Note Taking
In this course you are not asked to do original research. You do not have to conduct your own studies or create experiments for your research. The ideas in the papers that you write for this course will be supported by authoritative evidence that others have already discovered and recorded. Once you have an outline for a paper and have a general idea of what your paper will say, you will need authoritative, credible evidence to support or "back up" your ideas. Your research papers should not merely present the research findings of others, but should reflect your own critical thinking, which is then supported by evidence you have gathered from various sources.
When you gather information from sources to support your opinions or ideas, you need to take high quality notes that will fit into your paper appropriately and strengthen or lend credence to your ideas. Sometimes your notes may contain a passage you have copied word for word from a source. This type of note would be a quotation note. You may not want to change the wording into your own words because the passage is particularly effective as its author wrote it. In other situations, you may want to use material that is less notable. You may decide to paraphrase the material (change it into your own words) or summarize it. These types of notes would be paraphrase notes or summary notes. If you write a note that is partly quoted and partly your own words, it is a combination note. You may want to write notes that contain your own personal views or evaluations of sources you have consulted. This type of note is a personal note. Regardless of the type of notes you take, you need a system for taking notes that will provide you with all the information concerning the source of the note, which you must have when you write and document borrowed materials in your paper.
There are some general guidelines for taking notes that you will need to know prior to gathering material for the papers you will write in this course. You may write your notes by hand on 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 cards, which is the traditional method, or you may write your notes using a computer. In either case, there are some procedures to follow that will help you take well-organized notes and help you keep track of the sources from which your notes were taken. Knowing exactly where you got the information contained in a note is imperative when you write research papers or any documented paper such as an essay. The guidelines you must follow when writing notes for your papers are:
- Record the source of the note on the note itself. How you record the source is up to you. Some students choose to abbreviate on their note cards the title of the source, its author, and an exact page number on which the material in the note was found. Others use a code system. They may write a bibliography card for each source they find that contains the bibliographical information for that source. (What exact bibliographical information is needed for a particular source is shown in your textbook). Then they assign a number to each bibliography card. If they have a total of six sources, their bibliography cards are then numbered from one to six. Then, when note cards are created, the student does not have to write the source’s title, author, etc. The student merely writes on his or her note card the number on the bibliography card from which the note was taken. Any note card with a number four on it, for instance, would have been taken from bibliography card number four. The only other source information needed would be the exact page number of the source from which the material in the note was taken. If you write a personal note (ideas that have come to you concerning your subject or one of your sources, etc.), be sure to label it as a personal note. Some students write PER on such notes to distinguish them from notes taken from outside sources.
- Label each note. Create a subject heading for each note you take. If you are writing about the effects of television violence on children, a note might be labeled cartoons if the information on the note card described the average number or types of violent acts contained in one hour of Saturday morning cartoons viewed by young children. Another card might have the heading be labeled primetime TV if the note contained information about violence on television between the hours of 7 and 11 p.m. The more specific the labels on the notes are, the easier it will be to sort through the notes and find what you are looking for when you begin incorporating your notes into your paper. Some students prefer to put a heading from their outlines for their papers on their notes so that it is easy to see which note correspond to particular parts of their papers.
- Write one item or one topic only in each note. By creating a separate note for each small topic, it is easier to shuffle through the notes and arrange them in the order in which they will be used in your paper. When using 3x5 or 4x6 cards for your notes, it is easy to arrange and rearrange note cards as you write and revise a paper. Write on only ONE SIDE of each note card, if you are using cards, to make it easier to see what each card contains without having to turn cards over. If more than one card is needed for a particular note, make a second card that is labeled exactly like the first card, and then number the cards 1, 2, etc. Notes written on a computer are less convenient to rearrange, but they can be copied and pasted in various positions within the file that contains your notes.
- Write notes that are as complete as possible. Once you have found a sources and are copying, summarizing or paraphrasing notes from it, be sure to record all the information as accurately and completely as you can. You don’t want to have to return to the source to "double check" your notes. You can always edit out what you don’t need or want from your notes later when you are incorporating the material into your paper. If you are copying notes exactly word for word from a source, be sure to enclose the copied material in quotation marks so that you will remember that is an exact quotation and not a paraphrase or summary. If you have read material from a source and want to merely summarize it or paraphrase it, be sure that you do not use the same language as was in the original source. Be sure to use your own original words in summaries or paraphrases. Do not merely rearrange sentences or words from the original source. Use your own original language for a paraphrase or summary. Be sure that you have recorded the exact page number and source on every note you take.
