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Study Skills Handout: How to Write a Research Paper
Step 3 -- Taking Notes

The handout below is just one of the many study skills handouts available through the Tutoring Center. If you are having trouble with study skills of any kind, or if you have questions about study skills that are not addressed here, stop in the Student Commons Building, Room 1300, at the Normal campus and talk to a tutor. He/she can provide additional handouts, help you recognize your strengths and weaknesses and help you formulate a plan to develop effective study strategies. To find out when tutors for various courses are available in Pontiac or Lincoln contact the receptionist in Pontiac (815-842-6777) or Lincoln (217-735-1731).

How to Write A Research Paper
A Guide for Tutors and Students

Heartland Community College Academic Support Center
Prepared by Carol Baker, Melissa Clark, Nancy Mazur and Ellen Vogel

Guidelines on How to Write a Research Paper are broken down into the following steps.

• Introduction
• Checklist: Scheduling Your Research Paper
• Step 1: Getting Started
• Step 2: Collecting Data
• Step 3: Taking Notes
• Step 4: Drafting the Paper
• Step 5: Revising the Paper
• Step 6: Preparing the Final Draft
• MLA
• APA

Step 3: Taking Notes

Decide on audience, purpose and your role as a writer. (See handout: Reader Writer positions.)

Define and assess the audience to whom you are writing (the rhetorical situation).

• Do you have an appropriate audience in mind?
• What role/position do you see for your readers?
• Examples: Explorer Note: Your readers need to feel they are a Insider/Outsider part of the audience. Use language that includes, not excludes them.

  Expert/Novice

• What do your readers already know?
• What do your readers want to know?
• What are the needs, expectations, and interests of your readers?
• Will your readers understand what you are saying?
• How formal or informal is the forum of readers?
• How can you best carry out your purpose with these readers?
• What do you feel your readers need to know?
  

Determine the purpose of your writing.

• Inform
• Persuade
• Explore

Decide on your role/position as a writer and the relationship you intend to establish with the reader.

• In what role/position do you wish to present yourself?
• How can you present yourself effectively in this role?
• Examples: Explorer Note: Your readers need to understand your Insider/Outsider your purpose. Convey to them what you want them think about or to do.

  Expert/Novice

• How can you establish your credibility to write on this topic?

Make content notes on note cards. (See handout: Sample Bibliographic Note Cards.)

• Write a heading summarizing the information you are recording.
• Write down the name of the source (title or author’s last name) and page numbers.
• Record only one kind of information per card; if more than one, number them (of 3)...
• Define your terms.
• Include descriptions.
• Make comparisons.
• Assess cause and effect.
• Consider what has already been said by others.
• Write on only one side of each card if possible.
• Use several types of note cards.
• Bibliography cards: Author, title, page number.
• Annotation cards: A summary of the pertinent information you will use.
• More information about note cards follows: (See Avoid plagiarism.)
  

Avoid plagiarism: either quote, paraphrase or summarize. (See Step 4: Drafting Paper.)

• Definition of plagiarism: The use of someone else’s words or ideas presented in your paper as your own without giving credit to that person.
• Note: You must use parenthetical references to document your sources. Make note cards. (See Keys for Writers.)
• If you quote directly from the source:
  
  Do not overuse quotations.
  Limit to well-expressed statements.
  Record exactly as in the original, including punctuation.
  Enclose in quotation marks.
  For longer quotes, see APA or MLA format guide.
  
  
• If you paraphrase:
  
  Write the full intended meaning in your own words.
  Restate the writer’s point of view and all relevant ideas in your own words.
  Vary the sentence structure and style of your writing from that of the source. KNever claim author’s ideas as your own.
  Do not alter or lose any of the author’s original meaning in your restatement.
  Include a summary of the author’s reasoning and support for his/her ideas.
  
  
• When you summarize the main points from the source:
  
  Write down the key ideas in your own words and in greatly reduced length.
  Reduce the length of the original material.

Develop your thesis statement. (See handout: Thesis Focus Statement; see also Step 4 and Step 5.)

• Note: A thesis statement can be changed as your paper evolves.
• Present a clear thesis statement:
  
  That has a main idea which points to your purpose.
  That shows the progression of that idea.
  That shows the point(s) you want to make.
  That is a complete sentence.
  Decide where you want to place your thesis statement.

"How can I know what I think until I see what I say"? --E .M. Forester

• Create informal outline.
• Rearrange notes into logical groupings of related information:
  
  Main ideas or categories
  Your supporting reasoning for your ideas or categories
  Examples
  Supporting evidence
  Make a preliminary outline from these groupings.
  
  
• Decide what patterns of organization could help you organize your information.
  
  Note: Try several different patterns to see which one will work best. Determining the relationship among ideas within a passage helps to organize them into a coherent whole.
  
  Patterns of organization are useful not only in better understanding paragraphs, but entire reading passages. As a writer, you will want to use a variety of writing patterns to develop your ideas; these are called rhetorical modes. As a reader, your audience can identify your main idea and supporting details more readily if you have used one or a combination of these writing patterns. (See handout: Patterns of Organization.)

1. Chronological or Sequence of Events -- Explains an event or a process in order of importance
2. Spatial/Description -- Connects ideas by progression of the parts giving their important characteristics or attributes usually to give the reader a visual picture or feeling.
3. Cause/Effect -- Shows how relationships between facts, events, or concepts happen (effect) and why it happened (cause).
4. Compare/Contrast -- Shows relationships between objects or concepts. Points out likeness (compare) or differences (contrasts).
5. Problem/Solution -- Shows development of a problem and the solution to the problem.
6. Definition or Subject -- Explains the topic by describing and defining details about people, objects or events.
7. Classification and Division -- Organizes items that are similar by classsifying the items to be discussed.
8. Illustration/Example -- Uses examples to illustrate or support the main idea.
   

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Adapted from: Adams,W. Royce and Patterson, Becky. Developing Reading Versatillity. 7th ed. Harcourt Brace, 1997. 63-7.

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