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3. Taking Notes
Taking notes while doing your research is probably the most time consuming and most vital part of your research. You only want to go through a source, whether it be a website or a book once. Any more than that and you’ve become disorganized. Follow these important tips when taking notes and you’ll never again have to go back to a source for a piece of significant information that you forgot to retrieve. Be consistent Always take notes the same way and on the same type of medium. What I mean by this is to use a note pad, index cards, a tape recorder, computer, or electronic personal data assistant (i.e., hand held computer.) Use the method that works best for you. If you are an organized person, index cards may work best because you can then arrange them in the order you want the information to appear in your writing. This works best if you’re more visually-oriented. Auditory-oriented individuals may prefer to record all of the pertinent source information into a tape recorder.
Be thorough When taking notes, use the same format each time. When using book as sources, identify the author, title, publisher, and publishing date of each source. If you use direct quotes from a book, indicate the exact page number. If you are citing sections of a book, indicate the group of page numbers. Make sure you give appropriate recognition for your direct quotes.
If you are using a website as a source, identify the website owner, title, and author of any specific information you are using from that website. Also, gather the website address and date you found this information. If possible, print the article or make a screen print of the website. Printing the article tags it with the title, the address, and the date. Ensure Copyright Rules Always, always, always check your sources for copyright rules. If the book or website you are referencing or quoting requires you obtain permission first, get it. Don’t assume that no one will notice. You may get away with it once or twice, but eventually it will catch up with you. You can probably find a telephone number for the publisher and obtain permission over the phone. They may ask you submit your request in writing. Most publishers will accept fax transmittal requests. With the Internet becoming a regular part of our lives, we’ve come to use search engines to locate information about topics. With so much information at our fingertips, it’s easy to want to grab it all and stuff |
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