- Save all materials you have used in your research process. Do not throw away any notes, photocopies, scraps of papers containing notes to yourself, etc. You may find you need such items to provide information even though you may not think you will need it.
Because the use of computers is so common today, many students prefer to use that technology when making their notes. Some students even carry laptop computers into libraries in order to create their notes on the spot. Some libraries provide computer stations at which students may work. In that case, students may only need to take a disk with them to a library so that they can record notes on it using the library’s computer. Other students photocopy the materials they think they may use in their papers and take those materials with them to type notes on their home computers. When students enter notes in a computer, they should follow the guidelines below:
- Each note can be written as a separate file. They can later be copied and pasted into folders that are labeled according to main headings in your outline. This method can be cumbersome if you are not familiar with the technology you are using.
- All notes can be written in one file. Each note must be separated by appropriate spacing and labeled much as is described in the previous set of guidelines for notes. Label each note with an abbreviation for the title, author, etc., and exact page numbers, or use a code system as described in the first set of guidelines for note taking. You can create a bibliography file that contains information for your sources and a code number for each source. Each note you take can be labeled with the source’s code number as explained in the first set of note taking guidelines. When you write your paper, you will probably have to search a bit for a particular note unless you take the time to go back through your notes and copy and paste each note in the order in which you believe you will probably use it.
- Computer notes do not have to be retyped. Notes can be merely copied and pasted into your paper, as they are needed. You may have to do some editing, but the most of the typing will be done once the notes have been written the first time.
Some students do not actually "write" notes at all. They may photocopy their sources instead. When using this method, it is very important to be sure to photocopy the bibliographical information for each source as well. The title, author, copyright date, place of publishing, publishing company, etc., and exact page numbers are essential. Once articles, pages from books, newspapers, journals, etc., are photocopied, the student then highlights the information that will be used in his or her paper. In the margin of the photocopied material is written the page number of the student’s paper on which the information in the note appears. A keyword or phrase that gives the topic of the highlighted material must also appear in the margin. The keyword or phrase will help the student quickly locate the specific information he or she needs for a particular part of his or her paper. Of course, the page numbers on which the highlighted material was used in the student’s paper will have to be added after the student has finished writing his or her paper. The drawback to this method is that students will have to create paraphrases and/or summaries of information as they write their first drafts.
BE SURE TO READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY FOR EACH ASSIGNMENT YOU SUBMIT.
YOU MAY BE REQUIRED TO USE A DIFFERENT NOTE TAKING TECHNIQUE FOR EACH OF YOUR
PAPERS.
Sample of Various Types of Notes
An example of each type of note
discussed previously is based on the passages below:
This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upward to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at you desire, I have expressed—whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.
Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are to two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees anyone whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that sound of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from the darkness to the day is dazzled by the excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den.
Excerpts from Book VII of The Republic
by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett
EXAMPLES OF NOTES
Quotation Note:
Goodness 3 (code # which refers to source #. The source # will provide the title of the work, the author, etc., in this Case.)
"But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light p. 27* and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed." p. 28* *(Notice that his passage bridged two pages of the original text. Exact page numbers must always be recorded.)
Summary Note:
Goodness 3
An understanding of goodness is not innate, but must be diligently sought after. Ultimately, all that is good comes from the creator of the world and the truth and beauty it contains. Anyone acting in a rational manner must be focused on goodness. pp. 27-28
Paraphrase Note:
Goodness 3
Plato said that the notion of goodness could be gained only after seeking diligently for it and that it was an understanding that came only with effort. Once it was comprehended, the seeker would recognize that goodness is synonymous with the creator of all virtuous things and the source of intellectual truth. He believed that anyone who acted with reason acted according to intellectual truth. pp. 27-28
Combination Note:
Misperception 3
According to Plato, there are two types of misperception caused by two different conditions, "…either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye…" just as it is true of physical eyes. p. 28
Personal Note:
PER (personal note)
Truth
Plato is quoting Socrates when he relates the "Allegory of the Den."
Looking up information on Socrates may be helpful.