I have just submitted my master’s thesis for grading. While it is fresh in my mind, I have decided to summarize some of the resources I utilized.
Before I even began to do research or even have a topic, I purchased How to Write a Thesis by Umberto Eco. I knew it would be dated since it was published in 1977, but after reading reviews, there was still excellent information in it.
Since we are in the 21st century, index cards were out, and software was in. I checked out a few guides and YouTube videos on different applications. The first one I attempted to use was Scrivener. After going through the tutorial, I realized this had a bit of a learning curve and maybe more functionality than required.
During my classes, I started to use OneNote, which is part of MS Office. I have a Surface, which with a Surface pen, I was able to take notes in class, right onto the slides all within that particular class’s notebook. A few YouTube videos later, to see if others used it for research, too, I decided to go with OneNote. It worked like a charm. I laid out each chapter into its own section and also added ones for research and extra. Under the research section, each page was a separate source, where I listed the notes and quotations from it. I am sure there is a more efficient way, but I manually copied each note and quote to the corresponding chapter section before writing. When it came time to the actual writing, I was ready to go.
Now, onto the part of essay or writing that people hate the most, the references/citations. Along with this thesis, I have been participating in a Moot Court competition since October 2020. For the written submission, I began to use a program called Zotero. It is amazing. Now, I do not have anything to compare it to besides the manual way, but it is a timesaver. From organizing all your sources to using a browser extension to add the source automatically, it is very beneficial. I found myself adding each of my books to it through the ISBN. However, the most important function is the footnote and bibliography extension in MS Word. By selecting the Zotero tab and then clicking Add/Edit Citation, a textbox appears, allowing you to start typing your source and then it brings up a list based on what you write. From there, you choose the correct source and add a prefix/suffix or a page number, if required. Depending on the style you choose, I usually use (OSCOLA), it will make the automatic changes required, such as the (n #), where the number is the footnote the source is first used. Zotero also compiles the bibliography for you, although it must be manually sorted if you need to break it up into sections (Cases, Legislation, Books, etc.)
Some of this may not be new to you. These programs have been around for a while, but when you start using them, especially Zotero, it changes the game. I have not written of Scrivener, and if I am lucky enough to be accepted into a Ph.D. program, I will surely be spending some time to become competent with that program.
Links:
Zotero – https://www.zotero.org/
Scrivener – https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview
