Taking Notes
1
Chapter 3: Taking Notes
The good student takes down notes when listening to a teacher’s lecture. In the same way, the good researcher takes down notes whenever he comes across a source relevant to his research.
Research note taking saves the researcher a lot of time and effort. It allows him to refer to his sources without having to “re-search” for the source from which they were originally taken. In the beginning, it might seem that the rigid rules of note taking are stifling, rather than facilitating your research, but in the long run, note taking, if done correctly and diligently, will make the research process loads easier. Research note taking, though, is a specialized skill, quite different from lecture note taking. There are several techniques in research note taking that will enable you to make efficient use of your time and avoid the
“P” word.
What’s the
“P”
word?
Eloisa P. Ventura (1999), author of On Your Own: Doing Research Without Plagiarizing, writes (p. 2),
PLAGIARISM
comes from the Latin word for thief, plunderer, hunting net, and kidnapper, and can be considered as outright stealing of another person’s ideas [boldface italics and emphasis mine].
2
• CHAPTER 3: TAKING NOTES
Before we discuss, in detail, the technicalities of plagiarism, try and answer the following short pop quiz on plagiarism.
Activity 3.1:
Directions:
What is Plagiarism?
Read each situation below. If you think that the situation is one where plagiarism takes place, write the capital letter “P” in the space before each item. Otherwise, write the capital letters “NP.” Wesley, a varsity basketball player, intended to do his research paper, but the championship game fell on the day before the paper’s deadline, so the next day, he passed his older brother’s third year research paper as his own. Martin found useful information on boxing for his paper. He took information from the website, paraphrased it correctly, and put it in his
Chapter 3: Taking Notes
The good student takes down notes when listening to a teacher’s lecture. In the same way, the good researcher takes down notes whenever he comes across a source relevant to his research.
Research note taking saves the researcher a lot of time and effort. It allows him to refer to his sources without having to “re-search” for the source from which they were originally taken. In the beginning, it might seem that the rigid rules of note taking are stifling, rather than facilitating your research, but in the long run, note taking, if done correctly and diligently, will make the research process loads easier. Research note taking, though, is a specialized skill, quite different from lecture note taking. There are several techniques in research note taking that will enable you to make efficient use of your time and avoid the
“P” word.
What’s the
“P”
word?
Eloisa P. Ventura (1999), author of On Your Own: Doing Research Without Plagiarizing, writes (p. 2),
PLAGIARISM
comes from the Latin word for thief, plunderer, hunting net, and kidnapper, and can be considered as outright stealing of another person’s ideas [boldface italics and emphasis mine].
2
• CHAPTER 3: TAKING NOTES
Before we discuss, in detail, the technicalities of plagiarism, try and answer the following short pop quiz on plagiarism.
Activity 3.1:
Directions:
What is Plagiarism?
Read each situation below. If you think that the situation is one where plagiarism takes place, write the capital letter “P” in the space before each item. Otherwise, write the capital letters “NP.” Wesley, a varsity basketball player, intended to do his research paper, but the championship game fell on the day before the paper’s deadline, so the next day, he passed his older brother’s third year research paper as his own. Martin found useful information on boxing for his paper. He took information from the website, paraphrased it correctly, and put it in his