day 3 writing tools
TRANSCRIPT
The Blank Page Drafting Revising (and revising…and revising…) Presentation
College students begin to understand what academic writing really means only after they receive negative feedback on their work
To become a strong writer in college, you need to achieve a clear sense of two things:◦ The academic environment◦ The kinds of writing you’ll be doing in that
environment
What’s different about college What’s different about college writing?writing?
College instructors are much more likely than high school teachers to:◦ assign writing◦ respond in detail to student writing – or not much at all◦ ask questions that cannot be dealt with easily in a fixed
form like a five-paragraph essay You may have learned only one kind of writing genre and now find you need to master other types of writing as well
More differencesMore differences
Look for: mind mapping, speech to text
Look for: word prediction, speech to text, references
Look for: mechanics, text to speechLook for: reference management, formatting, templates
SmartArt in Word FreeMind XMind Inspiration Mindomo Mindmeister Places to look:
Wikipedia: List of concept mapping softwareTry at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.
Limited capability in Word Sphinx (Geeky!) Dragon Naturally Speaking ($79.95 - $199)*◦ I recommend the premium version for academic
work Dragon Dictate app (free – iOS only, requires internet
connection)
SpeakQ ($360)
*low end of scale is student-only pricing from AcademicSuperstore.com
Talking Word Processor LetMeType OpenOffice
Text Expander (Mac) $29.95 Phrase Express Texter (a bit geeky)
Check out at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.
Online dictionaries Thesauri◦ FreeThesaurus◦ VisuWords
Multiple-purpose◦ Word (& other software) built-ins◦ Lingoes◦ The Sage◦ WordWeb◦ StarDict
Check out at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.
Work that word processor!◦ Spell check◦ Grammar check◦ Find & replace
Spelling/grammar checkers◦ Jspell multilingual◦ ieSpell for online writing◦ Grammarly (7-day free trial)◦ Ginger (designed specifically for learning
disabilities)
Style checkers◦ The Editor◦ WordDog
Check out at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.
Read back what you’ve written Listen for:◦ Mispronunciations: possible misspellings◦ Long-winded sentences: may need to break
into multiple sentences◦ Odd-sounding phrases: may be grammar
errors Cannot lie to you
BibMe Son of Citation Machine Zotero Reference management software pages on Wikipedia
Check out at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.
Hide/show formatting Use styles! Save templates to save time
Why use a template?◦ Speed◦ Consistency
Creating your own templates◦ Save as .dot (Microsoft Word)◦ File, New select template◦ Must save under new name
Microsoft templates