What is a Notecard? A notecard is an index card that contains important and relevant information from your articles. You will be required to have 30 notecards for your research paper.

What do you think is the purpose of a Notecard?

Purpose of notecards The notecards will become the quotations and research evidence that you will use in your research paper. You will need to be able to easily and clearly provide the citation information for each quote, so follow these directions carefully.

Notecard Rules: Each notecard will only contain one note or piece of information. Use the information that you have highlighted in your articles. (Quote can be multiple sentences but one main idea) Each card will contain a “slug” or title/heading of your choosing. Each heading MUST be different. Do NOT use the article title!! Write the note first and then create the slug/heading.

Notecard Rules Each card will contain an Index number— which corresponds to the Source Number. Place this in the right hand corner. This is the number that you gave your article.

Notecard Rules: Each notecard should either contain a direct quote, a summary or a paraphrase of the information from the article. It could be a statistic or fact. You may abbreviate words on the notecards. These cards are for your information, so be sure you can read and understand them.

Helpful Hints Use complete sentences. Do NOT be too brief! Use mainly direct quotations. You can paraphrase some information. Identify the speaker if it is not the author of article. You may have multiple cards with the same source number, but all slugs must be different.

Notecard Rules: Each notecard should also contain a page reference. This number indicates where that particular information can be found in the article. Place this in the bottom right of the index card. Each card should contain a Notecard #, which is placed at the bottom left of the index card. 2/30

Sample Notecard: Decrease Support of Cap. Punishment “Public support for capital punishment dropped to 50 percent last year [2004] from 80 percent in 1994, according to a Gallup poll.” pg. 4 5/30 1

Helpful Hints Use quotation marks to show a direct quotation. Do not use them for paraphrase or your own words. Identify the speaker – name and who that person is – for any quotes that are not stated by the author Ex: Mary Oliver, American poet

Plagiarism Taking someone else’s words or ideas and using them as if they are your own or not giving proper credit. Lying Cheating Stealing Academic Dishonesty

Options for Notecards 1.) Use an index card for each notecard. 2.) You may print them on the computer in the same format as the index card. Create a template on the computer.You can print them on index cards or regular paper. You could use Powerpoint as well.

You may omit words or phrases If you want to omit information from a quote (be careful NOT to change the meaning), use […] Ellipsis and brackets

Vary Your Sources Do not rely too heavily on one source. Use at least five sources. (Four from database and at least one more.) Use at least TWO databases to show your ability to use the databases successfully.

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