Taking Notes and Organizing Information
Why Should I Care?
BeforeScribbling notes like a madman? Losing your mind with an endless document of copy-pasted information? Going over paragraphs and wondering where you got the information? Can't locate the author of a text? There is a better way. There are techniques you can use to keep better track of your research process and save time writing papers.
This lesson has 3 parts
- Rough Draft
- Cue Cards
- Content Matrix
What is Taking Notes and Organizing Information?
Your research project is coming along. You have lots of information. You've been reading, scrolling, and taking pictures of book pages with your phone. When you get to writing the paper, you are a mess. Everything is all over the place. Let's get you organized with some pro-tips.
Here are three techniques you can use to take better notes of your material, and save time sorting that out, so that you can plan for a better paper. In each case, it is important for you to list all of the bibliographical information that is associated to each of your sources, such as:
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Rough Draft
This technique is relatively simple. The researcher will 'dump' all of the information they find into one single document. This document will make no sense to anyone else. This document should never be shown to the reader of the final paper.
If you proceed with this technique, make sure to code everything in a way that you can track it later. For example, make sure each document is listed including all the bibliographical information. Make sure that each piece of information is associated to its rightful source. Weblinks are not enough. You will need more information later to do the bibliography.
Be vary careful not to confuse your thoughts, your writing, with the information and quotes from other sources. Many plagiarists have done so by accident, because their notes were muddled.
This technique is especially useful if the researcher is using a laptop, which they can carry to the library while consulting books and journals.
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Cue Cards
This technique is the "OG" of academic research. University students were using this technique throughout the 20th century and some still use it because of it's elegance and simplicity.
The researcher purchases a box of cue cards, cardboard rectangles of roughly 3 X 5 inches. A card is used to write the literaturebibliographical review,information organizeof youreach material.document consulted. Another card is used for each piece of information, or quote, that is worthy of being used in the paper. Keywords, such as the author's last name, or a topic, are written in the top-right corner of the cards.
The beauty of this technique is that the cards can be written in the order that the documents were consulted. However, the cards can then be sorted in the order that the information should best be presented. Once the cards are sorted, the researcher proceeds to write the paper, easily citing each source as they go along. The cards are easy to carry and can also be used as page markers during the reading phase.
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Content Matrix
A more modern version of the cue cards technique, the Content Matrix is a table that you can build in Word, Excel, or Google Documents.
As you read,read your documents, include ideas and citations in the matrixtable as shown below. YouAdd shoulda actuallyline makefor each new element of information. A single book could provide a dozen lines in your owntable. matrixThe intrick is to have a MSsmall Wordnumber document.
Entertopic yourkeywords, citationsand to identify one at a time, as you go throughfor each source.line of content.
Once your research is finished, the table will be organized in the order that you entered the information. It will be in the order of the books and articles that you read. Now is the time to re-organize the ideas so that the flowinformation is coherent.presented Copy-paste entire lines so thatin the order of the “topics”topics, makesand sense.not the authors.
SaveTo time:prepare Dofor notthis, retypemake everythinga short plan of the paper, using the topic keywords. Then, copy-paste the lines into yourthe actualorder researchyou paper.prefer, Copyas to follow the matrix,plan.
You know have all of the information for the paper, with the author names and pastepublication dates, associated to aeach newbit docof information. You can now copy-paste the table as “'text only”.only', Theand gridthe willbasic disappear.foundation Reformulateof the paper is done. You can now focus on writing and reformulating the information into coherent paragraphs.
Content Matrix
|
Source |
Page |
Topic |
Idea / Finding
|
Quote or Paraphrase |
|
Smith, 1776 |
334 |
Theory |
The wealth of nations grows with division of labour, because productivity increases when tasks are split up. Specialization of labour also brings gains from trade. |
“(…) led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention” |
|
Smith, 1776
|
... |
... |
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... |
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Save time: Do not retype everything into your actual research paper. Copy the matrix, and paste to a new doc as “text only”. The grid will disappear. Reformulate into paragraphs.
Once your citations are ready, you can rewrite them into paragraphs.
See p. 257 for APAs style. See p. 261 for MLA style.
Here are some templates for APA style. There are many ways to cite the same source.
Version 1
According to Johnson (2013), the best thing since fried bread is “sliced bread.”
Version 2
According to a leading scientist, fried bread is great, but the best thing since that was invented is “sliced bread” (Johnson, 2013).
Version 3
Johnson likes to say (2013) that the best thing since fried bread is “sliced bread.”
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS