Using Note Cards for Your Research Paper Notetaking Using Note Cards for Your Research Paper

Definition Note taking is an indispensable part of writing a research paper. Your notes record information from the sources that you will use in writing your paper. Therefore, it is necessary to critically evaluate the texts or articles you are reading and to make reasonable choices about what will and will not be useful for your paper. Otherwise, you will overload yourself with information and spend too much time sifting through notes.

Why Note Cards? Information at your fingertips Good study tool Helps you to organize material Easier to identify sources Information at your fingertips Good study tool Helps you to avoid plagiarism

Types of Note Cards Cards for recording your sources Cards for recording notes on your topic

Purpose of Source Cards Every time you find a source that might be useful for your research paper, you need to prepare a Source Card for it. A Source Card serves 3 purposes: First, it enables you to find the source again. Second, it enables you to prepare documentation for your paper. Third, it enables you to prepare the list of Works Cited that will appear at the end of your paper.

Source Card Essentials Each time you use information from a source, write the following information on your source card… 1. Author #1 2. Title of article, book, magazine, or other source Place of publication Name of publishing company Date of publication Any other information pertinent to that specific source being used Assign a number to each source used. Place it in the right-hand corner of your note card.

Example of a Source Card Taken from an article in a MAGAZINE Kopel, David. “Arms and the Greeks.” Liberty. Aug. 1999. 4 Sept. 99. <http:www.libertysoft.com/liberty/features/ 76Kopel.html>. #6

Gathering Information There are three basic types of notes Summary Summaries or shortened versions of the material; includes lists also Paraphrase Material is put into your own words Direct Quotation Record author’s material word for word

Making Summary Cards Contains the main points of the particular research in a nutshell Close your book and then write a summary No quotation marks (put in your own words) Use when the source runs too long to be quoted or paraphrased

Making Cards for Paraphrasing Writing the idea of another using your own words and sentence structure Your most common note form Usually about the same length of the original

Making Cards for Quotes Material is recorded exactly as it is taken from the source Anything that is quoted directly from the source must be enclosed within quotation marks Use when the source material is especially well-stated

Parts of a Note Card Describes the note’s information and keeps you from having to read the entire note each time you want to know what the note says Source card 5 Reason famous “…he was and is an everlasting glory to the literature of his country.” 102 Information Page reference

Another example… 3 Family Background middle-class family – father (John Chaucer) – a “vitner” (sold wines) Mother – Agnes – no last name known for her maiden name 98

Note Taking Tips Keep your topic, controlling purpose, and audience in mind at all times. Do not record material unrelated to your topic. Make sure that summaries or paraphrases correctly reflect the meaning of the original. Be accurate. Direct quotations are picked up word-for-word. Use quotation marks at the beginning and end of quotation. Always double-check page references. It’s easy to copy these incorrectly. Double-check statistics and facts. Nonessential parts of a quotation can be cut if the overall meaning of the quotation is not changed. Indicate omissions of nonessential material from a quotation by using ellipsis points, a series of 3 or 4 spaced dots. Use 3 dots (. . .) when cutting material within a single sentence; use 4 dots (. . . .) when cutting a full sentence, a paragraph, or more than a paragraph from a quotation.

Plagiarism One of the purposes of using note cards and source cards is to help you avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of intentionally or unintentionally treating work done by someone else as though it were your own.

How to Avoid Plagiarism Here is a simple test to determine whether something is plagiarized: Ask yourself… Is this information, idea, or statement common knowledge? Did this information, idea, or statement come from a source outside myself, or did it come from my own experience or as a result of my own creative activity? If the information, idea, or statement is NOT common knowledge, and if it came from an outside source, then you must credit that source. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism.

Once you have written, sifted through, and organized your note cards, then you are ready to begin writing your outline.