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Big6™
Information Information Seeking Strategies Evaluation of Product & Process
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Use of Information Engage (e.g. read, hear, view) Extract relevant information © 1988 Eisenberg & Berkowitz One way to extract relevant information: Bib Cards and Notetaking Technology has made it easier to extract information from resources, particularly the growing number of electronic resources. Many of you are very good at the “copy / paste” technique, and this can be an efficient means to “take notes.” However, for this research project, we require you to take notes on notecards. This will allow us to put a spotlight on several critical research skills, particularly paraphrasing and organizing information. So pick up your pen or pencil, grab a stack of notecards and let’s get started…! Ø Identify relevant, valuable resources 1. Skim and scan to determine the value of the article or book. § With books, read the table of contents. Note the chapter titles and headings. With articles read the headings and subheadings § Read the first and last paragraphs of relevant-sounding chapters. § Read the first and last sentences of each paragraph in a promising chapter.
2. If the information is relevant, appropriate, and valuable, prepare a bibliography card for that resource and complete the evaluation form on the back of the card. Ø Bibliography Cards 1. Record the bibliographic information for each resource on a separate card – a bibliography card – following the format provided by NoodleBib MLA format. You may print a copy of your bibliographic citations, cut them apart and paste them on the back of your evaluation cards. 2. Assign a bibliography code to each bib card. Write the code in the upper right corner of the bib card. 3. In the lower left, record what type of resource, such as book, reference book, magazine article (if from an online database include the database name also), newspaper, video, website, interview, TV program, Radio program, etc. Example: Magazine article
from SIRS
Ø Taking Notes 1. After you have identified a resource that is relevant, appropriate, and useful, complete a bib card for it, the evaluation form on the back of the card and begin taking notes. 2. Record the appropriate bib code in the upper right corner of the note card. This cord corresponds to the bib code assigned to this resource on its bib card. 3. Record the page number(s) the information is on in the lower right corner of the card if the information is from a printed source such as a book. 4. In the upper left corner, record a tag or slug, or at least leave an open space for a tag or slug. A tag or slug is a single word or short phrase that describes a component or sub-topic of your main research topic. 5. Read a passage. Think about the main point of the passage, and some of the supporting details. 6. Think about how you would explain this point to someone else. Write your explanation on the notecard. This is paraphrasing. Here are some tips: § Don’t use complete sentences (unless quoting). Use phrases. § Use abbreviations. § Use words and expressions familiar to you. § Record the main point. Then record the supporting details (bulleted list.) § Record just one main idea and its supporting details on each notecard. § Only write on one side of each card. 7. For each relevant resource (book, article, interview, etc.), you will create one bibliography card and from one to many content notecards. Most of the notecards will have information you paraphrase from the original source. 8. Sometimes students say they want to copy word-for-word onto their notecards and claim that they’ll write it “in their own words” later. This is not recommended! If you delay putting your thoughts about the information into your own, you are much more likely to plagiarize—intentionally or unintentionally! Translate or paraphrase the information and ideas into your own words immediately upon reading it. Ø Highlighting, then Noteaking 9. A strategy that helps some researchers with notetaking is to highlight first, then translate the paraphrase onto the notecards. 10. Photocopy pages from print sources, or work with printouts from electronic sources. As you read passages, highlight the main ideas and the important supporting details. Then fill out the notecards as described above. Ø Quoting / Statistics 11. Occasionally, you may want to quote something word-for word from a particular source. Or perhaps there is a relevant statistic or some data you want to include. If you do copy actual word or data, be certain to clearly indicate on the notecard that this is a quote. 12. Place quotation s in quotation marks. If it is quote from someone other that the author, clearly record the name of the individual whose words they are. For statistical information or data, include the source of the data. 13. In general, keep the “quoting” to a minimum. Do more paraphrasing than quoting..
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Last Modified:
11/13/2004 |
