Organizing Research: The Why and the How
Overview
A worksheet and short presentation in PDF format designed to introduce students to different strategies for oganizing research.
Worksheet
Organizing Research: The Why and the How
The Why: What are some reasons you might want to invest time in organizing your research? Have you had any experiences doing research for a paper or project where organization helped or would have helped?
The How: There is no one “right” system for organizing your research! We’ve presented a few today, but you should find what works best for you. Here are the strategies we talked about:
Strategy 1: The Word Document
- For each source you find, export a citation into a Word document.
- Read your source and make notes as you go. Are there:
- Quotes that you might use or that back up something you're saying in your paper?
- Definitions or statistics that might be helpful?
- Something similar to or different than what you've read somewhere else?
- Make a note under your citation. Including page numbers and exact quotes can be helpful
Strategy 2: The Index Card
- Print out your source (article, web site, etc.).
- Highlight and take notes on the source.
- Read the source and take notes on it.
- highlight, take notes in the margins, etc.
- Use an index card. On one side:
- write down the citation for the article (or at least the title and author).
- On the other side:
- write down any quotes, definitions or statistics, information you think will be useful in your paper
Strategy 3: The Citation Management System
There are many citation management systems you can use for free online. Zotero (www.zotero.org) and Mendeley (www.mendeley.com) are two examples. Citation Management Systems let you track the sources you use, take notes on your sources, and (often) export a Works Cited page.
| What strategy (can be one that was mentioned, or something else) will work for you? Why? |
This work, by Emily Campbell, is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
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