Taking Notes

IntroductionCreating an early planTaking notes

Summarizing informationParaphrasing informationUsing direct quotations

Talk About ItYour Turn

Tech Tool in this presentation• Webnote

As you proceed along your research journey, make sure you know where you’re headed so that you stay on the right path.

Introduction

But wait! How can you know that you’re on the right path?

Before you go on any journey, you need a map. Creating an early plan will help you map out your research route.

Creating an early plan

Remember that your early plan can be revised if you find that you have too little or too much information about your research topic.

Your early plan will help you answer crucial questions about your research such as

Creating an early plan

What information should I take from my sources?

Which information has the most to do with my topic?

Early Plan

Topic: The effects of digital music on the recording industry in America

Background Overview of technology Availability of free digital music

Profit losses for recording companiesImpact on artistsLegal issuesPossible solutions

Early Plan

Topic: The effects of digital music on the recording industry in America

Background Overview of technology Availability of free digital music

Profit losses for recording companiesImpact on artistsLegal issuesPossible solutions

Early Plan

Topic: The effects of digital music on the recording industry in America

Background Overview of technology Availability of free digital music

Profit losses for recording companiesImpact on artistsLegal issuesPossible solutions

Early Plan

Topic: The effects of digital music on the recording industry in America

Background Overview of technology Availability of free digital music

Profit losses for recording companiesImpact on artistsLegal issuesPossible solutions

As you can see, an early plan is like a map for your research and should includeHere is an example of an early plan for a paper on digital music and the recording industry.

Creating an early plan

a refined topic

subdivisions

headings

Focus on information that answers your research questions and fits into your early plan.

Once you have a plan, you can begin to take notes from your sources. As you read through your sources, look for

Taking notes

facts

statistics

examples

expert opinions

Fact: a statement that can be proven to be true

Taking notes

Digital music piracy is still a major concern for the recording industry.

Statistic: information in numerical form

There are nearly five hundred online music services available in more than forty countries worldwide.

Example: a specific illustration of a general idea

“The record industry today has evolved into a digital thinking, digitally literate business.” —John Kennedy, Chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry

Taking notes

Expert opinion: the ideas of someone who is an expert on your topic

Portable digital music players have contributed greatly to the rise of digital music.

As you read through your sources, carefully evaluate the information you find. Ask yourself

If the answer to both of these questions is yes, you should record that information.

Taking notes

Will this information help me answer my research questions?

Does this information fit into my early plan?

use only the author’s most important ideas

Summarizing is a critical note-taking skill. When summarizing information

put ideas in your own words and use your own sentence structure

Summarize when you have to remember only the main idea of what you read or heard. Most of your notes should be taken in this format.

make your summary only about one-fourth to one-third as long as the original

Summarizing information

Below is an article on the efforts of the University of California to stop music piracy.

On the next slide, you will see this article summarized.

Summarizing information

The University of California, Berkley said it's stepping up anti-piracy efforts. The name of this campaign is Learn before you Burn. Previously, students caught downloading music would be warned. Now, new residents caught illegally downloading music will automatically lose their in-room Internet connection for one week or longer.

The University of California, Berkley said it's stepping up anti-piracy efforts. The name of this campaign is Learn before you Burn. Previously, students caught downloading music would be warned. Now, new residents caught illegally downloading music will automatically lose their in-room Internet connection for one week or longer.

The University of California, Berkley said it's stepping up anti-piracy efforts. The name of this campaign is Learn before you Burn. Previously, students caught downloading music would be warned. Now, new residents caught illegally downloading music will automatically lose their in-room Internet connection for one week or longer.

The University of California, Berkley said it’s stepping up anti-piracy efforts. The name of this campaign is Learn before you Burn. Previously, students caught downloading music would be warned. Now, new residents caught illegally downloading music will automatically lose their in-room Internet connection for one week or longer.

Is this an effective summary of the passage?

Explain why or why not.

includes unimportant details

uses author’s words

uses author’s words

Summarizing information

NO

UC Berkeley is trying to prevent music piracy by increasing penalties against it and educating students about the dangers of illegal downloading.

UC Berkeley is trying to prevent music piracy by increasing penalties against it and educating students about the dangers of illegal downloading.

UC Berkeley is trying to prevent music piracy by increasing penalties against it and educating students about the dangers of illegal downloading.

Consider this summary. How does it differ from the first?

uses student’s own words

includes only most important ideas

is about one-fourth as long as original

Summarizing information

This is an effective summary.

Paraphrasing is another very important note-taking skill. When paraphrasing a source,

include both main ideas and details from the original source

put the ideas and details in your own words and use your own sentence structure

use quotation marks if you use any of the author’s actual words

make your paraphrase about the same length as the original

Paraphrasing information

Paraphrase when you need to explain an idea in detail.

“ ”

Here is another article on music piracy. You’ll see this information paraphrased on the next slide.

Paraphrasing information

New technology could help squelch digital music piracy

A group of technology companies is creating a set of industry standards that could help put digital piracy protections directly into portable disk drives as soon as this summer.

The plans are initially likely to affect removable data storage, such as Zip drives or the Flash memory cards used in MP3 players. But the standards could ultimately serve as a way to keep consumers from copying copyrighted files directly onto their hard drives, a daunting prospect for those who download music or videos from the Net.

New technology could put digital piracy protections directly into portable disk drives. This could affect people who download content.

New technology could put digital piracy protections directly into portable disk drives. This could affect people who download content.

New technology could put digital piracy protections directly into portable disk drives. This could affect people who download content.

