've spent hours trying to fix something and it was just a setting overlooked.

I have not heard of StyleEase. Looks interesting.

Hope you the best, PastorSBC.

Bill

 

Strangely, I have found Word to be easier to use regarding footnotes/endnotes than WP. I used to be an ardent WP advocate in college, but once turned onto Word, I've never looked back. Wish I'd heard of NB before now!

 

Nota Bene

Nota Bene is the best program available for writing and research. It was recommended to me by a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alumnus. He also told me that the Southern Style Manual is included in Nota Bene. I currently use Nota Bene and have found that it saves me tons of time in research, organization and writing of papers. I have not gotten to the dissertation or thesis level yet. www.notabene.com

 

It's great to get the hang of NB before writing your dissertation. When you write your dissertation, you will appreciate it all the more. Just a wild shot, but the alum's initials wouldn't be JS, would they?

Bill

 

I have never had any luck getting Word to format Turabian correctly, margins, footnotes, etc. I purchased WordPerfect and have not had a bit or trouble with it.

I had a professor who tried to show us the "easy" way to get Word to format everything correctly and it took him about 20 minutes just to get us pg #1 with a 2" top margin, a couple of footnotes, pg#2 with a one inch top margin, and then pg#3 with a 2" top margin for a bibliography page. His final suggestion was it was probably just easier to do a separate document for the title page, page 1 of the paper, the body of the paper, and then one for the bibliography, so 4 separate documents for 1 paper, that's ridiculous. Haven't had to do that with WordPerfect.

There was also someone in one of my classes who was not happy with Style Ease. Didn't get a lot of detail but said there was some things it did that didn't work real well.

By the way OpenOffice works pretty good too, once you get the hang of it.

Hope that helps.
Brian

 

Yes

That would be correct!

 

Give him my regards. We did our PhD's together. He did really good work. As a matter of fact, he called me the other night just to chat a bit. You can learn a lot of church history from him.

Bill