Footnotes, endnotes or online notes?

[Wild Bill]

Funny. . . . I always read any footnotes, end notes, or whatever notes, especially the long ones, first before I read the text, because they contain the best material and tell one which way the author is going.

But I also read books table of contents, intro/preface, then backward starting at conclusions, then each chapter beginning with the last, each chapter last page, first page, and then each paragraph within the chapter last line first, first line next.

An old college prof taught us that and then assigned us six books of about 300 pages each to read by next class period and write a one page review on each. We were then finished with the required class reading. Using that method I could read a combination of books and articles totaling around 1200 pages and take notes in less than a day (10 hours or so).

Yeah, I know, I'm nuttier than a fruitcake, but of 12 PHD candidates at LSU in the spring of 1970, I was the second of two who passed (my lucky number was candidate #7; the other who made it was #5) and this reading method got me my degree 2 years faster than the rest of the History Department candidates. Thank God for long footnotes!

[L Verge]

I believe that Mike Kauffman's use of extensive text in many of his endnotes is a result of his publisher demanding significant cuts in the regular manuscript. Mike outfoxed them by adding the "deleted" material into many of his notes.

Any author today is likely told to make drastic cuts to his work. I suppose that printing costs, paper costs, and the readers' capacity to retain just a certain amount of information necessitates this in the modern world. Mr. Hall told me that his manuscript, Murder at Ford's Theatre, was 1400 pages and that his publisher wanted it reduced to 800. He dropped the project for awhile to work with Tidwell and Gaddy on Come Retribution. They had a difficult time with a young editor fresh out of college who changed context while also editing. He got so disgusted that Murder at Ford's Theatre never came to fruition.

[BettyO]

I'm having the same problem as we speak. I think we all do!

[STS Lincolnite]

(03-29-2014 05:53 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  Funny. . . . I always read any footnotes, end notes, or whatever notes, especially the long ones, first before I read the text, because they contain the best material and tell one which way the author is going.

But I also read books table of contents, intro/preface, then backward starting at conclusions, then each chapter beginning with the last, each chapter last page, first page, and then each paragraph within the chapter last line first, first line next.

An old college prof taught us that and then assigned us six books of about 300 pages each to read by next class period and write a one page review on each. We were then finished with the required class reading. Using that method I could read a combination of books and articles totaling around 1200 pages and take notes in less than a day (10 hours or so).

Yeah, I know, I'm nuttier than a fruitcake, but of 12 PHD candidates at LSU in the spring of 1970, I was the second of two who passed (my lucky number was candidate #7; the other who made it was #5) and this reading method got me my degree 2 years faster than the rest of the History Department candidates. Thank God for long footnotes!

I often read the footnotes/endnotes first when I am doing professional reading (I am not a professional historian); I feel a little foolish to say that it has never occurred to me to read historical works that way. I suppose it is because I'm usually reading history for pleasure.

Thanks so much for the scholarly reading tips though. I want to try that technique as soon as I get my hands on a history work I am using to for prep for a talk (either my own or someone else's). After your process is done do you ever go back and read the whole book front to back?

[Wild Bill]

Rarely but only many years later. This method pretty much kills reading for pleasure btw.

I also had bad experience with an editor who changed context while supposedly editing. I got a real bad name with the company when I finally had to cuss his boss to get her to change it back. I figured the editor was a family member. So I changed everything back and did all the stuff I was going to have to do (like the index) and sat on the mss until it was one weekend before it was due and she panicked because her boss wanted to know where it was. Then I fed-exed it to her on the boring of the deadline. They took my version but have never published me since. The resulting book was probably my best--at least that was the reviews said. No, I will not tell you the title, but I will say it was not on the Lincoln Assassination.

[JMadonna]

(03-29-2014 05:53 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  this reading method got me my degree 2 years faster than the rest of the History Department candidates. Thank God for long footnotes!

Bill, you sure represent 'old school'. The most common complaint I hear from professors is that PHD students don't read anymore. Many don't even bother to buy the books. It's all about the professor's power point presentations.

[Wild Bill]

Yeah, I know. But that's one of the burdens of being of German descent--do it thoroughly the hard way!

Compared to when I graduated, I have about half the historical knowledge I had then. As my father would say, I have been totally Americanized. Course work at LSU started with 12 books per class, plus term paper--and that was for undergraduates. Grad students were expected to do that plus read every book one could off a massive course reading list, all needed book reviews, the more you read then better your grade.

I audited a class one summer that emphasized reading and the prof told his wife, another grad student who told me, that he thought I was the only one in the class who deserved a grade and credit. The others all floated. But I had to read all of this for the written final for my degree, so I decided to get on with it.

[JMadonna]

(03-30-2014 09:29 AM)Wild Bill Wrote:  Compared to when I graduated, I have about half the historical knowledge I had then.

Doubtful. It's just hiding. Your degree in 1970 was from the WWII generation of teachers. The curriculum has been dumbed down since they passed into retirement.

[L Verge]

Jerry, you are so correct! And folks, you can see why I get so mad at Wild Bill that I could kick him, but won't. He may play the dumb old cowboy routine, but he's my hero when it comes to his knowledge of history. Bill, was your best book related to Texas Reconstruction?

[Wild Bill]

Nope!

[L Verge]

See what it's like to get an answer out of this man!?!

[Wild Bill]

Aw shucks, Miz Laurie. Soy solamente vaquero.

[JMadonna]

Talk about forgetting stuff over the years, my BA is in Mathematics. If it wasn't for spell check, I doubt if I could spell 'differential equation' let alone recognize or solve one.

But once a guy like Bill puts a fact into his head he never forgets it. Maybe we should hypnotize him to remember and then video record him for the Surratt Library.


Actually a couple of beers gets him going too. Probably the German in him.

[L Verge]

And he frequently answers me in Spanish just to irritate me! He knows my minor was French, which I have forgotten completely - except for several years ago when the gov't. agency that runs Surratt House insisted that its ranking personnel in the field take a six week course in Community Spanish. Some of the things were so close to French that the instructor got frustrated with my cross-language answers.

[Wild Bill]

Jerry is correct about the beer--he ought to know as he was there drinking, too!