Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

How to create Note Cards

  • After deciding what information you want to use from the source, think about how that information fits into your early plan.
  • Using note cards allows you to group and/or change the order of your notes easily.
  • Write a research topic heading on each note card: name meaning, day of my birth, college, sports facts, famous people, etc.
  • Write down one idea on each card. You can summarize, paraphrase, or use a direct quotation.
  • Be sure to distinguish your own ideas from those of your sources.
  • Include the source’s number in the upper right-hand corner of the card. Also keep track of how many cards you got from that source: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, etc.

Technique / Example
Quote only when the author’s exact words, as well as the ideas, are important. Copy the material word for word, put quotation marks around it, and attribute it to the author. / “The big taboo, the unthinkable moral violation in this new, pure instrument of democracy, was blatant paid advertising.”
Paraphrase when you need to explain an idea in detail. A paraphrase is a restatement in your own words –your own sentence structure and vocabulary—that allows for more detail. This must also be attributed to the original source. / Because radio was seen as a tool of democracy, paid advertising was considered improper.
Summarize when you have to remember only the main idea of what you read or hear. A summary is a highly condensed version—one-fourth to one-third the length of the original—in your own words. / Paid advertising was considered distasteful.

Let’s Take Notes:

Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing: An Introduction

How do I start?

Read the entire text, noting the ______and ______.

Summarize in your own words what the single ______of the essay is.

Paraphrase ______supporting ______that come up in the essay.

Consider any ______, ______, or brief ______that you believe should be quoted directly

Paraphrasing

A paraphrase is

your own ______of information and ideas expressed by ______, presented in a new ______.

a good way (when accompanied by documentation) to ______from a source.

more ______than a summary, which focuses concisely on a single main idea.

Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because...

it helps you control the temptation to ______too much.

the mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to ______

4 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing

______the original passage until you understand its ______.

Set the original ______, and write your paraphrase on a note card.

Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version ______expresses all the ______in a ______.

Use ______to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed ______from the source.

Summarizing

A summary is much ______than the original text.

It should communicate the ______of the text and the main supporting points – ______– in a very brief form.

It should give someone who has not read the original a clear and accurate overview.

To summarize

______the text. Note any sub-headings, or try to divide the text into sections.

______the text carefully. Use a dictionary if necessary.

Pay special attention to the ______and ______paragraphs. Try to identify the ______.

Identify the ______for the main idea.

Now write the ______of your summary, and include only the main supporting ideas.

Quotations

______of the author

Use when the ______is important, and when you want to preserve the ______.

Use when you wish to draw on the authority of the ______.

What’s plagiarism?

Plagiarism is ______.

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:

______idea, opinion, or theory;

any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not ______;

quotations of another person’s ______; or

______of another person’s spoken or written words.