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Taking Notes |
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| The purpose of note-taking is
to gather information from a variety of sources. If you find
information that is reliable and that potentially supports your
thesis statement , you will want to take notes on it. There are
many different methods for taking notes. The index card method
will be discussed here. |
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| Note-taking using index cards |
- Create a bibliography card for each source
from which you take notes. The bibliography cards will be used
later to create a Works Cited list for your paper. Include a
capital letter to identify each different bibliographical source.
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- Create your note card using only one side
of the card. Title each card with an appropriate subtopic for
your paper. Give each card a letter (corresponding to the letter
of that source in your bibliography cards) and a number. (Example:
A-1, A-2, A-3 would be the identifiers for three different
note cards from Source A.)
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- Include the page number(s) from the original
source.
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- Include only one piece of information or
idea per card.
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- Vary the types of notes that you take using the three different types
listed below.
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| Three different types of notes |
- The summary note
- used to record main ideas of large sections
of material
- language used is the language of the person
taking the notes
- ideas can be listed in any logical order
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- The paraphrase note
- used to record detailed notes when the exact
wording is not important or remarkable
- language used is the note-taker's; material
is restated in his/her own words
- ideas should be listed in the same order
as the original passage
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- The quotation note
- used to record the exact words of the original
material when those words will help to make an important point
or give effective support to an important idea
- especially helpful when the tone of a passage
is not able to be translated
- language used is the exact wording (and punctuation)
of the original source
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