The noted historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was accused of using passages from three other books in her own work without proper attribution. After settling with the wronged authors and making corrections to her book, Kearns explained that the misrepresentation had been the result of a crucial error she had made during the note-taking phase. “Though my footnotes repeatedly cited [another author’s] work, I failed to provide quotation marks for phrases that I had taken verbatim, having assumed that these phrases, drawn from my notes, were my words, not hers” (Goodwin, 2002, para. 3).

As this example shows, keeping track of all your outside material and its sources can be challenging, which is why taking accurate notes is so critical. To keep yourself organized, consider using note cards to keep track of references separately. Or place all of your references and source material into an electronic document, such as a word processing file or a note-taking application on your smartphone or tablet. For example, many of our students use the basic Note feature that comes standard on the iPad to stay organized and they’ve also had good experiences with free, platform-agnostic apps. A particularly popular app called Evernote allows you to create and save notes in organized folders; you can even “clip” full Web pages, annotate them to highlight the information you need, and save them as entries for later use, as shown in Figure 12.3.

Regardless of the format you choose, your entry should contain or highlight the quote or material you want to use, along with pertinent information, such as author name, publication information (title, volume, publisher, location, date), and relevant page or paragraph numbers from the source. In addition, each entry should note whether the material is copied verbatim (word for word) or paraphrased (put into your own words). When you have completed your research, you’ll be able to shuffle or copy and paste these individual cards or entries as you develop your speech without losing track of their sources.

You’ll also need to keep a running bibliography—a list of resources you’ve consulted. There are various styles of organizing these resources (including styles dictated by the Modern Language Association, American Psychological Association, and so on), so make sure to ask your instructor what his or her preference is if you’re required to hand in this document. Regardless, all styles generally require you to list the following information:

We present an example of a running bibliography in APA style in Figure 12.4.