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Taking Research Notes
Taking research notes is an important part of any project, and there are a few things you should consider. This includes ensuring that you’re not over-highlighting and that you’re recording all of the bibliographic information you’ve uncovered.
Record bibliographic information
Taking research notes can be a very useful way to document a source’s bibliographic information. When taking research notes, you’ll want to note the author, title, publisher, and year of publication of each source. You can use a notebook, a paper folio, or a computer to record these details. In addition to taking notes on the actual source itself, you’ll also want to include other information, such as skimming notes and website URLs.
If you’re taking research notes on a paper source, you can create a table of notes that lists the author’s name, title, and page number for each note. This can help you quickly find information on a specific passage, author, or page.
Group notes
Using group notes when taking research notes can be beneficial in several ways. One way is to create a summary of the main findings on a whiteboard. Another way is to group notes by topic.
Group notes can also be useful for transcription. They can be written in either summary or direct quotation forms. The main advantage of group notes is that they allow you to combine notes from different sources. Using notes this way allows you to set up a high-quality synthesis.
It can be difficult to read hand-written notes, so group notes are a great way to make sure you’re not missing anything. It is also important to record the source of your notes.
Avoid over-highlighting
Using highlighting in research notes can be effective, but only if it’s done correctly. Highlighting is not a replacement for making notes, and you shouldn’t make a point out of context. Instead, you should summarize the author’s ideas and put quotation marks around direct quotations.
Highlighting can be done with a pen and paper, or an online tool. However, the quality of the highlighter can have a huge impact on how effective highlighting is. Using multiple colors can be confusing, and you should avoid highlighting overly complex information.
A good rule of thumb is to highlight one sentence per paragraph. However, this strategy isn’t very effective when used with novice learners. It’s much better for students with some previous knowledge.
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