Software for academic writing

Writing software offerings are changing rapidly. If you have any information to share or sites/apps to recommend, let me know!

Finding sources

• Google Scholar 🡕 is free and can find connections between sources, but has less functionality than other websites and requires more work. I still use it frequently, however.
• Others I have not had a chance to try yet include:
  • Using Citations to Explore Academic Literature | Inciteful.xyz 🡕
  • ResearchRabbit 🡕
  • 9 Innovative Literature Mapping Tools Every Researcher Needs to Know 🡕 lists others as well

Managing sources

Reference managers are applications that work with your word processor to help you easily put correctly formatted citations into your essays. They also let you easily change the citation style in your work (e.g. from APA to MLA).

I recommend the free, open source, cross-platform Zotero 🡕. It works as well or better than for-profit programs like Endnote or Mendeley.

Instructions for configuring and getting started with Zotero are here 🡕

Notetaking

Although I take some source notes directly on article .pdfs, I do most of my notetaking in separate text files using an Markdown text editor. Some free ones I can recommend trying are Zettlr 🡕, Obsidian 🡕, and Logseq 🡕. Zotero just came out with a new version that incorporates notetaking tools, but I haven’t tried them.

Grammar checkers and other automated editing tools—should you use them?

Yes and no. Yes, is a good idea to use these types of tools as a way to highlight possible issues with your writing. No, it is not a good idea to automatically assume that the issues they highlight are actual problems or that you should make the changes they suggest. I recommend you use these tools as I do: use them to highlight instances of possible writing problems that you may have overlooked, but for each instance, use your own judgment to determine whether there actually is a problem and how it should be fixed.

Some students have asked whether the paid versions of these tools are worth spending money on. I honestly have no experience comparing the free and paid versions of these tools. Let me know if you do.

GenAI

We still don’t know how useful GenAI is for writing assistance, so I will make just one comment: do NOT trust citations you get from GenAI tools. They still invent sources that don’t actually exist. Always check for yourself.