PhD

Using Scrivener and EndNote together on Mac OSX

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And so, some time ago I bought a Macbook.  And then I found the killer apps that I needed to write my thesis.  Scrivener, hands down, is the best writing tool on PC or Mac.  There is now a PC version, at least in beta, and although it’s not as mature as the Mac OSX version I believe it is getting there.

There’s so much more that I’d like to write about Scrivener and how it is helping with writing the thesis.  However, it’s not as easy as all that – so I did a video instead.  Voila, one video ‘Scrivener and EndNote’:

 

You can buy Scrivener from www.literatureandlatte.com, and EndNote from www.endnote.com.  Scrivener is not very dear at all (say, $A47.19 at the non-educational price).  So you can’t complain.  Endnote is usually available through a university licence – that software cost me zero to run under the UQ licence (so long as it is for research etc etc).

Anyway I highly commend these two applications to you (although apparently www.sente.com is coming up well from behind as well as an alternative to EndNote).  All worth the price of admission.

[PS:  You might be interested in this other post on my blog, where you can download my Scrivener template for academic papers/writing:  Scrivener – draft academic template for academic writing]

[PPS:  Since writing this post, I have written an automatic style formatter in Word (very rough, very basic, and very ugly) that converts fonts of a certain size to a Heading 1, 2, 3 and 4 style in Word – see this post here:  Scrivener to Word Visual Basic Fromatter].

A letter to my blog

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Dear Blog

It has been some time since we last spoke. To let you know, I have taken up motorcycling. It is mostly an attractive pastime – except I know that on Saturday we spent four hours by the side of the road trying to fix a motorbike (the 2.5 year old one, not the 30 year old one – being mine). A picture of my motorcycle is shown below. It is a 1980 Honda CX500 and it’s been very reliable overall, and lots of fun to pull it altogether. Since the photo below was taken I have taken off the Ventura Gearsack at the back, and replaced the indicators with standard ones. I’ll find a new photo to send you soon.

Last week I was in Wellington – here’s a bad photo of me and Wellington’s parliament house from that trip:

I was over there to speak to Audit New Zealand as part of my phd research. If you’re not careful, I’ll tell you all about my phd… oh wait, I already did that.

Finally, today it was my pleasure to speak to an audit delegation from China with my Supervisor, Professor Peter Green. I’m sure you’re glad I have no photos of that experience – I will say though it was interesting presenting a quite technical presentation to a non-English speaking audience and waiting for the interpreter to translate. I could tell those of the delegation that could speak English – they laughed at my jokes before the interpreter had translated them.

Oh, and I got to go to the Ashes last week, for the opening day of the test. Here’s a video of Peter Siddle getting his hat trick (caution: strong language – not mine!):

That’s something for the bucket list – seeing a hat trick live in the Ashes at the Gabba.

Yours:

Micheal Axelsen

PS: I have a mammoth blog post I’ll copy over to here that I wrote for CPA Australia. My favourite visual metaphor: “There are dangers to think about though when it comes to telecommuting. Maybe not the same dangers as skydiving into an apiary wearing only beachwear and honey-scented deodorant, but there are challenges to think about such as team cohesion, security, and that all-elusive ‘work-life balance’.”

More on the phd progress

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Well, the phd is progressing, albeit slowly.  I stopped the daily word count as I am awaiting feedback from my supervisors on what I already had; as I am still awaiting said feedback, and deadlines are looming, I have recommenced work on the confirmation document.  I should also point out that I also had to prepare eight lectures for the subject I am lecturing at UQ in project management, and write an 800 word article for CPA Australia on the pros of online social networking.  Which, for the sake of amusement, I wrote the first draft on my 45-year old typewriter.

In that context then, since September 4th, most of the work being done today, the word count has increased from 10,486 words to 11,251, an increase of 765 words.  Which is not too bad consisting I re-wrote the integrated theory section and am now addressing the methodology (I can see Moore & Benbasat 1991 is going to be the death of me yet).

Oh and I found this videoclip disturbingly familiar.

Phd Progress, writer’s block, and research approach – 2nd September

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Two steps forward, one step back.  Yesterday I had to end up dealing with my research project management issues (practical things, like ring people and schedule them in for site visits), and so progress on the confirmation document was stymied. 

I am wondering though if I should stop finding supporting research, just write the bloody thing and then find supporting theory.  It’s wrong, I’m sure it’s wrong, but it feels so right.

Why?  Well, yesterday I probably spent two hours writing approximately 101 words – started out at 9,736 and ended at 9,836, with most of that time spent on writing about the Adaptive Control Thinking-Rational theory.  Such as it was.

And for the record, this blog post is officially 130 words, so it’s not like I have writer’s block…