‘Busy’ doesn’t get close…
Yeah, I hear you Chris… Busy, busy.
School is crazy right now. Papers on top of papers and work on top of work. Twenty to thirty page papers with large bibliographies and umpteen footnotes take an extraordinarily long time to research, and a long time to write and format properly; especially in SBL style (basically a modified Chicago for any of you other HUM persons). I always get jealous when I mark an undergrad English student and see the ease of their MLA format. Brief in-text citation how I pine for you.
I’ve had three large research projects. Paper 1: 1 Enoch and intertextuality (HANDED IN), Paper 2: Interpretation of Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q521 and 11Q13) and Luke 4-7 (HANDED IN), Paper 3: Exegesis of Romans 9:1-5 with a large section entailing some interaction with James Kugel and a few of his ideas (IN PROGRESS). I’m painting with a fairly wide brush as I am hitting most of the Second Temple period, and literature from the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, and the New Testament which = busy. Add in an Aramaic class and the usual grad course work and I’m… busy. Real busy. So don’t strike me from the blogrolls quite yet. It might be slow for a little while more here.
While I’m on the line: ‘busy’ is an odd word. Seriously, look at it. It should be ‘bizy’ or something. That’s all. Back to work… ’cause as I may have mentioned, “I’m busy!”
I hear that (I have been just averaging one post a week myself)! Have you tried Zotero yet? If not, it is a free bibliographic tool/note organzier. I have been using it over a year, and it has greatly reduced the time it takes to format a paper. Also, there is a SBL plugin that can be downloaded to make your citations fit the SBL style guide. Good luck with your mad-dash to the finish!
On my blog I have a link on the side for an SBL citation program, that keeps any and all references you put into it for future reference, and automatically formats to SBL style. It may be helpful to you.
I’ve been using an inline citation version of Turabian this last semester and no one has complained. Well except for the paper I presented at Concordia (Mtl). But having just come out of a similar busy season I can definitely relate. I’m about to launch into my comp prep, so I’m enjoying a brief reprise from intensity.
BTW I considered SBL style briefly (even bought the book) but then I came to my senses and went back to Turabian.
Thanks guys… I’ll definitely have to take a look at those. Frank, LOL. There are no senses to come back to I have to write in SBL style.