Yes--My advice applies mostly to academics and the problem is that turning a conceptual idea into a viable academic paper (or monograph) is already so time-consuming that I'm not sure that being more efficient by using Zotero or similar is going to make much difference. Most academics (there are exceptions) produce just a few published pieces/year, many significantly less than that, they do it alongside things like teaching, service to the profession, advising students, etc.
I think the LaTeX vs Word study suffers from being too short. In my experience, the main advantage of LaTeX comes from being able to apply formatting consistently and keeping that formatting even when making many passes on very long documents. That however implies a fixed cost which you need a long document to amortize. What you're describing: doing a pass in Word which is easier to just type in and then migrating to LaTeX makes a lot of sense to me getting the best of both worlds.
I don't use ANYTHING except Word. But I definitely don't have your output. Do I really have to use these things like LaTex? I will look at Hemingway. I am mildly alarmed that my strategy for writing is so
pedestrian. But perhaps following your lead will help me (except I will probably use endnote instead.)
Is there MORE? You say your process is simple. What do others do?
I am slightly embarrassed to write this comment. I know about these tools but don't use them. I learned from this though and perhaps I can learn more.
Oh I think it's totally workable to just use Ms Word and nothing else. LaTeX is just there because I began to use it for my dissertation and I had so many references in it I kept on using and expanding it, but I often will end up having to change refs anyway by hand to some custom style. Hemingway I only use because I am *terrible* with adverbs and my sentences are too long. I didn't use it for this piece or other shorter pieces, but for academic writing I find it useful, however none of these tools are necessary. Roald Dahl wrote with a pencil on yellow paper all his first drafts, and to my knowledge Pullman also writes drafts in pen.
alas, when you're a freelance hack scribbling for a paycheck, efficiency becomes more paramount...
Yes--My advice applies mostly to academics and the problem is that turning a conceptual idea into a viable academic paper (or monograph) is already so time-consuming that I'm not sure that being more efficient by using Zotero or similar is going to make much difference. Most academics (there are exceptions) produce just a few published pieces/year, many significantly less than that, they do it alongside things like teaching, service to the profession, advising students, etc.
I think the LaTeX vs Word study suffers from being too short. In my experience, the main advantage of LaTeX comes from being able to apply formatting consistently and keeping that formatting even when making many passes on very long documents. That however implies a fixed cost which you need a long document to amortize. What you're describing: doing a pass in Word which is easier to just type in and then migrating to LaTeX makes a lot of sense to me getting the best of both worlds.
Useful.
I don't use ANYTHING except Word. But I definitely don't have your output. Do I really have to use these things like LaTex? I will look at Hemingway. I am mildly alarmed that my strategy for writing is so
pedestrian. But perhaps following your lead will help me (except I will probably use endnote instead.)
Is there MORE? You say your process is simple. What do others do?
I am slightly embarrassed to write this comment. I know about these tools but don't use them. I learned from this though and perhaps I can learn more.
Oh I think it's totally workable to just use Ms Word and nothing else. LaTeX is just there because I began to use it for my dissertation and I had so many references in it I kept on using and expanding it, but I often will end up having to change refs anyway by hand to some custom style. Hemingway I only use because I am *terrible* with adverbs and my sentences are too long. I didn't use it for this piece or other shorter pieces, but for academic writing I find it useful, however none of these tools are necessary. Roald Dahl wrote with a pencil on yellow paper all his first drafts, and to my knowledge Pullman also writes drafts in pen.
I love to write by hand on legal pads but it's more work. But thank you!