Taking Notes

Overview
A Note Card for a Direct Quotation
A Note Card for a Paraphrase
A Bibliography/Work Cited Note Card

Overview

As you undertake your research, you will want to take some kind of notes on what you are reading. The purpose of taking notes is to be able to remember who wrote what, where an idea came from, or why you thought a point was particularly important. As you work with a growing number of sources, taking notes will help you sort and organize your work, particularly if you use them in tandem with a good outline.

Many researchers still prefer using note cards; others use a computer or scanner to eliminate the need for hand writing notes. If you decide to use a computer for your note taking, however, you should not just "dump" all your notes into one file. This approach hinders rather than helps organization in the long run, and the more notes you have, the more cumbersome it is. To use a computer for note taking, create a card-sized template and then print your notes out on cards or card-sized paper.

Taking notes by highlighting on Xerox copies of books and articles is equally ineffective, as you cannot organize notes that are made this way. The end goal is to be able to sort your notes to match the major topic headings of your outline. While this outline/note card system may at first seem like a chore, it will ultimately make your writing task easier.

Some basics for taking notes are as follows (adapted from Barnet & Bedau, Current Issues and Enduring Questions):

• At the top of the note, give the source and the page number (or paragraph number if from an electronic source). If you've carefully prepared your bibliography cards, the author's last name, or last name and a short title if you are using two works by the same author, should suffice.
• Keep each note short, with only one idea or quotation per card, and write only on one side of the card.
• Summarize or paraphrase if you can, rather than directly quoting.
• If you think the original writing is especially effective or absolutely necessary to make the point, then quote directly, making sure that when you quote, you copy the original exactly.
• Following the quotation or paraphrase, on a new line, add your own comments about what it contains.
• See Using Quotations for information on how to change the internal quotations marks if you end up in your final essay having a quotation within a quotation.

  

A Note Card for a Direct Quotation

General Guidelines:

• Begin at the top by giving the author's last name. If you have more than one author with the same last name, use the last name and a first initial. If you have more than two works by one author, use the author's last name and an abbreviated title for the work.
• Add the page number. If you are using an electronic source (a reprint of an article in an electronic data base or a web site, for example), use the paragraph number.
• Copy everything from the original exactly as it appears. Do not change anything--not even internal quotation marks.
• Begin and end the quotation with a double quotation mark. These indicate that everything in between appears exactly as it appeared in the original.
• If the material you are quoting appears across two different pages, add a slash ( / ) and put the appropriate page numbers on either side of it.
• Following the quotation, add your own comments about the content.

A Note Card for a Paraphrase

• Begin at the top by giving the author's last name. If you have more than one author with the same last name, use the last name and a first initial. If you have more than two works by one author, use the author's last name and an abbreviated title for the work.
• Add the page number. If you are using an electronic source (a reprint of an article in an electronic data base or a web site, for example), use the paragraph number.
• Restate the material in your own words.
• Do not begin or end with quotation marks; omitting these quotation marks is an indication that you are paraphrasing the material rather than quoting it directly.
  

A Bibliography/Works Cited Note Card

• What information will appear on the bibliography note card will vary, depending on the type of source. Use Examples of Entries for the Works Cited List, MLA Style to determine what information to include.
• Format your entry in correct MLA style to save yourself work later when compiling your Works Cited list.
• Be precise and copy information about the source correctly.
• Titles of works independently published, such as books, plays, and movies, may be underlined or italicized. The titles of poems, essays, or articles should be placed in quotation marks.
  

Last Updated 02/18/08