Photo Courtesy of Evernote Corporation
Gone are the days of spending hours correctly citing, and handwriting notes. Now, citation and writing websites are available and highly used. Some even have apps for smart phone users.
Easybib is a citation website that allows the user to format information into any kind of bibliography. It formats MLA, APA and Chicago/Turabian styles. Easybib also has a free app that users love. Included in the app is a barcode scanner which allows the user to scan the book and have the citation pop up in alphabetical order.
“I like to use EasyBib because it helps you with the different kinds of formatting, which can get confusing,” said junior Kelly Kemner.
Citation Machine is another citation website that allows users to easily format information. Like Easybib, Citation Machine formats MLA, APA and Chicago/Turabian styles.
“The only one I ever use is citation machine. It helps me a lot because a lot of my classes use different formats,” said junior Erica Morel.
Notability is a note-taking tool that also has an app on the app store for $2.99. People who use the app have the ability to draw and write on their documents. The website has photos and colors that can be added to bring projects to life. Sharing created documents is also available through Google Drive, AirDrop, email and Dropbox. Getting feedback is easy through Notability. Users can receive verbal as well as written comments from team members. These comments are linked to iPad, iPhone and Macs. Notability allows consistency by keeping all of the documents in one place with the help of the Cloud.
Evernote is another website/app that allows the user to write anything from short lists to lengthy research. Through Evernote, gathering web articles, handwritten notes and photos is easy and available for users at all times. Evernote has a search area as well, where the user is able to find words, images and documents easily. Users are able to transform their notes into project layouts with one simple click. Evernote has three packages; the basic package is free, the premium package costs $5 a month and the business package costs $10 a month.
Hemingway Editor is another useful site that helps users edit papers. Hemingway costs $6.99 for the desktop version. If a sentence is long, complex and has errors, Hemingway will highlight it in yellow so that the user knows to shorten the sentence or split it up into two. Red highlighting is used to show dense and complicated sentences that my cause readers to get confused. The site also highlights adverbs in blue to show the user to insert a verb. Passive voice is highlighted in green. Hemingway provides a grading system, as well as a counter. Provided in the counter are the amount of paragraphs, sentences, words and characters.
“I like Hemingway over all of them because it can really help a college student with writing. I’ve read a lot of papers, including my own, where I notice so many grammatical errors, run on sentences and punctuation misplacements. By putting your work through Hemingway, you don’t have to worry about having a lot of revisions to redo on your papers and you can even learn from the revisions the site is giving you,” said senior Jessica Wrixon.
There are numerous websites, as well as apps, that are beneficial to helping users succeed; no more long hours correcting and citing papers.
jross4@ramapo.edu
