Take Notes

Now you can get your hands on the sources you identified and take notes on the information. And because you’re prepared for this, you can expect the process to go smoothly. Your first step is to locate your sources and get yourself settled— either at a table in the library, or at home if you’re using sources that you can take home. Be sure to have your source cards and research questions with you. Other supplies you’ll need depend on the note taking method you choose.

A.      Use Source Efficiently

Most articles and some of the books you use, especially those from the children’s room at the library, are probably short enough that you can read them from beginning to end in a reasonable amount of time. Others, however, may be too long for you to do that, and some are likely to cover much more than just your topic. Use the table of contents and the index in a longer book to find the parts of the book that contain information on your topic. When you turn to those parts, skim them to make sure they contain information you can use. Feel free to skip parts that don’t relate to your questions, so you can get the information you need as quickly and efficiently as possible.

B. Methods for Note Taking

Taking Notes on Your Computer

Another way to take notes is on your computer. In order to use this method, you have to rely completely on sources that you can take home, unless you have a laptop computer that you can take with you to the library. If you do choose to take notes on your computer, think of each entry on your screen as one in a pack of electronic note cards. Write your notes exactly as if you were using index cards. Be sure to leave space between each note so that they don’t run together and look confusing when you’re ready to use them. You might want to insert a page break between each “note card.” When deciding whether to use note cards or a computer, remember one thing—high-tech is not always better. Many students find low-tech index cards easier to organize and use than computer notes that have to be moved around by cutting and pasting. In the end, you’re the one who knows best how you work, so the choice is up to you.

C. Effective Note Taking

Knowing the best format for notes is important, but knowing what to write on your cards or on your computer is essential. Strong notes are the backbone of a good research paper.

Not Too Much or Too Little

When researching, you’re likely to find a lot of interesting information that you never knew before. That’s great! You can never learn too much. But for now your goal is to find information you can use in your paper. Giving in to the temptation to take notes on every detail you find in your research can lead to a huge volume of notes—many of which you won’t use at all. This can become difficult to manage at later stages, so limit yourself to information that really belongs in your paper. If you think a piece of information might be useful but you aren’t sure, ask yourself whether it helps answer one of your research questions. Writing too much is one pitfall; writing too little is another. Consider this scenario: You’ve been working in the library for a couple of hours, and your hand grows tired from writing. You come to a fairly complicated passage about how to tell if a dog is angry, so you say to yourself, “I don’t have to write all this down. I’ll remember.”

But you won’t remember—especially after all the reading and note taking you have been doing. If you find information you know you want to use later on, get it down. If you’re too tired, take a break or take off the rest of the day and return tomorrow when you’re fresh.

Paraphrasing—Not Copying

Have you ever heard the word plagiarism? It means copying someone else’s words and claiming them as your own. It’s really a kind of stealing, and there are strict rules against it. The trouble is many students plagiarize without meaning to do so.

The problem starts at the note-taking stage. As a student takes notes, he or she may simply copy the exact words from a source. The student doesn’t put quotation marks around the words to show that they are someone else’s. When it comes time to draft the paper, the student

doesn’t even remember that those words were copied from a source, and the words find their way into the draft and then into the final paper. Without intending to do so, that student has plagiarized, or stolen, another person’s words.

The way to avoid plagiarism is to paraphrase, or write down ideas in your own words rather than copy them exactly. Look again at the model note cards in this chapter, and notice that the words in the notes are not the same as the words from the sources. Some of the notes are not even written in complete sentences. Writing in incomplete sentences is one way to make sure you don’t copy—and it saves you time, energy, and space. When you write a draft of your paper, of course, you will use complete sentences.

To Quote or Not to Quote

In some instances, copying words from a source is OK—but only when you put quotation marks around the words and tell, in your paper, who said them. Then you are giving credit to the real writer. Quoting from a source—if you credit the author—is perfectly permissible, but avoid doing it often. Use a quotation only if an author has said something so well that whoever reads your paper benefits from knowing the author’s exact words.

D. Organizing Note Cards

The beauty of using index cards to take notes is that you can move them around until they are in the order you want. You don’t have to go through complicated cutting-and-pasting procedures, as you would on your computer, and you can lay your cards out where you can see them all at once. One word of caution—work on a surface where your cards won’t fall on the floor while you’re organizing them. Start by sorting all your cards with the same headlines into the same piles, since all of these note cards are about the same basic idea. (You don’t have to worry about keeping notes from the same sources together because each card is marked with a number identifying its source.) Next, arrange the piles of cards so that the order the ideas appear in makes sense. Experts have named six basic types of order. One—or a combination of these—may work for you. _ Chronological, or Time, Order covers events in the order in which they happened. This kind of order works best for papers that discuss historical events or tell about a person’s life. _ Spatial Order organizes your information by its place or position.

This kind of order can work for papers about geography or about how to design something—a garden, for example. _ Cause and Effect discusses how one event or action leads to

another. This kind of organization works well if your paper explains a scientific process or events in history. _ Problem/Solution explains a problem and one or more ways in which it can be solved. You might use this type of organization for a paper about an environmental issue, such as global warming. _ Compare and Contrast discusses similarities and differences between people, things, events, or ideas. _ Order of Importance explains an idea, starting with its most important aspects first and ending with the least important aspects—or the other way around. After you determine your basic organization, arrange your piles accordingly. You’ll end up with three main piles—one for sounds, one for facial expressions, and one for body language. Go through each pile and put the individual cards in an order that makes sense. Don’t forget that you can move your cards around, trying out different organizations, until you are satisfied that one idea flows logically into another. Use a paper clip or rubber band to hold the piles together, and then stack them in the order you choose. Put a big rubber band around the whole stack so the cards stay in order.

Source:

Chin, Beverly Ann. (2004). How To Write A Great Research Paper. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.