Organizing Research

1
Organizing Research

• Source and Notecards

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Purpose

• Quick reference you wont have to dig through
  piles of papers
• Sort-ability you can sort your ideas by subtopic
  to help you maintain a unified, structured body
  paragraph.
• Avoid plagiarism you dont have the source there
  to copy from!

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Source Cards

• Identifies which source the information was taken
  from
• Includes actual Works Cited entry
• Includes all information needed to create a
  proper Works Cited entry for all sources
• Books, internet sites, newspapers, articles from
  library subscriptions, etc.

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Sample Source Card- Front

• Source 1 (Information in MLA Works Cited
  order)
• Television Violence Issues Controversies On
  File. 12 Feb. 1999. Issues and Controversies_at_
  FACTS.com. Facts On File News Services. 23 Mar.
  2006. lthttp//www.2facts.comgt.

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Sample Source Card-Back

• (Pertinent, labeled facts see MLA handout for
  more specific info.)
• Database Facts on File
• Title Television Violence
• Author none
• Issue Date Feb 12, 1999
• Access Date March 23, 2006
• URL www.2facts.com
• Volume or Edition none

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Source Cards- A Tip

• Do all of your works cited entries ASAP- if you
  dont have all the needed information, you will
  have to go back and find your source again
• Do not count on the print out from a library
  source to have all the needed information

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Notecards

• When reading research, you must identify ways to
  support your reasons statistics, events,
  experts claims, etc.
• Each of these details will receive its own
  notecard only one idea per notecard
• The information should be classified into a more
  specific category this is called a subtopic

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Notecards Cont

• Every note taken must fall into a subtopic that
  will be used in your paper
• Ex Your paper supporting the claim that TV
  violence harms children will discuss profanity,
  sex, and physical violence
• Now you can focus your research to these areas
• Your subtopics are profanity, sex, and physical
  violence

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Notecard Procedure

• First label your subtopic and the source number
• The front of the notecard will hold the quotation
  from the source
• This means you will copy WORD FOR WORD what
  appears in the research source
• You will include the page number the information
  appears on
• You will include the name of the expert speaking,
  if applicable

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Notecard Procedure

• The back of the notecard will be a PARAPHRASE of
  the information from the text. This means it is
  in your own words.
• You have to change both the words and the
  sentence structure from the original to avoid
  plagiarism!

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Sample Notecard- Front

• Subtopic Sex Source 1
• The media can increase the salience of
  intercourse in young viewers minds even though
  theyre not physically and psychologically ready
• Pg 1024 Jane Delano Brown (U of North Carolina)

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Sample Notecard-Back

• Whether children are physically or emotionally
  prepared for sex or not, the media can draw focus
  to it through their graphic images.

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Notecards- Tip

• ANYTHING you write on a notecard is coming from
  an outside source this means it NEEDS TO BE
  CITED
• If you use the information from the front- it is
  a quote. Place the citation at the end of the
  quote
• If you use the information from the back YOURE
  USING SOMEONE ELSES IDEAS
• This must ALSO be cited OR YOU WILL GET A ZERO
  FOR PLAGERISIM.