![]() ![]() ![]() You can also do this with YouTube videos to listen and type at the same time. Since the writing of these essays, a new Scrintal update also allows the user to link to an online PDF file in their notecard and open the document in a new window alongside their notecard, which makes the process of writing while reading even easier. Because the paper was longer and more complex, I did return to my sources to verify that the points I made were correctly described but rather than verifying my entire paper sentence by sentence, I was able to parse through notecards and make connections as they appeared, ensuring that my spontaneous ideas were not lost along the way. I added quotes directly from sources into my notecards and each notecard represented a different argument in support of my thesis. This significantly cut down my ideation time and ensured I didn’t have to reread material, the latter of which always used to make me feel too entrenched in the source to be able to step back and write about it in my own words.įor the second ten-page essay, I read through sources and added notecards to denote different ideas, easily connecting them to one other by linking cards. I only had to read each paper one time to articulate my ideas, and I didn’t have to write in the OneNote margins to explain my highlights I only highlighted so I could remember which sentences to quote. Scrintal changed that: I’ve written two essays using Scrintal, one being a relatively short paper that required comparing two sources and another ten-pager for which I referenced three lengthy academic articles and one 400-page book.įor the comparison paper, I wrote notes on Scrintal as I read and highlighted in OneNote, creating connecting cards about similar ideas between the two papers as well as counterarguments. I struggled through these and made it out the other side, but it was inefficient and sometimes uninspired I would feel like all the ideas I came up with while reading had been lost along the way in my quest to understand the next sentence, and the one after that, and the one after that. But explaining it in full, much less writing an original paper, was a whole different story. After a lot of Googling questions, skimming Wikipedia, and taking breaks from reading to lean back in my chair and ponder the last sentence, I could grasp the basic concept of a difficult paper. Kierkegaard and Heidegger, on the other hand, were more complex. A final read-through before submitting and I was done these essays received good marks, because they started with a single source, relied on a single thesis statement, and referenced materials that were concise, well-organized, and simple to understand. I would start with a cheeky first sentence and from there I could write in an ordered fashion and edit along the way. Hume and Marx were always easy reads if you could pay attention, and to write a thousand-word paper on them would be a breeze. I would start with reading the source material, usually consisting of one or many philosophy papers that varied in complexity from op-eds to intricate and meandering textbook chapters. Planning | How To Plan Essay Writing With Scrintalīefore Scrintal, my essay-writing process depended on the length and topic of the paper. I’ve often been known to fill up a flashcard full of keywords and phrases that relate to my essay topic and can be referred to while I write.īut there’s a better solution now. Without these visual reminders, my head is swimming with ideas and it’s difficult to focus on the topic at hand.Įven in cases where I’m writing an essay about which I’m not bursting with ideas, sitting in front of a blank document with nowhere to start is a daunting feeling that doesn’t inspire creativity or ideation. I see the value in outlining, but the way I’ve learned to do it in school forces me to compartmentalize my thoughts into strict categories, and it’s harder to make connections between points without filling up the margins with messy written notes or adding asterisks and typing footnotes. As an undergraduate student with a minor in the social sciences, I’ve written my fair share of essays. ![]()
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