Notetaking 101

GETTING STARTED:

Ask yourself: What are you trying to find out? What is your GUIDING QUESTION?
Your notes should be in POINT FORM - no sentences. Leave out articles (a, an, the), and any other words not critical to your understanding. Develop a shorthand of your own, such as using "&" for the word "and", or by removing vowels from words, or creating a symbol for "ion" that you put at the end of all those long words that end with "ion".
USE YOUR OWN WORDS! This ensures that you actually understand the material, and that you will be less likely to accidentally paraphrase or copy words from the text.
Pull out main ideas, key points, dates, and people, and write them in the left column.
Skip a line between ideas and topics.
Use quotations from experts to strengthen your arguments or position. Collect and cite the quotations in your notes.
If you have found the same information in more than one source...Good! Cite both / all sources. This adds strength to your arguments / evidence.
Complete your Works Cited information as you go using the Resource Consulted List.
See: Bibliographies, Works Cited & Citation Guides for more information.
Not sure what plagiarism is ??? See: Plagiarism
See: Research Model for information on the process of research.

TITANS WEB NOTES / BOOK NOTES:

Use the following templates when notetaking;
WEB NOTES - when using internet sources, and BOOK NOTES - when using book sources.