1. Bergen Community College © 2005 1 IV. Taking Notes Using Source Material Effectively

2. Bergen Community College © 2005 2 Table of Contents Frustration with Source Material33 Elements to Mark in Source Material44 Jamie’s Understanding Leads to Writing55 Types of Note-taking66 Review Notes Taken77 Direct Quote, Paraphrase, and Summary88 End Product99 Jamie’s Next Step: Works Cited Page1010

3. Bergen Community College © 2005 3 After finding source material, it is sometimes difficult to know what to do with all of the information. Where do I begin? I feel lost!

4. Bergen Community College © 2005 4 To begin taking notes, use a highlighter to underline or write on the materials printed from Web sites, books and library databases. information that supports the thesis names and dates facts and/or statistical information information from experts in the field contradictory information passages that just seem important

5. Bergen Community College © 2005 5 Now I understand how to begin. It isn’t that hard… I think I need to do some writing. I should look for information that is connected to my thesis.

6. Bergen Community College © 2005 6 There are many ways to take notes on source material. Highlight or write on the source material.source material Create a Reading Response Journal.Reading Response Journal Free write some of his thoughts.Free write Create note cards of important passages.note cards

7. Bergen Community College © 2005 7 Review source material for information that can be used for the research paper. Now that I understand my source material from my journal writing, free writing, and note cards, I can think about how I will use some of this information in my paper. I wonder if there are different ways to use the source material… Do I have to cite it?

8. Bergen Community College © 2005 8 There are different methods for putting source material into research papers: Direct Quote This is a word-for-word representation of the original passage in MLA format. Example “Many parents are unconcerned about TV violence. They say that children are savvy enough about TV violence to distinguish between fantasy and reality and to avoid harmful influences” (“Television Violence”). Paraphrase Take the original passage and put it into your own words. Make sure to represent all points and give the original author credit. Example Parents don’t seem to be worried about the violence on television saying that their children can really tell the difference between what is real and not real and that their children know enough not to be influenced (“Television Violence”). Summary Condense all of the original information and then use only the main points. Example According to “Television Violence,” parents are not concerned about their children watching violent television.

9. Bergen Community College © 2005 9 Wow, now I have: a clear understanding of my source material, information ready to use in my research paper, and a working Works Cited list.

10. Bergen Community College © 2005 10 These online sites really helped me! Notetaking and Choosing Evidence http://www.bergen.edu/owl/discovering.htm http://www.bergen.edu/owl/discovering.htm Evaluating Content in the Source http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/researc h/r_evalsource3.html http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/researc h/r_evalsource3.html Modern Language Association Format http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/researc h/r_mla.html http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/researc h/r_mla.html Quotation, Paraphrase, Summary http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/researc h/r_quotprsum.html

11. Bergen Community College © 2005 11 I am off to the library to work on my Works Cited page.