Read critically to decide what each source offers. If you cannot understand a source that requires specialized background, don’t take notes or use it in your paper. On the other hand, if a source seems accurate, logical, and relevant, consider exactly how you want to record it in your notes.

Identify What’s from Where. Clearly identify the author of the source, a brief title if needed, and the page number (or other location) where a reader could find the information. These details connect each source note to your corresponding bibliography entry. Adding a keyword at the top of each note will help you cluster related material in your paper.

Types of Information to Record

Also identify which ideas are yours and which are your source’s. For example, you might mark your source notes with these labels:

“...”: quotation marks to set off all the exact words of the source

para: your paraphrase, restatement, or translation of a passage from the source into your own words and sentences

sum: your overall summary of the source’s main point

paste: your cut-and-paste, quoting a passage moved electronically

JN (your initials) or [ ]: your own ideas, connections, or reactions

A system like this helps you develop your ideas, distinguish them from your paraphrase or cut-and-paste, and avoid accidental plagiarism, using another writer’s words or ideas without appropriate credit.

Decide What You Need. When it comes time to draft your paper, you will incorporate your source material in three basic ways:

Your notes, too, should use these three forms. Weighing each source carefully and guessing how you might use it — even as you are reading — is part of the dynamic process of research.