Note Taking

Taking notes in high school should be more than just copying common knowledge, facts or ideas from others. In addition to the note taking from sources such as books, web sites, journals and texts, you should add your own ideas and opinions about the information. Jamie McKenzie calls this “green ink” or fresh thinking (McKenzie, 2000). You should also use electronic means whenever possible to take and store notes. This makes notes easily accessible and search-able, as well as allowing for ease of revising, amending, and creating a final product or paper. (McKenzie, 2000)

Note taking tips:

1. Paraphrase: Don’t copy and paste huge blocks of text. If you need the information from a large amount of text, paraphrase it. Paraphrasing is appropriate for supporting information, biographical information, predictions, hypothesis, and drawing conclusions. You will put the information into your own words. This type of note taking must be cited (giving credit to its source).
2. Summarize: (read a large section for overall meaning and summarize it into one or two sentences). Summarizing is typically used for beginning research, i.e., general explanatory material. Summary material must be cited unless the information contains common facts and knowledge.
3. Copy and paste: (select and copy small portions of text such as specific details, facts, definitions, and statistics.) Typically you don’t need to cite this kind of information if it is common knowledge, unless it is a new or unique perspective on the knowledge.
4. Direct quotes: Quotations are reserved for one or two sentence statements that prove a point or reveal an attitude. Don’t use quotations to make your point, just to back it up. They are especially appropriate for primary sources such as diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts, memoirs, and autobiographies. You need to use quotation marks and footnotes. (Stripling and Pitts, 1988)

Tip to avoid plagiarism:

Quoted Text — Add quotation marks around text that is extracted directly from the source. You will include the quotation marks around a direct quote in your final paper.

Paraphrased Text — Add brackets (or some other notation) to information that you summarize or paraphrase as soon as you write, type or paste the notes in the note taking form (see below). Do this so you won’t forget whether or not it is a direct quote or paraphrased when you use the information in your final paper. You do not need to put quotation marks around a paraphrase or summary, but you do need to cite either.

Possible electronic organizers for note taking:

1. Word processed.

Create your own template or use the one below.

Suggested fields: Name, date, Source (title, author, publication, date, URL, etc.), subject of that information, abstract (pertinent information-paraphrase, avoid copying and pasting huge blocks of text), ideas (record your ideas and reactions to the information, ways to use it in the paper, your opinions, or further research you need to do on the information). You should save each with a descriptive title or sequential number (McKenzie, 2000)

You can connect directly to the Microsoft Note card form and bibliography or the Note Taking Form from this website

or

Instructions for saving the note taking form as a template in Microsoft Word:

1. Download Note taking form created in Microsoft Word.
2. Open file, then click on File > Save As…
3. Rename the note taking document with a short, yet descriptive name such as NoteForm
4. Choose Document Template for Save as type. Notice that the folder that it will save into has changed to Templates. This will save it as a template for you to use in the future.
5. Click OK or Save.

Every time you choose New Office Document, an icon will appear for that NoteForm. When selected, it will appear as an untitled Word document, but it has the note taking form fields for you to fill in. To save time and effort take notes in digital form whenever possible.

2. Create a database.

Use Microsoft Access or another database application. Use the suggested fields above.

Citing Sources

Do it! Check with your teacher to see if he or she prefers parenthetical citation or footnotes. Here is what you need to know:

1. Parenthetical Citations: To create parenthetical citations you will create a Works Cited list on a separate page at the end of your paper. Alphabetize sources by author’s last name (or title if there is no author).
2. Footnotes: If you use footnotes, you will cite your sources on the page where they appear. Microsoft Word does this automatically: Type the text that you wish to cite. After the period insert the footnote (don’t put a space). Here’s how:
   • Click on Insert on the menu bar.
   • Click Footnote…
   • Click OK at the dialog box (unless you need to customize it).
   • Word will put your cursor at the bottom of the page with the footnote number. Type in the citation. The author’s name will appear in normal order (not reversed), separated from the other information with a comma. Publication data (City: Publisher, year) appears in parentheses, and no period is used until the very end of the citation.
   • Continue typing text in the body of the paper above.
   • Note: You can put more than one footnote on a page.

References

McKenzie, Jamie. (2000) Beyond Technology: Questioning, Research and the Information Literate School. Bellingham, WA: FNO Press.

Note taking tips modified from: Stripling, Barbara K. and Judy M. Pitts. (1988). Brainstorms and Blueprints: Teaching Library Research as a Thinking Process. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.