While you’re working on your research paper, develop some savvy note-taking habits that will save you loads of time later. Use these tricks for taking notes and organizing your research:
Keep a master list of all sources, including title, author, date, publishing information, and page numbers.
Give each source a code number, and label each note with the code and page number. If the source doesn’t have page numbers, include any other location information.
If you write the exact words you found in the source, enclose the words in quotation marks.
If the source credits someone else, write that information in your notes also.
If you highlight information in a book or article, keep a “table of contents” listing the main idea of each highlight and the page on which it appears.