Taking+Notes

=Taking notes for your paper=

Research Note Cards []

interactive notetaker: [] NoodleTools has a note-taking template on its subscription site: []

Note-taking suggestions: [|www.edtechteacher.org/notetakingsites.html] [] [] [] (Includes a graphic organizer for taking notes) [] (using coding to organize notes)

Some online note-taking sites: [|http://www.diigo.com/] [] [] [] [] Subscription site Noodletools (subscription site) is listed above.

Graphic Organizers: [] []

**Taking Notes**
There are 3 ways to take notes from your sources: 1. Summarize- This means to write only the general idea with few details of a large amount of material. 2. Paraphrase -If you need detailed notes on specific sentences and/or passages but don’t need the exact wording, you can paraphrase or restate the material in your own words. 3. Quote- If a sentence or passage in the original wording is exactly what you need, then you copy it exactly as it appears, word for word, comma for comma. Be sure to use quotation marks, get the exact speaker/writer of the quotation, and the exact page number on which the quotation appears.

**Making Note Cards**
Follow the steps below, and you should produce a pretty good set of note cards. 1. In the top left corner of each note card, write the topic of that card based on your outline. In the top right corner of each note card, label that card with the letter of the source you used from which to get your notes. (See the wiki page on Citing Sources Correctly for how to do this step.)

2. Using ruled index cards, write only one fact, idea, or quotation per card. This way related ideas from different sources can be easily grouped together or rearranged. Most note cards should be paraphrases or summaries rather than direct quotations.

3. Rule of Thumb: If you think it might be a useful piece of information to have, write it down. Don’t pass over it because you’re not sure whether or not you can use it. It’s always better to gather more information than you need!

4. If you copy something directly from a source, put quotation marks around it so that you know it is an exact quotation. Also be sure to write exactly who said the quote and exactly what page the quote appears on in your source. Likewise, if you paraphrase a quote or source (put it in your own words), you will need to give credit to that person who originally wrote the idea, and you’ll need the page number again. This will help you to avoid plagiarism.

5 Periodically check your note cards by organizing them by topic to see how many note cards you have for each topic. (Physically lay them out by topic on a table.) Doing this lets you see quickly if you have enough information on one topic, but if you need more information on another. Before you sit down to write your rough draft, organize your note cards by subtopic and create your outline.