[ **up: [[History]] | [[Writing]]** ] --- # Writing history [[2024-0527. 'If one thinks of the final product of the historian's labours as mosaic made up of dozens of separate bits of information...'|'If one thinks of the final product of the historian's labours as mosaic made up of dozens of separate bits of information...']][^1] ## Note-taking [[2024-0523. 'However, the thing about facts is there are just A LOT of them.'|'However, the thing about facts is there are just A LOT of them. Before you write your narrative, you are drowning in facts. The writing of history is the thing that allows you to bring some order and selectivity to them, but you must drown first; otherwise, you have not considered all the possibilities and potentialities in the past that the facts reveal.']][^2] [[2024-0527. The mechanical process of a good note-taking methodology can help the researcher avoid careless errors.|The mechanical process of a good note-taking methodology can help the researcher avoid careless errors.]][^3] [[2024-0527. 'The historian is only as good as his card-file.'|'The historian is only as good as his card-file.']][^4] - *See also:* [[Card-file system (Note-taking method)]] --- ## External resources - [Doing History with Zotero and Obsidian](https://publish.obsidian.md/history-notes/01+Notetaking+for+Historians) [^1]: Jacques Goutor, *[[Goutor. 'The Card-File System of Note-Taking', 1980.|The Card-File System of Note-Taking]]* (Toronto: Ontario Historical Society, 1980), pp. 6–7. [^2]: ethanzanemiller \[pseud.], ‘Taking notes for historical writing’, *r/Zettelkasten* (Reddit), December 2023, https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/185xmuh/taking_notes_for_historical_writing/. [^3]: Jacques Goutor, *[[Goutor. 'The Card-File System of Note-Taking', 1980.|The Card-File System of Note-Taking]]* (Toronto: Ontario Historical Society, 1980), p. 12. [^4]: Jacques Goutor, *[[Goutor. 'The Card-File System of Note-Taking', 1980.|The Card-File System of Note-Taking]]* (Toronto: Ontario Historical Society, 1980), p. 36.