Organizing Research

Source and Notecards

Source Cards

Composition

Source Cards- Research Paper

• Includes the Works Cited entry exactly as it will appears on the Works Cited page.
• 10 Source Cards minimum
• 2 books
• 4 database articles
• 2 print sources
• 2 of your choice
• Every source you use must be turned into a source card.
• Give each source a number and correspondingly label each source (these numbers will be referenced on your note cards).

Types of Sources

Online Sources

• Database articles
• Professional Website (with or w/out author)
• Article on Website
• Government Website
• Online newspaper
• Online magazine

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Print sources

• Book w/author
• Book w/editor
• Textbook
• Anthology
• Journal article
• Newspaper article
• Magazine article

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Other Sources

• Personal Interview

Sample Source Card- Front

Source Type: database article Source #1

“Television Violence” Issues & Controversies On File. 12 Feb. 1999. Facts On File News Services. 23 Mar. 2006. Web.

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Source Cards- A Tip

• Do all of your works cited entries ASAP- if you don’t have all the needed information, you will have to go back and find your source again.
• Do not count on the printout from a library source to have all the needed information.
• Do not use an online citation source. They often provide incorrect information.

Note Cards

Composition

Notecards

• When reading research, you must identify ways to support your reasons: statistics, facts, experts’ claims, etc.
• Each of these pieces of evidence will receive its own notecard: only one idea per notecard.
• The information should be classified into a more specific category: this is called a subtopic (your paragraph topics).

Purpose

• Quick reference: you won’t have to dig through piles of papers.
• Sort-ability: you can sort your ideas by subtopic to help you maintain a unified, structured body paragraph.
• Avoid plagiarism: you don’t have the source there to copy from!

Notecards Con’t

• Every note taken must fall into a subtopic that will be used in your paper.
• Create notecards for factual background information (to be placed in the introduction).
• Create notecards for opposing arguments.
• Ex: Your paper supporting the claim that TV violence harms children will discuss profanity, sex, and physical violence as subtopics.
• Now you can focus your research to these areas:
• Your subtopics are: profanity, sex, and physical violence

Notecard Procedure

• First label your subtopic and the source number.
• The front of the notecard will hold the quotation from the source.
• This means you will copy WORD FOR WORD what appears in the research source.
• You will include the page number the information appears on.
• You will include the name of the expert speaking, if applicable.

Notecard Procedure

• The back of the notecard will be a PARAPHRASE of the information from the text. This means it is in your own words.
• The back will also include the parenthetical citation.

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• You have to change both the words and the sentence structure from the original to avoid plagiarism!

Sample Notecard- Front

Subtopic: Sex Source# 1

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“The media can increase the salience of intercourse in young viewer’s minds even though they’re not physically and psychologically ready.”

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Pg 1024 Jane Delano Brown (U of North Carolina)

Sample Notecard-Back

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Jane Delano Brown of the University of North Carolina believes that whether children are physically or emotionally prepared for sex or not, the media can draw focus to it through their graphic images (Chaucey 1024).

Notecards – Research Paper

Requirement: 50 note cards

• Notecards should be created for:
• Introduction: factual background information (at least 4-5)
• Each body paragraph (5 body paragraphs)
• 4-5 pieces of evidence (minimum per body paragraph) x 5 paragraphs = 20-25
• Opposing arguments (1 per paragraph) = 5

= 50 minimum

• Why so many?
• Quality of research coverage
• Balanced source coverage
• Lots of info to choose from to write and argue effectively

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