Keys to Research
Note Taking
Paraphrasing
Citing Your Sources
Compiling Bibliography
Note Card Taking: Why?
Organization will keep all your research
sorted and properly cited.
You’ll never have to go searching back
through your sources again for information.
It will help you write your outline.
You’ll avoid plagiarism.
Note Card Taking: Materials
You will need . . . .
– Your research materials
– Blank note cards
– Colored pens/pencils
– Blank paper for rough bibliography
Note Card Taking: How
Along the top you write the specific topic of this note.
California Gold Rush: Chinese perspective
Note Card Taking: How
• In the center of the card, write the
information from your resource that you
might use in your research paper.
• Examples of information include:
– facts
– direct quotes
– paraphrase
Note Card Taking: How
Include facts, remember to use only one fact per
card or more than one if related:
California Gold Rush: Chinese perspective
• 7 Chinese in CA in 1848
• By 1852 there were at least 20,000
Note Card Taking: How
Direct quotes should include quotation marks, and be
sure to write down who said it.
California Gold Rush: Manifest Destiny
"California represented the last piece of territory
in its expansion from the east coast to the west
coast. And to have the Gold Rush happen that
very same year, was almost as if there was a
sign from God, a divine sign of approval of this
process of expansion of the United States across
the continent.“ - Madeline Hsu, Historian
Note Card Taking: How
Paraphrasing the text . . .
California Gold Rush: Native Americans
Native Americans rarely attacked expeditions
and often helped as guides and interpreters.
What is Paraphrasing?
• Your own rendition of essential information and
ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a
new form
• One legitimate way (when accompanied by
accurate documentation) to borrow from a source.
• A more detailed restatement than a summary
Why Paraphrase?
• It is better than quoting information from an
undistinguished passage.
• It helps you control the temptation to quote
too much.
• The mental process required for successful
paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full
meaning of the original.
Citing Your Sources
For each note card you need to include the author
and pg. # from where you found the info.
California Gold Rush: Native Americans
Native Americans rarely attacked expeditions
and often helped as guides and interpreters.
(Smith, 16)
Compiling your Bibliography
• A list of the books,
articles, and web sites Bibliography
you cited in your Cathcart, Wallace Hugh. Bibliography of
research paper. the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ann
Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms,
1969.
• On a piece of paper
keep track of all the Dameron, J. Lasley. Edgar Allan Poe; a
bibliography of criticism, 1827-1967
sources you have Charlottesville: University Press of
Virginia, 1974
written note cards on.
Ringler, William A., Bibliography and
• Include a final index of English verse printed 1476-
1558. London ; New York: Mansell, 1988
Bibliography as the last
page to your research
paper.
Citing References
To cite is to give credit
(Author(s) last name Page numbers)
Put at the end of a sentence that includes
facts, quotes, or paraphrases.
If you mention the author in your sentence,
you need to site the page number.
Two Examples
Historians have disputed the claim that gold was
first discovered at Sutter’s Mill (Jones 23).
In her book, Chinese in the Gold Rush, Diana Jones
explains, “the discovery of gold, for those who were
not white, became the new institution of slavery.”
(45)