Is this an effective paraphrase of the music piracy article? Why or why not?

gives main idea but leaves out supporting details

uses the author’s exact words without quotation marks

is not nearly as long as the original

Paraphrasing information

No, this is not an effective paraphrase.

New technology is being created that will place “digital piracy protections” in portable devices such as Zip drives and Flash memory cards. Eventually, this built-in copy protection could keep people who use the Internet to download music and videos illegally from putting those files on their hard drives.

New technology is being created that will place “digital piracy protections” in portable devices such as Zip drives and Flash memory cards. Eventually, this built-in copy protection could keep people who use the Internet to download music and videos illegally from putting those files on their hard drives.

New technology is being created that will place “digital piracy protections” in portable devices such as Zip drives and Flash memory cards. Eventually, this built-in copy protection could keep people who use the Internet to download music and videos illegally from putting those files on their hard drives.

New technology is being created that will place “digital piracy protections” in portable devices such as Zip drives and flash memory cards. Eventually, this built-in copy protection could keep people who use the Internet to download music and videos illegally from putting those files on their hard drives.

includes the main ideas and details from the passage

uses student’s own words

uses the author’s exact words in quotation marks

Consider this paraphrase. How does it differ from the first?

Paraphrasing information

This is an effective paraphrase.

Writers use direct quotations when they want to use an author’s exact words in their own work. When using direct quotations

Quote an author directly only when his or her exact words and ideas are important.

Copy the material word for word and put quotation marks around each direct quotation.

Limit your use of direct quotations. Less than ten percent of your research project should be direct quotations from your sources.

Using direct quotations

Here is information a student has found through his research.

Using direct quotations

A recent study shows that teenagers are the largest demographic of offenders when it comes to digital music piracy. The results of the study show that 83% of the teens who categorized themselves as music listeners admitted to piracy, compared to 67% of adults from 18–29, and 32% of adults from 30–50. And of those teens, just over half of them said they knew it was wrong. So what is going on here? According to the survey, justifications for this behavior ranged from lack of a steady income, to lack of direct consequences for the actions, to an “everyone else is doing it” mentality.

“A recent study shows that teenagers are among the largest offenders when it comes to digital music piracy,” maybe because they don’t have a steady income to buy new music, or because they feel like everyone else is doing it. “The results of the study show that 83% of the teens who categorized themselves as music listeners admitted to piracy” and that most of them knew it was wrong. So what is going on here?

Is this an effective use of direct quotation?

the quotation is not a powerful point

the author’s words are not in quotation marks

quotations are overused

Using direct quotations

No

“A recent study shows that teenagers are among the largest offenders when it comes to digital music piracy,” maybe because they don’t have a steady income to buy new music, or because they feel like everyone else is doing it. “The results of the study show that 83% of the teens who categorized themselves as music listeners admitted to piracy” and that most of them knew it was wrong. So what is going on here?

“A recent study shows that teenagers are among the largest offenders when it comes to digital music piracy,” maybe because they don’t have a steady income to buy new music, or because they feel like everyone else is doing it. “The results of the study show that 83% of the teens who categorized themselves as music listeners admitted to piracy” and that most of them knew it was wrong. So what is going on here?

“A recent study shows that teenagers are among the largest offenders when it comes to digital music piracy,” maybe because they don’t have a steady income to buy new music, or because they feel like everyone else is doing it. “The results of the study show that 83% of the teens who categorized themselves as music listeners admitted to piracy” and that most of them knew it was wrong. What is going on here?

The results of the survey showed that some of the reasons teens involved themselves in digital music piracy “ranged from lack of a steady income, to lack of direct consequences for the actions, to an ‘everyone else is doing it’ mentality.”

Is this an effective use of a direct quotation?

quotation uses important words from author

quotations are not overused

Using direct quotations

This is an effective direct quotation.

The results of the survey showed that some of the reasons teens involved themselves in digital music piracy “ranged from lack of a steady income, to lack of direct consequences for the actions, to an ‘everyone else is doing it’ mentality.”

Tech Tool: Webnote

Webnote is an online tool that you can use for taking notes.

To use Webnote, you first create a workspace with an original name. Each time you enter the name of your workspace at the Webnote homepage, it will take you back to your work.

Create a new note by clicking the small, yellow square in the upper left corner.

On each note, type in the information you want to capture.

Tech Tool: Webnote

With Webnote, you can change the background color of each note. You might use a different color for every source.

You can also put the notecards in any order.

These two features will help you group cards as you think about how to organize your notes.

Tech Tool: Webnote

Now that you have created your early plan and mapped out your research route, you can document your sources.

Conclusion

To help yourself stay on track, remember to update your early plan as you go.

1. How does an early plan help you prepare to write a draft of your paper?

Talk About It

Discuss these questions with your classmates.

2. How do you decide what to write down when you are taking notes from a source?

3. When does using a direct quotation add to your work? When does it take away from your work?

4. Why is it so important to take accurate notes as you do your research?

Your Turn

Read this news clipping; then complete the activities on the following slide.

In an effort to steer its students away from piracy, the state university is now offering subscriptions to a popular online music service for an incredibly low monthly fee. In order to offer such a lucrative deal to students, the university had to first negotiate the deal with the service provider. “We were willing to take the risk and lower our prices so drastically in the hopes that it will reduce the amount of illegal file sharing currently occurring on college campuses,” said Christine Marks, the CEO of the company. Marks expressed her hope that this partnership would be the first step towards curbing digital music piracy.

Your Turn

1. Using the article on the previous slide, create:

a) a summary note

b) a paraphrase note

c) a direct quotation note

The End