Taking Notes

When you find a piece of information

When you find a piece of information that will help you in your research, write down the exact phrase from the book/website that you want to use.

Why do you write a direct quote? Because you can easily turn a direct quote into a paraphrase as you write your essay. You cannot turn a paraphrase into a direct quote without going back to the book/site!

Write down the page number (if applicable).

Example

From this book:

You want this information:

You write down:

Now - get the information to identify that resource

See Citing Information to see what is needed for your type of resource.

From the Lincoln book above, here is what you would write down: