Research Notes and How to Take Them

One of the main types of essays you will be asked to write throughout your college career will be research papers. This means that you actually have to look for information to backup what you are saying within your paper. Unfortunately, many of you might find that you are not taking good notes during your research phase and then struggle to put the paper together at the end of it. This post is here to help you with that part of the research stage. I will help you recognize what sorts of notes you should be taking, how you can take them to be better organized, and point you in a direction that will help you piece it all together.

Note taking strategies
Write.com offers basic writing advice to those in need of it. One of their articles talks about the strategy of note taking for research writing. In the article, they write:

Having a plan created around note-taking strategies allows you to conduct research in a more organized fashion. Plan ahead, and decide how you intend to approach note-taking in general. 

This is a very important step when preparing for a research paper. If you are not somewhat organize with your notes, you will be completely lost when it comes to actually putting all of your information down on paper.

Write.com's article shares three basic pieces of information that you must include in order to have all of the information that you will need:

1. Make notes about the information presented in the source - there are several ways to do so: paraphrasing, direct quoting, summaries, and personal thoughts. 
2. Create and keep track of citations as you find the sources - if you forget to write down the citation of a source you will have to hunt it down later on and that might seem an impossible task after a point; if that happens, then you are very much out of luck and may not be able to use that source if you cannot cite it properly.
3. Put in to place an organization system that will help you find your source information easily - this means that you should compile your notes in a way that lets you go through them easily and recognize what is what and where you will be able to use it in your paper.

All three of these information pieces are crucial to the research aspect of your paper. Let me shed some more light on each of them.

What to write down
When you find a useful source, you will want to make note of how it is useful and where it might be connected to your overall paper. Hopefully you have a basic idea already of what your argument is and how you hope to prove that argument; once you know this you will have the different subtopics that your sources will fall under.

So, what do you actually write down? This will depend on the information you are wanting to present. If the source says it better than you could, you might want to quote the source, but if you can put it into better wording for you paper, then you might want to take a different approach when using the information. You just have to make sure that you are giving credit where credit is due and that you are not taking these ideas and presenting them as yours when they are not.

Paraphrases and summaries
When you are paraphrasing, you will write down in your own words what the source is saying. This is very similar to summarizing, but you are following what is said more directly rather than drastically shortening what was said. Basically, paraphrasing and summarizing are the same in concept but different in application

For example, take a look at this paragraph:

Dog lovers are friendlier and more extroverted than cat lovers, who prefer to be alone. Dog lovers also tend to be more confident and dominant than cat people. (17 Basic Differences Between Dog People and Cat People)

If we were to paraphrase these two sentences, I could say that this particular article shares the idea that people who like dogs are much more outgoing than people who like cats as they prefer to be by themselves and that dog people are more prone to being comfortable with themselves and their situations than cat people.

On the other hand, if I were to summarize these two sentences I could simply say that the article shares the idea that dog lovers are better people persons than cat lovers.

Direct quotes
Direct quotes are exactly what they sound like: quotes that come out of the source that you are using. Be mindful, however, that in your paper you cannot just through in a quote without tying it in to your own text. You will have to be able to comment on what is said and show how it is relevant to your purpose.

**Side Note: Depending on the citation style that you are using, you will have to write the direct quote a specific way within your paper.

Personal thoughts
When you find a source to use, you might have some opinions about what is said or have additional insight into how that information is useful to your argument. These are great things to write down along with the source information and citation. The thoughts you have about the source might play nicely into your argument and help to make the sources more relevant to your paper.


Tracking citations
As soon as you find a source that will add credibility to your paper, be sure to write down all of the relevant citation information or create the citation right away. This will take a little extra time, but if you keep track of them as you go and note what information came from that source, you will thank yourself for avoiding a headache later on. Trust me: you do not want to have to go back and find all of the source information for the works cited or bibliography after you have put your paper together, especially if you do not remember exactly where you found the source or what search terms you used when you found it.

I recommend keeping the citation near your notes about that source. You might also want to put your collection of citations into a bibliography or works cited list as you go along. This is just a way to help save you some work at the end of your paper writing; you will have to compile the list any way. And if you decide not to use a certain source or two, you just have to delete them from your lists.

How to organize your notes
According to Hunter College's Writing Center, there are two strategies for note keeping and organization that seem to work the best: note card style and notebook style.

Note card style
Note card style involves writing your source information on index cards. You can write your parphrase, quote, personal thoughts, etc on the note card along with the citation information. This keeps all of your sources separate from each other and allows you to literally put related idea cards together so that you know what information you have.


Notebook style
When you utilize the notebook style of note organization, you should have a notebook set aside specifically for your research notes. You can use one page per source, half a page per source, or whatever organization method seems to work best for you. Just be sure that all of your sources are separated in some way so that you do not mix them up or blend them together.

Other strategies
In an age of technology, it does not always make sense to use a ton of paper for notes. So if you prefer a more paper friendly approach or you find that you take better notes on a computer, then by all means, do so! You can employ the same concepts from both the note card and notebook styles: write down all of the source information and keep it separate from your other sources. You could use different files for each source, add page breaks within a single file, utilize text boxes for separation, or whatever other system works for you.

Manage your information
There are several ways for you to manage all of the sources, information, and anything else that you need for your research and paper. You can always keep notes in a notebook or in files on your computer, but there are some online tools that can help as well. Two of the good ones are RefWorks and EndNote.

Closing remarks
I hope that this information proves helpful to you. Taking good notes and organizing them is going to make your research paper experience much better and much simpler. 

As you go through the process, let me know what works for you and what doesn't. Did you find a different method or approach that works better? 

Transitioning with Transitions

As you write your paper, you may start to simply throw your ideas down so that you hit all of the points you need to. Many times, this happens but then you realize that your paper does not move from one point to the next easily.
You want your ideas to flow throughout your paper; otherwise, your paper will show that it has been thrown together mumbo jumbo. Sometimes your sentences will seem a little choppy and the movement of your paper is hard to digest. Transition phrases and sentences will help you with this problem. In this post, I will explain what transitions are and provide you with some sources that can help you make transitions within your writing.

What are transitions?

Basically, transitions are words that connect one idea to the next. You can add these words or phrases to the beginning of a paragraph to help lead in to the next idea.

Writing-Savvy’s Advice

The author of the website Writing-Savvy.org provides some very simple advice relating to transitions:

Here are some sample transition words that can help construct this sentence: 

Comparison: Comparing two ideas that are similar.Likewise, similarly, in the same way, etc.

Contrasting: Showing how two ideas are different.Nevertheless, on the contrary, regardless, while yet, however, in contrast, by contrast, but, although, etc. 

Additional: Adding to what you have already said.Moreover, additionally, in addition, furthermore, and, also, etc. 

Example: Illustrating a point.For example, for instance, specifically, as an illustration, etc.

The list that Writing-Savvy provides is not complete, so you do not have to stick to these words strictly. However, they provide a good starting point. Once you grasp the idea behind transitions, they will come easy to you and your words will flow with ease.

This idea of transitions applies to paragraphs as well. When you move on to the next idea, you can use transition words and phrases to help your writing move along.

Transitions Youtube Video
The University of North Dakota's Educational Foundations and Research department has put together a number of videos that relate several writing tips. To help you with transitions, check out their video "Writing Tip #4: Transitions and Signposting" I have posted below. It talks about transitions and how they can improve your writing.
**Side note: This video also includes information about signposting; this is related to transitions in that you can use this type of strategy in creating your transitions. It is good information if you are interested. When you use signposting, you are basically telling your audience what to expect out of the paper or paragraph; for example, you might use phrases such as "This essay argues that..." or "First...Then...Finally...."

Closing remarks
I hope that you have learned something about transitions and will be able to put it into practice. The more you use transition phrase, the smoother your paper will flow and you will not lose your reader (or your professor).

Formatting Citations

As you conduct research at various levels throughout your schooling, you will be introduced to several formats for citing your sources. The three popular formats are MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Association), and Chicago Manual of Style. Each of these formats will have you include some basic information such as author, name of the paper/article/book/etc., publication date, and so on. The differences will come in how you lay out the actual citation and how you reference the citation within your paper.

Finding the format

Unless you have a photographic memory, it might be difficult for you to remember the details of each format. However, there are several sources that you can look to as references.

There are two types of sources you can use:

1. those that show you what to do to make the citation, and
2. those that create the citations for you.

Both have their up sides and both have their down sides.

Show you how

Sites such as the Purdue OWL will show you an outline of each style and inform you where to put the information, whether to use commas or periods, and how to format your Works Cited page. Here are links to the different citation formats from Purdue OWL:

• MLA
• APA
• Chicago Manual of Style

You can also find all of this information on the main websites for each of these formats:

• MLA
• APA
• Chicago Manual of Style

The only difficulty with these sites is that you might be required to purchase something related to a membership or create an account with them in order to use the online version.

These types of sites are nice because they tell you exactly how to do the work. They offer generic examples as well as templates that you simply have to match with your own source information.

On the other hand, they are also a little annoying. Sometimes you do not have all of the information that they want you to provide for the citation, but they do not tell you how to adjust it. Neither do they tell you where you can find the information they are asking for.

Create them for you

Sites such as CitationMachine.net or EasyBib.com simply ask you to input some information so they can piece it all together for the citation. You can choose the style that you are needing and go from there. 

These types of sites are nice when you do not necessarily know what you are doing when it comes to the citation. Sometimes you even get lucky and they already have the information stored in their system--this way you do not have to enter all of the information yourself.

However, these types of resources can be hard to use, especially when they do not really have the information that they say they do. For example, on Citation Machine, you can enter in a website to cite and they will pull all of the information from the page; but sometimes they mix up the website title with the article title, or they do not put in the author name though it is clearly listed under the title. These are just some of the little things that you will have to pay attention to as you move forward.

When little information is found
Sometimes you will find yourself struggling to find the information needed for a citation—this can happen often with websites. You might not be able to identify a published date or an author name or whatever. When this happens, simply log what you can. The citation might look incomplete, but if you provide all that you can find, it will be okay. You cannot be docked for being as thorough as you can.

Closing remarks

I highly recommend taking a route that uses a little bit of both methods I mentioned. If you use a citation generator, consider comparing it to what Purdue OWL or the Style Book says it is supposed to look like. This is a great way to ensure that you are getting the right results.

**Side Note: Keep track of your sources as you find them so you do not have to search for them again later. You will definitely appreciate it later down the road when you have to create a works cited page or an annotated bibliography.