If you have never written a research paper, Word isn't really going to help
you all that much in finding the best sources and extracting the right data
from them, sorting out your thoughts, and carefully arguing a plausible and
original thesis. You might investigate various student manuals, such as
William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A Guide for Students (if you need
to write a history research paper). Try searching the general web.
Software programs are mostly only going to help with the technicalities of
presentation, but a research paper is MUCH more than that. Although, here's
one article on how Word can help teach such skills. It's pretty decent.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/product...usingword2004&
type=howto&article=/mac/library/feature_articles/office2004/wd_outline.xml
[link may break and need manual fixing]
I really don't think, in your position (and I teach college), that it's
worth you looking for a program that will help with research papers. Just
use Word. Your college probably has a writing center that can help with
specific questions, or ask your professor. You can find instructions on
doing citations in many places. Once you've written some papers, and
figured out your strengths and weaknesses, then you will know better whether
certain software might help you.
Re programs, you might try Google. For instance, I used Word for my
dissertation, so I don't really know whether other programs are better,
cause I haven't tried them. But I've compiled links on using Word for such
things he
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm
If you use Styles in Word, it greatly helps with long documents.
As far as tracking sources--Word 2007 is adding a basic Citation Manager
that will probably help undergraduate college students. People doing Ph.D.s
or other things that require a lot of research will probably continue to
purchase third-party bibliographic software programs like EndNote, ProCite,
and Reference Manager. I really don't think these programs are relevant to
you.
For managing lots and lots of text, many people swear by LaTeX, and it's
probably better in certain ways. Others loved the now defunct FrameMaker.
The Mac has Mellel, which is designed for academics. But again, I really
don't think these programs are relevant to you.
Hope that helps.
On 10/2/06 9:46 AM, " wrote:
Does there exist special word processing software that
is "optimized" for writers of research papers or books?
Something that is even better than Word?
Say I want to write a huge dissertation or technical
book at some future point in my life. Something that
requires a lot of research, etc.
Does there exist a specialized word processor that will
"help" me to make that process as easy as possible as
far as tracking sources, formatting, etc?
Or is Word abt the best there is?
I'm a 48 yr old college student and have never written
a research paper in my life... so all this is a bit
alien to me. G
--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ:
http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/