1. Students recently learned how to take notes for research projects.
Listed here are the main tips they were shown.

2. Taking notes in your own words
serves two main purposes:
1. Promotes better understanding
of the information.
2. Helps prevent accidental
plagiarism. Unless you are
directly quoting a source, you
don’t want to copy info word
for word.

3.  Next to each snippet of information you write down- write
down the source.
 It helps to also write down the source in the required
format immediately upon deciding to use it, it helps you
stay organized and saves time later on.

4.  Write pieces of information on
individual note cards.
 Be sure to note the page
numbers from which you
found information.
 It helps to color-code
information. I keep a piece of
paper with all of my sources
on it, and highlight each
source in a different color.
THEN I highlight the top of
each notecard with it’s
corresponding source color!

5.  Try not to record information in too
much detail- stick to key points and
always paraphrase.
 If you are using a direct quote, make
sure it is important. Quotes should
be used for things you can’t word
any better than the original source.
 Last but not least: Have fun with it!
Always pick a topic (if you can) that
you have some interest in, so
research doesn’t become boring!