1. Organizing Your Research
Creating Note Cards
Organizing Your Research

2. Note Cards
Now that you have chosen your topic and have found some resources, it is time to begin to read about your topic and begin taking notes.
A note card is an organizational tool for the research process.

3. How to Make Note Cards Write on one side of the index card.
You will need a note card for quotations, an author’s ideas, statistics, graphs, and charts.
Make a separate note card for each idea or quotation you might want to use in your paper.
Put quotation marks around material that is copied word for word.

4. Common Knowledge
If you find the same factual information in three or more sources, it is considered common knowledge and doesn’t require citation.

5. Beginning Research
In the early stages of research, it is going to be difficult to determine what is common knowledge. Therefore, if you write something down on a note card, give the source and page number so that you can track it down if needed.

6. Organizing Note Cards
MLA does not require a specific format for organizing note cards. However, the following format is mandatory for this class:

7. Sample Bibliography Card

8. Sample Bibliography Card
Assign a number to each of your sources.
Use proper MLA citations.

9. Sample Note Card

10. Sample Note Card
Match the number to the corresponding bibliography card.
Title the note card.
Specify if note is a summary, paraphrase, or quote.
Include only one major note per card.

11. What to Write
This can be a summary, a paraphrase, or a quotation from a book, a magazine article, an online database, or the Internet.  This is the information that you will use to write your paper; in fact, you should be able to write your paper by using only your note cards and not have to refer back to the sources of information.   

12. Citing Material Quotations: direct quotes from your research.
Paraphrasing: putting the ideas of others into your own words.
Summarizing: giving the main idea, etc. of an author’s work.

13. Quotations
Put quotation marks around material that you copy word for word.
When quoting a source that uses quotation marks, change the author’s double quotation marks to single quotation marks.
      According to Harold Bloom “‘the essence of The Great Gatsby is double vision’” (25).

14. Altering Quotes
If you are going to omit words or sentences from the quoted material, use ellipsis points.
Words – use 3 dots …
Sentences – use 4 dots ….
“Dickens was a keen observer of life…he showed sympathy for the poor” (Magill 27).

15. Fair Representation
When you use an author’s work and alter quotes, paraphrase, or summarize, you must attempt to fairly represent the author’s point of view.
It is poor scholarship to use an author’s work to imply that he represents a view that you would like him to represent rather than his own views. This also causes you to lose credibility.

16. Sample of Unfair Representation
1616
Mrs. Clinton is not advocating a return to an agricultural society. She is asserting that the family is insufficient and using the “village” as a metaphor for increased involvement of governmental and nongovernmental agencies.
Sample of Unfair Representation
Hilary Clinton writes, “it takes a village to raise a child” (Clinton 3). In this statement, Mrs. Clinton is advocating a retreat from urbanization and technology and a return to a premodern, agricultural society.

17. Summary A summary captures the key ideas of an author in a few words.
DeYoung and Gilbert argue that the central mission of the Church is to proclaim the gospel rather than to alleviate the injustice of this world (DeYoung and Gilbert 241).

18. Note Card Deadlines First set of 20-25 note cards January 21
Bibliography cards January 21
Second set of note cards January 28