My anticlimactic software choice for writing my dissertation

I plan on blogging about my dissertation process, and I figured I’d start with something basic — my choice of writing tools. I wanted to use some less traditional tools when writing my dissertation. When I’m writing for myself, I write in Markdown, usually in an app like Ulysses. I considered something more robust like Scrivener. But neither Ulysses nor Scrivener works easily with Zotero, my chosen citation management program which already contains years of sources and notes on my topic. I was intrigued by Essayist, a new academic writing tool for Mac, iPad and iPhone. It looks well-designed, but has its own built in citation manager. Theoretically, I could export my Zotero Library in a BibTeX format and import the entries into Essayist, but I’m just not confident it will work.

That leaves me with two options: Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

I want to be able to write on my Mac or iPad so honestly, Microsoft Word is the better option for me. Google Docs is frustrating to use outside of a desktop browser. Subscription cost isn’t an issue since the University of South Carolina is a Microsoft school and we’ve already got an Office 365 subscription. It’s a boring choice, but given my requirements, it’s the right choice.

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Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.