Being Introduced to Zotero

In English class, we newly learned about an online citation tool called Zotero. Mr.Paterson taught us how to use it, and about how the software is an extremely helpful and convenient tool when it comes to academic essays. First, the app is something that needs to be downloaded and we only have school computers, so we went over the steps he showed us on the screen projector. First, we download the software on our home computer from zotero.org. Then, after creating an account, we choose the style of citation that suits our research topic. Next, you hit command shift. As you add citations, you'll notice that zotero will recognize what type of resource it is. For example, if it's a newspaper article, a small newspaper icon will be up on the top right bar. This makes the processing very quick and easy. However, our teacher taught us that it isn't always accurate. For example, it cannot identify what type of resource it is when it's Japanese. In these cases, we can easily tweak it and make sure that it is correct. On top of that, the software zotero has a huge plus. Once you're done adding all your citations, it'll already be in alphabetical order. Now, all you have to do to create the bibliography that goes at the end of your essay, is to highlight all the sources and drag and drop it onto the document. Since you don't have to copy and paste each individual citation like most other tools, this saves so much time and effort. Also, Mr. Paterson taught us that we can save that bundle of citations in one file. When we need to look back at the resources, which happens quite often, we can easily find them. It's important to keep a record for this reason. When using other citation tools, the citations usually quickly goes away when we start a new, separate project. By keeping the resources in files, we can organize them and never get them mixed up with other sources for other essays and projects.