EN 101/102
Research Paper Notetaking & Sourcing
There are three main ways to take notes when reading information for your research paper. They are
summarizing, paraphrasing, and direct quoting.
1.
Summarizing:
When you summarize information that you read, you extract the main point from the sentences and you condense the ideas into a shortened synopsis. A summary is only one or two sentences in total. If the idea is not your own, you must still source the information. That is, you will write the author’s last name or the title of the article [if there is no author]) in parenthesis after the summary that you have written.
Practice: Watch a YouTube video on the subject that you are pursuing and write a summary of the video clip. Be sure to write down everything you need to know about the video in order to create a bibliography/works cited page. (See the second half of this handout for that information).
Cite the author or poster’s name after in parenthesis.
2.
Paraphrasing:
Paraphrasing is similar to summarizing information in that you take the words of somebody else and you write those ideas in your own words. The difference is that paraphrasing is longer than a summary because you are using more of the ideas from what you have read. Like a summary, you must cite the source after you paraphrase even if you put the ideas in your own words. Why? Because you are taking the ideas of another and you don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing!
Practice: Go to an article that you have found on your topic and read a few paragraphs, and then condense those ideas into a short paragraph in your own words. Cite the author after in parenthesis.
3.
Direct Quoting:
Taking the words of someone else and writing them exactly as you see them is direct quoting and needs to be shown as such with quotation marks around everything that you took from another writer. Like summarizing and paraphrasing, you need to end the quote with an in-text citation which shows the author’s name in parenthesis.
Ex. One psychologist explains, “The Oedipal Complex seems to be stronger in females than in males” (Johnson).
Practice: Read a different article on your topic and extract a quote that seems to work well at supporting your topic idea. Write the quote as I have shown above.
4.
Sourcing Information Needed:
Refer to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
How to cite a YouTube clip for your work cited page:
Author’s Name or Poster’s Username. “Title of Image or video.” Media Type. Name of Website.
Name of Website’s Publisher, date of posting. Medium. Date retrieved.
A)
Example of a specific YouTube clip:
Shimabukuro, Jake. “Ukulele Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro.” Online video clip. YouTube.
YouTube, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. 9 Sept. 2010.
How to cite an online article for your work cited page:
Author or editor’s name, article name in quotation marks, title of the website, publisher’s name if given, date of publication (if given), medium of publication (web), date you accessed the material, URL optional
B)
Example of what it looks like when you put it in correct format:
Wilson, Joe. “The Art of Friendship.” Psychology Weekly. American Institute of Psychology, 2009. Web.
10 March 2016.