8.2: Take Notes
- Page ID
- 170535
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What are Effective Note Taking Methods?
In your annotated bibliography you briefly summarized the main ideas in each of your sources. As you're prepare to write your rough draft, you'll be taking more detailed notes, which will involve three types of note taking: summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. At the note taking stage, you may not know how you will use the information you find, but the following guidelines can help:
- Summarize lengthy information that will add to your paper without including the smaller details.
- Paraphrase information and details that will serve as significant support for your core points but that isn’t so eloquently stated that you want to use the exact words. Also, paraphrase texts with vital details that are simply too lengthy to quote.
- Use quotations to emphasize important information that will be very impressive or poignant and that will serve its purpose best if the original words are used. Keep in mind that no more than about 10 percent of your paper should be quoted text. Your paper should be in your words with a few quotations as opposed to a collection of quotations connected with your words.
You will use most of the information you find in either a summarized or paraphrased format. So use those formats as you write. Make your best guess about how you will want to use the information. Do not ever copy and paste from a source directly into your working files unless you intend to use the information as an exact quotation. If you do intend to use an exact quotation, use the quotations when you take the initial note.
Careful Note Taking Saves Time
While this phase of writing your paper includes much detailed work, it will save time when you write your rough draft! Assembling notes into a coherent paper is much easier than taking notes at the same time as you write the paper, which leads to a report that lists source opinions in a "string of pearls" order. Instead of presenting evidence in the order of the sources you read, use your notes to organize your supporting evidence, opposing evidence, and rebuttals in a logical order that will best convince your reader. Documenting the source of each part of your notes will save time when you need to write in-text citations in your paper.
Organizing Your Notes
You should keep your notes in a computer file (backed up elsewhere). Doing so will allow you to use copy and paste features to assemble and rearrange your notes. The digital format also allows you to easily add information as desired. To organize your notes as you take them, assign each subtopic to a separate section within a file or to a separate file. Sorting your notes so that like topics are grouped together will help streamline the writing process.
As noted earlier, you should copy and paste only information that you intend to quote. By limiting your copying and pasting to quoted materials, you are not prone to forgetting that some text is copied and end up plagiarizing without intending to do so. If you find it helpful, you can add a colored notation identifying each piece of information as a quotation, summary, or paraphrase.
As you take notes, make sure to include the source for each piece of information. Keep the complete citation in a master works cited list that is either at the end of your paper or in a separate reference file. In addition, within your notes, insert the information you need for an in-text reference, which will reduce the time you need to write your draft. For example, record the page(s) where you found the information. Doing so will assure you have the information at hand if you need it for your reference. In addition, having the page numbers readily available will allow you to easily revisit sources. So that you do not inadvertently leave a page number where you do not want it, add bolding and color to your page numbers to make them stand out.
Differentiating between Common Knowledge and Proprietary Ideas
Three keys to referencing others’ ideas ethically are to know the difference between common knowledge and proprietary ideas, to be aware of how to properly summarize and paraphrase, and to understand the correct methods for citing sources. In addition, you need to make sure that material is available for use at any level.
Common knowledge is that bank of information that most people know. Such information does not require a citation. One way to identify such information is to note that it is presented in multiple sources without documentation. Another identification method is to realize that you, along with most people you know, are aware of the information. For example, you can write that “Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming” without needing a reference. On the other hand, if you were to note that there is a high rate of divorce in Cheyenne, you would need to cite that detail. The data for the divorce rate could be calculated differently using different sources and dates, or even different boundary definitions of Cheyenne, so these would be proprietary ideas.
Summarizing
When you summarize, you should write in your own words and the result should be substantially shorter than the original text. In addition, the sentence structure should be your original format. In other words, you should not take a sentence and replace core words with synonyms.
- Identify the important material in the text.
- Restate the text in your own words.
- Use quotation marks for anything you quote from the original text, even an unusual word or a catchy phrase.
- Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.
- Since writing a summary consists of omitting minor information, it will always be shorter than the original text.
Paraphrasing
You should also use your words when you paraphrase. Paraphrasing should also involve your own sentence structure. Paraphrasing might, however, be as long or even longer than the original text. When you paraphrase, you should include, in your words, all the ideas from the original text in the same order as in the original text. You should not insert any of your ideas.
Both summaries and paraphrases should maintain the original author’s intent and point of view. Taking details out of context to suit your purposes is not ethical since it does not honor the original author’s ideas.
Common knowledge: Information that most people know and that does not require a citation.
Ethos: A writer’s credibility and trustworthiness, established by researchers through the responsible and ethical use of sources.
Paraphrase: Use your own ideas in your own words to present one or more core points of the original text. It should be true to the author’s intent and requires a citation.
Plagiarize: Use another's ideas without citing the source.
Proprietary Ideas: Information that most people do not know and that requires a citation.
Quotation: Exact words spoken by another person or presented in a body of text.
Summarize: Use a few of your own words or sentences but none of your own opinion to describe the key ideas of the original text. Summarized information must be true to the author's intent and requires a citation.
Examples of Summarized, Paraphrased, Quoted, and Plagiarized Passages
| Original text | Some dramatic differences were obvious between online and face-to-face classrooms. For example, 73 percent of the students responded that they felt like they knew their face-to-face classmates, but only 35 percent of the subjects felt they knew their online classmates. In regards to having personal discussion with classmates, 83 percent of the subjects had such discussions in face-to-face classes, but only 32 percent in online classes. Only 52 percent of subjects said they remembered people from their online classes, whereas 94 percent remembered people from their face-to-face classes. Similarly, liking to do group projects differs from 52 percent (face-to-face) to 22 percent (online) and viewing classes as friendly, connected groups differs from 73 percent (face-to-face) to 52 percent (online). These results show that students generally feel less connected in online classes. From Santos, Alana. "Student Perceptions of Online Education." Online Education Trends, edited by Kim Lee, McGraw-Hill Education, 2010, pp. 25-27. |
|---|---|
| Summarized text | Students report a more personal connection to students in face-to-face classes than in online classes (Santos 25). |
| Paraphrased text | Study results show a clear difference between online and face-to-face classrooms. About twice as many students indicated they knew their classmates in face-to-face classes than in online classes. Students in face-to-face classes were about two-and-a-half times more likely to have discussions with classmates than were students in online classes. Students in face-to-face classes were about twice as likely to remember classmates as were students in online classes. Students in face-to-face classes viewed group projects as positive about two-and-a-half times more often than did students in online classes. Students in face-to-face classes saw class as a friendly place 73 percent of the time compared to 52 percent for online classes. Summing up these results, it is clear that students feel more connected in face-to-face classes than in online classes (Santos 25). |
| Quoted text | The study showed that personal discussions are much more likely to take place in face-to-face classes than in online classes since “83 percent of the subjects had such discussions in face-to-face classes, but only 32 percent in online classes" (Santos 25). |
| Plagiarized text (note the lack of citation for statistics taken from a source). | Some major differences were clear between Internet and in-person classrooms. For example, 73 percent of the study participants felt they were acquainted with their in-person classmates, but only 35 percent of the participants indicated they knew their distance classmates. |
Make Sure Material Is Available for Use
As you are searching for sources, be sure to determine that you can ethically use the material. As a rule, you can reference most text as long as you properly cite it. Images are another issue. When you search online for images, you will find many private and for-profit sources. You should not use these images without contacting the source and requesting permission. For example, you might find a picture of a little boy from someone’s personal unprotected photo page or a picture of a worker using technology from a company’s web page. Using such photos just because you can access them is not ethical. Citing the source is not adequate in these situations. You should either obtain written permission or forgo the use of such images.