Reading/Notes Timeline
Progress Before Step
Progress After Step
Introduction
The following is my suggestion when it comes to reading and taking notes for your research paper.
First Things First
Please do the following at the beginning of our class:
- Open an article that you want to use in your paper
- Open a Word (or equivalent) document on your personal computer. If you are using a library laptop, please create a Google Document or open an email
First Step: Reference List Entry
- Create a References section for your paper if you haven't already.
- Create a properly formatted reference entry for your resource prior to reading.
This is a general citation for MLA.
This is a general citation for APA.
Second Step: Taking Quotes/ Findings While Reading
We are going to use these criteria to keep track of our sources while also taking notes on our sources.
| Criteria | Source 1 |
|---|---|
| Complete Citation (Create a citation in the appropriate format) | Example: Cordero, E. C., Centeno, D., & Todd, A. M. (2020). The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions. PloS One, 15(2), e0206266. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206266 |
| Year the source was published | 2020 |
| Title of publication (eg. Journal title, book title, newspaper title, etc. | PloS One |
| Keywords and words that require definitions (protip: use these terms in future searches to find more sources. | climate change, emissions, carbon, ecology, education, "carbon footprint" |
| What is this source’s objective? What is it trying to do /say/ prove? | The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of an intensive university climate change course on individual long-term carbon emissions. |
| What are the author’s/ authors’ research questions? (protip: this is often found in the introduction or thesis) | |
| Major Claims/ Findings/ Results (what did the authors learn?) | Developing a college class for freshmen can: a) connect climate science to students' lives, b) provide students with experience creating change in a community of their choice, and c) create a culture devoted to stewardship and action. This can be scaled and have a potentially greater impact at other universities |
| Does this source disagree with your working theses” How so? | |
| Are there any holes in their research? Did they fall to consider something? | Need to investigate more studies that assess the impact that education can have on long-term behavior |
| Notes, insights, and key takeaways | |
| Useful quotes (include a page number) | "The results of this comparison show that education, if designed appropriately, can potentially be as effective as other established climate change mitigation techniques. Based on the scenario we developed, the implementation of climate change education over a 30-year period (2020–2050) could reduce emissions by 18.8 GT of CO2 eq" (p. 16). |
| How will you use this source? Does it add anything to other sources you’ve already found? | I will use this source to strengthen my argument that education is essential for helping reduce personal carbon emissions |
| Permalink (protip: pull the link to the article from the database. Make sure it’s the “permalink” so you can always get back to your source-look for the word ‘login’ in the URL) | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=mdc&AN=32017773&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=s3916018 |
Third Step: Take Notes on Quotes/Findings
Below your quote, write down your:
- thoughts,
- ideas,
- opinions,
- criticisms,
- context of the quote/finding,
- and the relevance to your paper.
Example:
“Colleges and universities owe student-athletes more than just the opportunity to excel in their sports. They must actively promote and support academic excellence.” (Caniano, 2015, p. 91).
An often-heard complaint from non-Athlete academics is that Universities allow athletes to solely focus on sports, allowing them to languish academically. Essentially, "Who cares about academics? Allow the athlete to make grade so they are eligible to play. However, we must not allow this to happen.
References
Caniano, W. T. (2015). Library outreach to university athletic departments and student-athletes. Journal of Library Innovation, 6(2), 89-95.
Fourth Step: Create a Heading for your Quote/Finding
Create brief subject-related heading that describes the content of the quote.
Example:
Purpose and Problem
“Colleges and universities owe student-athletes more than just the opportunity to excel in their sports. They must actively promote and support academic excellence.” (Caniano, 2015, p. 91).
An often-heard complaint from non-Athlete academics is that Universities allow athletes to solely focus on sports, allowing them to languish academically. Essentially, "Who cares about academics? Allow the athlete to make grade so they are eligible to play." However, we must prevent this from happening and make these students academically successful.
References
Caniano, W. T. (2015). Library outreach to university athletic departments and student-athletes. Journal of Library Innovation, 6(2), 89-95.
Step 1-4 Review: Benefits of Note Taking
- Step One
- Creating your reference list entry first makes writing the References section easier at the end
- Step Two
- Taking and wrapping quotes/findings within quotation marks while you read reduces the chances of plagiarism as you are separating your thoughts from your sources.
- Step Three
- Writing your thoughts, opinions, etc. while reading helps prevent plagiarism by separating your thoughts from the author's. Additionally, your notes will aid you in writing your paper as your thoughts have been written down already and all you'll need to do is make the flow work.
- Step Four
- Assigning headings will make integrating your sources into your paper easier.
Picture Citation
"How to Cite Sources in MLA Citation Format." Mendeley, Mendeley, 2020, https://www.mendeley.com/guides/mla-citation-guide
(2020). How to Cite Sources in APA Citation Format. Mendeley. online image. https://www.mendeley.com/guides/apa-citation-guide.