Every programmer and programming language has a preferred variation on how to format code. Here are my best suggestions for the languages I tend to code.
Category Archives: Tips & Best Practices
Endnote: Create a key binding for linking to a PDF (OS X)
I spend a fair amount of time linking PDF documents to records in Endnote. Unfortunately, Endnote requires you to (a) drag and drop, or (b) navigate into submenus to link to a PDF.
In OS X, you can bind a keystroke to any menu item in a specific application using the System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse settings. Use this to your advantage! Endnote lacks a keystroke for “Link to PDF…”, so I created one: Command-Option-L
Now, when I highlight a record in my library and press the key combination, an “Attach…” file dialog box opens up and I select the PDF of the article, web site, etc.
Continue reading Endnote: Create a key binding for linking to a PDF (OS X)
Commenting on Student Writing
We often find ourselves commenting on students’ writing and acting as editors rather than critical readers: we indicate line-level edits, such as missing commas and poor word choices– as if fixing the mechanical errors would make the paper acceptable. In reality, most student papers we see are first drafts, often written the night before the assignment is due and unedited by anyone, including the author. (See my post concerning the design of assignments, coming soon.)
Read Like a Graduate Student, not a Mystery Fan
First year graduate students often struggle with the volume of reading required. It’s not uncommon to have assigned to you hundreds of pages a week on a range of topics. The typical course may cover the contents of a half-dozen books and 75-100 academic papers. All of this you’re meant to consume, understand, and synthesize with everything you know. The task is, to say the least, daunting.
It doesn’t have to be so difficult to read academic works; people make simple reading mistakes that are easily corrected.
Continue reading Read Like a Graduate Student, not a Mystery Fan
Endnote: Save PDFs of web pages and online articles
Endnote is primarily intended to help you store citation information and create bibliographies for your academic papers, but it also allows you to collect PDFs of the documents. This is helpful for journal articles, and fantastic for dynamic content.
When reading online articles or web pages that you might need to cite, print to PDF and attach the PDF file to your Endnote record. On Mac OS X, this capability is built-in to the Print dialog. In Windows, you’ll need to install software that allows you to print to PDF.
The purpose of a citation is to allow your readers (and you) to relocate the material you use as evidence in your writing. By keeping a PDF of web pages as you saw them, you have the exact material on which you’re basing your quotations and interpretations. In other words, you (and your critics) have access to the version you’re relying on, even if it’s later changed significantly.
This is particularly important when the material you’re citing changes frequently, such as newspaper articles and political websites.
What I Look for in a Camcorder
There are many versions of camcorder available, each with benefits and shortcomings. I most often use camcorders to record interviews, focus groups, and other events from a fixed vantage point. So, your needs my may differ significantly from mine.
Continue reading What I Look for in a Camcorder
Write Like a Graduate Student
While talking with a friend recently about his writing, he confessed that he didn’t know any other way to write. He asked me to show him another way and I’ve decided to take him up on the challenge.
Continue reading Write Like a Graduate Student
Endnote: Store quotations
One of the most time consuming tasks of writing is finding that perfect quotation, finding that page number where an important idea was introduced, etc. By recording what you believe to be valuable (citation-worthy) quotations in your Endnotes records, you can quickly search them and cite the page. I store quotes in the “Custom 7
” field in this format:
This way, I have the quotation and the page number and can quickly insert critical information into my papers.
My rule: If it would be worth highlighting, it’s worth entering into Endnote. Continue reading Endnote: Store quotations