Once you have gathered together your resource material for your research paper it is time to start taking notes. This seemingly easy task is often times one of the hardest for students to do well. How to determine what to note down and what to ignore is not always easy or obvious. Here are a few tips to help you learn how to take good and effective notes. The Most Important Point to Remember The golden rule of note taking is understanding what you are trying to accomplish with your notes. Often times everything in a book seems important and worthy of jotting down. This tends to undermine the benefit of taking notes. You then end up having to take notes of your notes - not a very efficient use of your time. The real goal of taking notes is to capture that information which you will need to help you put together a quality outline (which you will eventually turn into a rough draft). Find 100 brightest topics ideas for 2017 for your college research paper on Essay editors platform! In general, this is the type of information that you will want to jot down:
With that said, let's understand a bit better what it is you are looking for when researching your topic. The various ideas and positions relating to your thesis Whether you are arguing for a particular point of view or writing an overview of a subject, you will need to note the various arguments and opinions relating to your thesis. Note the pros and cons of each position. Make sure to paraphrase the ideas contained within rather than quoting them directly (unless you feel that a particular argument should be directly quoted). By rewriting the ideas you find valuable you save time later on and better understand the ideas that you are paraphrasing. If an idea or position is attributable to a particular individual then make sure to cite him or her as the source of the idea. Once you have gathered together your resource material for your research paper it is time to start taking notes. This seemingly easy task is often times one of the hardest for students to do well. How to determine what to note down and what to ignore is not always easy or obvious. Here are a few tips to help you learn how to take good and effective notes. Supporting facts, figures and statistic In order to build up a solid argument for your thesis you will need to provide useful quotes, facts, figures, stories, etc. Therefore, when researching your paper you should note these bits of information down whenever you come to them. However, don't just note that information which can help you to better argue your position, also be on the look for those facts and figures which can help you to clearly explain and describe to your reader the issues and ideas contained within your paper. Here is a list of possible information that you can use in your paper:
If an idea makes sense to you note why that is so. If a particular argument seems weak then explain why. Furthermore, if you do not understand something or you do not think that a particular position makes sense, note that down too. A good question is as valuable as a good argument or idea. do not underestimate the importance of your particular perspective. In some ways, this is the heart of your paper - your take on the subject at hand. Furthermore, by spending the time to develop your own ideas on the topic you will deepen your understanding of the various facts, figures and arguments that you encounter in your research. Relevant Biographical Information Ideas, facts and figures do not exist in a vacuum - they come from particular people and organizations (some of whom are more trustworthy than others). Therefore, it's not enough to simply note who says what, but you also need to research and write down a short biography on your sources. Note, in particular, any information which either establishes or undermines the value of their opinions or information. Citations for Your Bibliography When researching your subject make sure to note your sources as you go along. This makes creating a bibliography much easier later on (not to mention that it prevents you from accidentally plagiarizing other works). If possible, note your sources in the same format as your (future) bibliography. Again, this will save you time later on as your bibliography will be half-finished by the time you need to write it. Making the Most of Your Notes Good note taking skills does not depend solely on knowing what to take notes on, but also understanding how to take notes. Here are a few helpful suggestions: Keep Different Types of Notes Separate and Distinct As we noted above, there are different types of notes - notes for you bibliography, notes for your supporting arguments, etc. Try and keep these notes separate and distinct so that you can easily access them later on. For instance, writing your bibliography will be much simpler if you have all your citation notes in one place (as opposed to having to sift through all of your notes to find all of your citations). Review, Edit and (Re)Organize Again Your Notes While you take notes you will want to organize them intelligently - that is to say, in a way that will allow you to easily review and utilize your notes later on. Then, once you have finished taking notes, review and analyze them. Try to logically (re)organize your notes (this is easier if you take notes on a computer). At the same time pare down your notes to the most important and valuable information. By properly organizing and editing your notes you will make it much easier to produce a quality outline and first draft of your paper. For this reason you shouldn't be worried about taking too many notes the first time through (so long as you do not go overboard and write everything down as a note). The first time through your goal is to note any and everything that may be of assistance to your note taking goals (see above). The review process is then designed to turn those notes into a powerful resource tool for your paper.
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