Brandeis Design and Innovation

Digital Tools for Longform Writing Projects

 

Workshop Materials 

Review the workshop slides here. 

Focus on what to learn

You don't have time to learn everything. Prioritize what will help you complete your project. That said, organization and project management are hugely important and often undervalued, especially in Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines. Your project team might just be you -- that doesn't mean you shouldn't be thinking about longterm solutions for organizing and archiving notes and files, as well as the most effective writing platform.

Many of these tools have multiple applications (e.g., try Trello for creating an outline; Scrivener is useful for notetaking and longform writing). Experiment and design a methodology that works best for you.

Notation and Writing Journals

When you've spent years researching and developing an analytical strategy, it can be difficult to recall why certain decisions were made. Taking time after each work session to reflect on those decisions (similar to a lab book) is a great way to preserve your thought process. Future you will be very happy to see these notes while writing chapters of your dissertation or book. Here are a few software packages to consider for your digital writing journal, all of which allow you to search by keyword. 

Chart comparing different writing and note-taking platforms.

 

Task Tracking and Visual Outlining

Embed Tasks/Keywords/Categories into your Citation Manager

Take advantage of customizations in citation managers. Organize citations into different groups (e.g., current research projects, future article ideas, current or future courses you’re teaching). You can also add customized fields (e.g. similar to “title”, “date”). Try populating these fields with specific tags or “to do’s” that are relevant to your project.

Writing Platforms

Some of these platforms are suggestions for notetaking, but they're great for writing prose as well. Try challenging yourself to write in a software package that isn't a traditional word processor. You'll be pleasantly surprised to discover how easy it is to organize and reorder sections, actually see what you've accomplished, and search through multiple sections by keyword. 

Time Management

  • Toggl Create tasks and check in/out. Long-term tracking is useful for estimating timelines on grant applications.
  • Coffitivity Good white noise for those of us who thrive in a coffee shop environment

Easy Backup Options

 

 

Developed by Natalie M. Susmann, PhD. Last updated on August 20, 2024.