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Starting | Notecards | Thesis & Outline | Sample | Final Draft | Business Numbers | Cite Table & Illustrations |
How to Do Note Cards
I. Record the following information on these cards:
A. Basic information about the reference source you are using
B. Important research material you think you will need for your research paper - these are the notes you will take from books, magazine articles, etc.
C. The page number where you found that material, preferably in the left hand margin - if there is no page number listed, use np for no page number
D. A topic label at the top of the card that sums up the basic subject of the information on the card - this is useful for organization purposes later
II. Basic information -
A. Always put one idea and page per note card - do not mix topics or sources on note cards
B. Write notes in fragment form - do not copy entire paragraphs
C. Always write in ink
D. Do not write notes on the back of the card
E. Write your name on the back of each card
F. Use a rubberband to hold the cards together
III. Methods of note taking
A. Summarize - when you want to record the general idea of large amounts of material
B. Paraphrase - when you require detailed notes on specific sentences and passages, but not the exact wording
C. Quotation - when you believe a sentence or passage in its original wording makes an effective addition to your paper - be sure to use quotation marks
IV. Code each card with the author's name, or part of the title of the reference source - follow format in note card example section
V. These note cards contain the indexed information you find during your research. They are the backbone of your paper, and if you do not do them correctly, you will have a disorganized, poorly written paper.
VI. These rules come from the ELCO Research Paper Format Booklet. A variety of formats exists. For example, there is MLA for Modern Language Association of America, APA for American Psychological Association, etc.. Some colleges and universities use their own format. BE PREPARED TO BE FLEXIBLE!
VII. Examples of format:
A. Sample bibliography card # 1
B. Sample note card #1
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C. Sample bibliography card # 2
D. Sample note card # 2
VIII. Plagiarism
Plagiarism - 1. Act or instance of taking and passing off as one's own someone else's work or ideas. 2. Work or ideas taken and passed off as one's own. (from Dictionary by Macmillen, 1981)
Example: Original statement in Vol. 1, Literary History of the United States, p. 906:
The major concerns of Dickinson's poetry early and late, her "flood subjects," may be defined as the seasons and nature, death and a problematic afterlife, the kinds and phases of love, and poetry as the divine art.
If you write the following without any documentation, you have committed plagiarism:
The chief subjects of Emily Dickinson's poetry include nature and the seasons, death and the afterlife, the various types and stages of love, and poetry itself as a divine art.
But you may present the information if you credit the authors:
Gibson and Williams suggest that the chief subjects of Emily Dickinson's poetry include nature, death, love, and poetry as a divine art (906).
Other forms of plagiarism include
- repeating someone else's particularly apt phrase without appropriate acknowledgment
- paraphrasing another person's argument as your own
- presenting another's line of thinking as though it were your own
Example: Original statement from E.N. Anderson, Jr., "The Life and Culture of Ecotopia,"
Reinventing Anthropology, ed. Dell Hymes [1969;
This, of course, raises the central question of this paper: What should we be doing? Research and training in the whole field of restructuring the world as an "ecotopia"(eco-, from oikos, household; -topia from topos, place with implication of eutopia" -- "good place") will presumably be the goal.
Plagiarized in student writing:
Humankind should attempt to create what we might call an "ecotopia."
Problem: the writer borrowed a specific term (ecotopia) without acknowledgment
Correct documentation:
Humankind should attempt to create what E.N. Anderson, Jr. has called
an "ecotopia" (275).
Example: Original statement from Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave [1980;
Humanity faces a quantum leap forward. It faces the deepest social upheaval and creative restructuring of all time. Without clearly recognizing it, we are engaged in building a remarkable civilization from the ground up. This is the meaning of the Third Wave.
Until now the human race has undergone two great waves of change, each one largely
obliterating earlier cultures or civilizations and replacing them with ways of life
inconceivable to those who came before. The First Wave of change -- the agricultural
revolution -- took thousands of years to play itself out. The Second Wave -- the rise of
industrial civilization -- took a mere hundred years. Today history is even more
accelerative, and it is likely the Third Wave will sweep across history and complete itself
in a few decades.
Plagiarized in student writing:
There have been two revolutionary periods of change in history: The agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution. The agricultural revolution determined the course of history for thousands of years; the industrial civilization lasted about a century. We are now on the threshold of a new period of revolutionary change, but this one may last for only a few decades (10).
Problem: the writer presented another's line of thinking without giving that person credit
Correct documentation:
According to Alvin Toffler, there have been two revolutionary periods of change in history: the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution determined the course of history for thousands of years; the industrial civilization lasted about a century. We are now on the threshold of a new period of revolutionary change, but this one may last for only a few decades (10).
(all examples are from the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, by Joseph Gibaldi and Walter S. Achtert.
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