originally posted by Dina
Chicago Manual of Style, too! I had MLA down from high school, and I was so upset at having to learn something minutely different for Grad School. The rules kept whirling around in my head. This after 4 years of Design School where grammar and academia were as fluid and subjective as any of the other visual arts.
originally posted by Julie
References often took longer than writing the paper
originally posted by Clansman
Tell me about it! I just finished a course paper yesterday, and doing the footnotes and then checking them for accuracy took a painfully long time.
Two more courses to go (50 pages of writing), and then the biggie: the Major Research Paper (a.k.a. Master's thesis).
originally posted by Julie
Are any of the remaining courses connected with your thesis project- or do you start from scratch?
I enjoyed doing the research- meandering around the internet–what a difference from spending hours in a library to find minimal references and actual texts. Still being surrounded by books…
originally posted by Auna
Writing is easy, references are a complete nightmare. I believe I actually dropped a reference and rewrote a section so I didn't have to figure out how to put in something that didn't match any known examples and risk getting points taken off. LOL.
Oh Julie, isn't the internet wonderful 
Back in my day we had card catalogs… eww…
originally posted by Julie
Auna- the internet is wonderful. However it was so easy to follow different strains of inquiry that I spent hours drifting far from the actual subject matter. My fault entirely for being curious. This was part of my learning curve- how to pick out the appropriate "hits".
I too was raised with card catalogues- if there was as much (relative) junk in those long file drawers as there is on the web, it was more easily ignored.
I have also rewritten passages to avoid the references! What is MLA used for? I remember my kids using it for college English (I think)
originally posted by Dina
MLA for Literary analysis papers. We used it a lot in high school, but I didn't see it much in college.
In grad school, I was doing research on a decedent from the 1796 or something, and I hit a blank wall using "paper trail" resources available (and there were many). On a whim, I decided to Google him, and I found so many interesting things about him.
originally posted by Julie
Were the references reliable- such as scanned original documents, family archives?
originally posted by Auna
Back when I was a kid my mom had the entire Encyclopedia Britannica collection that I would start off using for my paper references, then I'd wind up hours later sidetracked several times removed from what I originally started with.
I think MLA is the most common torture device they introduce you to in high school for papers. I recall my college accepting either MLA or something else, and research papers in grad school I mostly did lab work so dodged the endnote bullet there.
originally posted by Dina
Julie - absolutely! Many of them were scanned books out of print or original documents, and I really learned something about the value of digitizing historic documents with this experience. It makes them more readily accessible to researchers while also making sure that the original was protected.
originally posted by Julie
Dina- Archival research and the benefits to scanning for preservation and accessibility came up in a book I read a few months ago. The Physick of Deliverance Dane- I am assuming you are an historian?, you may enjoy it.
Auna- Apparently I should be glad I went to high school and college prior to MLA!
originally posted by Tracey Wilson
Hi guys, I don't mean to be rude but you have gone WAY off topic here - can we get back to JANNY please? Perhaps you could open a separate thread to discuss your studies?
We have a miscellaneous section to accommodate drift topics.
originally posted by Mark Stephen Kominski
*wonders what the Ilitharis paravians used for footnotes (hoofnotes?!), then ducks a potentially deadly strike from the Tale-Spinner's ink bottle and beats a hasty retreat*
originally posted by Julie
Nice cross over Mark!
Janny- do you mind the meanderings?- gives you a glimpse of your fans and we seem to get back on track. Although I understand the distraction is not to everyone's taste, were your characters viewing us through the lens of these postings, I don't think they would mind so much.
I don't mind meanderings, personally, though for a reader using this chat for a resource (some do) the digressions take away from info they may be looking for.
Digressions are lovely - good rule of thumb, if they spark a spontaneous conversation, move to the Misc thread and fire away.
I only weighed in here because a reader did. Spontaneity is to be valued, and mostly, I'd let it go. Since I monitor the book-related threads pretty closely (to field fan questions IF they are directed to me personally, and also, to check for trolls) - this discussion was different than many in that, most of us (me included) had no idea what y'all were talking about.
originally posted by Dorothy
I was just in awe of how much work they were doing as well as running a family! lol
originally posted by Dina
Oh, we were talking about that Chapter where Arithon and Dakar were sent to the arcane Library of Knowledge and got bogged down in the footnotes until Dakar burned it all down in a fit of prescience. Arithon was able to get them out using the Law of Major Balance and the World Wide Web.
I jest.
originally posted by Robert A Smith
Just wanted to say that I just finished Trial and decided to start the whole thing over again. Been 10 years plus since I read Curse really enjoying and noticing foreshadowing of later events.
Dina: snort!
Robert A. Smith - welcome here - I think? This your first post? Yes. Absolutely. These books were made for re-reads, you will see a whole different contour to the conflicts from that perspective; and you still won't see it all.