Note Taking Tips
After completing a literature search on your research project, you begin the process of gathering and reading this material in preparation for writing the paper. While reading through your material, you need to take accurate notes.
Careful note taking is critical so that you can appropriately credit
authors for their:
- original ideas
- facts
- direct quotes
Well written, organized notes make it easier to write the paper and assign proper credit to your sources. Listed below are a number of suggestions that you can use to gather and organize your source materials.
Start by identifying and writing down the bibliographic information.
The information required varies depending on the type of material used:
For books, record information as listed on the title page and verso:
- Title
- Author
- Edition
- Publisher and place of publication
- Copyright date
- Page number where the information was found
- Chapter title, author and page numbers if needed
- Information used from this source
For magazines, journals and newspapers record information found on the title page of the article, table of contents or front page:
- Title of the article
- Author of the article
- Title of the magazine, journal or newspaper
- Volume number, issue number, page numbers
- Date of article
- Information used from this source
For electronic databases record information found on the computer screen:
- Title of the original source
- Title of the article
- Author of the article
- Volume number, issue number, page numbers
- Date of the article
- Name of the electronic media used
- Complete URL of the site
- Date information was found
- Information used from this source
For the Internet record information found on the computer screen:
- Title of the site (Title usually appears in the blue toolbar at the top
of the Web page.)
- Author or creator of the site (Author can be either an individual, organization, or agency.)
- Date the page was created and/or last updated
- Date you found the site
- Complete URL of the site
- Information used from this source
Note: Its important to record the date the Web site was visited
because a site may be moved, revised, or deleted.
Taking notes can be done on note cards, on paper, or on the computer.
Decide which method works for you. Listed below are tips for recording notes from the
bibliographic source:
Tip: First, record the bibliographic information as outlined above. It might be easiest to cut and paste bibliographic citations from the article databases and catalogs into a word processing program. Then you can immediately convert the citation into the appropriate style, MLA or APA. This will save time when transcribing this information later onto the finished web page or research paper.
Take notes on the important content. Write down, the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.
- Who or What is the information about?
- Where did it happen?
- When did it happen?
- Why did it happen?
- How did it happen?
Record important thoughts, ideas, quotes or facts
Summarize information in your own words. This will help avoid inadvertently
plagiarizing information.
Put quotation marks around any material copied verbatim
Be sure to transfer information accurately. Double check names, dates and
other statistics.
Include the page numbers where you found the information
Give note card a headline to relate it to your topic. For example, your
note card with the quote about the French withdrawal may read, "French
Withdrawal: U.S. Comments."
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