Creating Effective Notes

Keeping accurate records and writing notes of high quality are essential steps in the research process. Some basic rules apply, whether you create your notes on a computer or by hand.

Incorporating the Appropriate Research Style

Your note-taking will be more effective from the start if you practice the conventions of style for citing a source, according to the style that is used within your discipline (MLA, APA, CMS, CBE). These styles are set out in detail under the End Notes & Bibliography tab in this Web site.

Brief examples include:

MLA style:

APA style:

CMS style:

CBE style:

Computerized Note-Taking

You can enter your notes into a word processor either as separate files in a common directory, so that each can be moved later into the appropriate section of your draft using the copy and paste commands, or by entering all notes in a single file, beginning each new note with a code word or phrase. Using the second method, you can begin writing your paper at the top of the file, which will push the notes down as you write.

Handwritten Notes

• Write in ink because penciled notes become blurred.
• Use index cards in two sizes, one for notes and one for bibliographic entries; this practice keeps the two separate.
• Write on one side of a card because information written on the back may be overlooked.
• Staple together two or more cards that form one note.

CHECKLIST: Writing Effective Notes

• Write one item per note to facilitate the shuffling and rearrangement of data as you organize your paper. Several notes can be kept in a computer file if each is clearly labeled.
• List the source with name, year, and page for in-text citations.
• Label each note (for example, "objectivity on television").
• Write a full note in well-developed sentences.
• Keep everything (photocopies, scribbled notes) in order to authenticate dates, page numbers, or full names.
• Label your personal notes with "my idea" or "personal note" to distinguish them from the sources.

Direct Quotation Notes

Quotation notes are essential because they allow you to capture the authoritative voices of experts on the subject, feature essential statements, prove that you have researched the subject carefully, offer conflicting points of view, or show the dialogue that exists about the topic. Follow the basic conventions:

1. Select quoted material that is important and well-phrased, not something trivial or something that is common knowledge.
2. Use quotation marks. Do not copy the words of the source into your paper in such a way that readers will think that you wrote the material. Refer to the section on Understanding & Avoiding Plagiarism for more on this subject.
3. Use the exact words of the source.
4. Provide an in-text citation to author and page number, or give the author's name at the beginning of the quotation and put the page number after the quotation.
5. The in-text citation goes outside the final quotation mark but inside the period.
6. Try to quote key sentences and short passages, not entire paragraphs.
7. Quote from both primary sources and secondary sources.

Paraphrased Notes

A paraphrase is the most difficult note to write. It requires you to restate in your own words the thought, meaning, and attitude of someone else. Rules for paraphrasing a source include the following:

1. Rewrite the original in about the same number of words.
2. Provide an in-text citation to the source (the author and page number in MLA style).
3. Retain exceptional words and phrases from the original by enclosing them within quotation marks.
4. Preserve the tone of the original by suggesting moods of satire, anger, humor, doubt, and so on. Show the author's attitude with appropriate verbs: "Edward Zigler condemns. . . defends. . . argues. . . explains. . . observes. . . defines."
5. Put the original aside while paraphrasing to avoid copying word for word.

Summary Notes

The summary note describes and rewrites the source material without great concern for style or expression. Your purpose at the moment will be quick, concise writing without careful wording. Success with the summary requires:

1. Keep it short.
2. Mark with quotation marks any key phrasing that you cannot paraphrase.
3. Provide documentation to the author and page number.

An example of a summary note is:

This sort of summary might find its way into the final draft, as shown:

Prècis Notes

A prècis note differs from the quick summary note. Use the prècis to review an article or book, to annotate a bibliography entry, to provide a plot summary, or to create an abstract. Rules for using the prècis are:

1. Condense the original with precision and directness.
2. Preserve the tone of the original.
3. Write the prècis in your own language. However, retain exceptional phrases from the original, enclosing them in quotation marks.
4. Provide documentation.

Notes from Field Research

In some instances you will be expected to conduct field research. This work will require different kinds of notes kept on charts, cards, note pads, laboratory notebooks, a research journal, or the computer. If you interview knowledgeable people, make careful notes during the interview and transcribe those notes to your draft in a polished form. If you conduct a questionnaire, the results will become valuable data for developing notes and graphs and charts for your research paper. If you experiments, tests, and measurements, the findings serve as your notes for the "results" section of the report and will give you the basis for the "discussion" section.

Next: Research Paper Paradigms