Why take notes?
- It's a way to capture the information you need from each of your sources.
- It's an efficient way to manage your content.
- It's a way to keep track of whose information you are using, thus avoiding plagiarism.
Why put your notes on notecards?
- You can put notecards in order when the time comes to write your outline and paper.
- Therefore, you need to have a single piece of information on each one. You can copy a direct quote, or you can paraphrase what you have read.
- Therefore, you need to connect the notecard with the source (book, article, etc.)
- Therefore, you need to give each notecard a unique heading or tag.
Tips for successful notecard writing:
- One idea per card.
- Each notecard must have a unique TITLE, a short phrase summarizing the content.
- example: National Party wins 1948 election in South Africa.
- example: Apartheid creates separate universities in South Africa.
- TAGS should try to capture some other aspect of the content.
- example: National Party
- example:Education, Segregation
- PILES develop as you go along. They become the points in your outline, the body paragraphs of your paper.
- example: “Bantu Education” becomes a major political grievance.
- MY IDEAS is a good place to write notes and reminders to yourself.
- example: What were the ramifications of apartheid's legalized segregation even after its demise?
