Word Definition reference type

I would like some advice on entering the “word” in a “Word Definition” reference. Often, the words from the dictionary I’m using (Oxford English Dictionary) include a suffix which is similar to a title that would appear in an author’s name. For example, a word that includes the letter “n” for noun, as opposed to the verb form of the word. The entry, discovery n. looks a bit odd. I would like to enter it as “discovery, n.”, but EndNote X1’s new Word Definition reference type won’t let me put quote marks around the word like I did in EndNote 9, and the comma makes a mess of things.

Any advice for how best to enter these “words”? Also, these words show up as “authors” in the library, making them difficult to locate later. Thanks!

I assume that this is a reference type that you have created?  I wouldn’t use any of the “Author” field spots for the “word”, as it has special field requirements.  Same with Secondary Title (Journal) field.  In fact, you might want to stick with custom fields or title which would not have these restrictions. 

“Word Definition” is a standard reference type in EndNote X1 for Mac. I didn’t create it. 

(I’m running OSX 10.3.9 on a Powerbook G4, and I’m using EndNote X1 with Word 2004 for Mac.)

In EndNote 9, I used the webpage reference type and entered * The Oxford English Dictionary  * in the author field  and inserted the word in the title field. The Dictionary standard reference type in EndNote X1 is not the correct choice for a specific word. With the changes in EndNote X1, my references for words are no longer displaying correctly because the Webpage reference type has changed. So, I now have to change hundreds of reference entries so that they will correctly display bibliographic information. The quote marks around the words did not disappear in my EndNote 9 references for word definitions.

This is how EndNote displays my entry in the Word Definition reference window, which I entered as “university, n.” in the word field:

"university, n. 1989 2nd ed. The Oxford English Dictionary: OED Online. Oxford University Press. 27 Aug. 2005  http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50267851.

 If the word does not have a suffix, such as “n” , then the entry will display with no problems. The closing quote marks do not disappear in this case:

"ideology". 1989 2nd ed. The Oxford English Dictionary: OED Online. Oxford University Press. 22 August 2006,  http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50111233.

In the Word Definition standard EndNote reference type, the word appears in the author field in the Library window. Just a quirk of this particular reference type, I guess.The main problem for me is entering a word that has a suffix so it conforms to the field entry rules for author names so that the quote marks remain in place. The alternative is not to use quote marks, which creates a bibliographic entry that looks like this:

administrative, a. 1989 2nd ed. The Oxford English Dictionary: OED Online. Oxford University Press. 19 Feb. 2007, http://dictionary.oed.com.oca.ucsc.edu/cgi/entry/50002842

Would a reader be confused by the entry above?  Is the author name format a bit ambiguous? 

Thanks for any feedback on this,

–Renee 

Sorry, I didn’t see that in either my X2 or X for windows. 

Since you have already worked thru the peculiarities of the Author field for your “words” why not put the quotes in the style for that reference type? 

Otherwise, you can create a new record field and move the words from the “author” to the new field.  Select all the word records and then use the “change and move fields” which is under the references menu (of EndnoteX).

“Word Definition” is not a standard reference type in any Windows version of EndNote up to X2. It is unlikely that the Mac version would have a reference type which is not in the Windows version.

I checked the Mac version of the EndNote X1 manual from the EndNote website, and “Word Definition” is not in the list of “Reference Types and Fields”.

Maybe you have inadvertently imported a Reference Type Table that some other user has modified?

If you go to Preferences>Reference Types, you can export your Reference Type Table and save it. Then you could revert to the EndNote defaults, and see if they work better for you. If not, you can reimport the Reference Type Table.