Conducting and Tracking Research Academic Argument Research

Source Cards Each Source Needs a Card For each source that you access, or from which you summarize, paraphrase, or quote information, you will need a source card, or a bibliography card, that records all of the necessary bibliographic information for your works cited page.

Source Cards Author’s or Editor’s last name, first name [if given]. * “Article Title.” * Database Title. * Copyright date [edition]. * Online Publisher or sponsoring institution. * Web. * Date accessed 1 Hazlett, Andrew. “Love and Death in Shakespeare.” Modern Literary Criticism. March Lit Crit. Web. 1 December 2012.

Information:.

#1. Card Topic Topic is the kind of information on the card. Think of it as the title, or main idea of the card. After writing down the information, figure out how you could briefly categorize, or title it.

Card Topic For example, one way to organize your topics is by your controls or controls’ details, or by introductory or concluding paragraph: –Introduction to defining love in Shakespeare –The effect of love on familial relationships –Love as demonstrated in Romeo and Mercutio’s friendship

2. Source Title The source title is the name of the book, magazine, website, etc., in which you found the information. You will want to also turn your card over and list ALL Catalog Card information (publisher, etc.).

3. summarized, paraphrased, or quoted information It is helpful to paraphrase, or summarize, your research on the index cards while you are taking notes. If you are consistent in paraphrasing at this stage, then you will be certain not to accidentally plagiarize someone else's work. You will also have less work to do when you are actually writing the paper. If you have any questions about whether or not you would like to quote the information in your paper, quote the exact words on your note card.

4. page numbers It is important to be accurate with the page numbers (when applicable) on your note cards, as you will need them for citations throughout your research paper. You may instead need to include act, scene, and line numbers.

Resources Preparing Source Cards Research Note Cards