Note-taking, though something of a bother, is really the only way to organize information and condense a source into something more of a reference card of relevant topics. For me, the easiest way to take notes is to put the citation of a source on one side of a notecard (if I"m using a physical book for a source) andthen put information on the other side. Information, in my case, is a quick synopsis of key points, people, and other relevant snippets which let me know what I need when I'm writing a paper. For example, if I've got three books on closely related topics and have difficulty remembering which one discussed a particular topic or had a particular quote, I could reference my notecards and see what makes those three books different - and thereby figure out where I need to go to pull the information I need.
Online, it is much easier to take notes. All you have to do is copy the hyperlink and write a quick annotation - or better yet, download it and write an annotation in some way to make it stand out - italicized, distinct font, etc. The MLA citations can be found later, once the paper is done.
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