Will I still need to go back to the original source?

 

There is no method of note-taking that guarantees you will not have to return at some point to the original source. For this reason be sure to record along with your notes the author, title, date, and exact location of the information you may use in your paper (e.g., helpful insight on income inequality, p. 32, 3^rdpar., Thompson, Canadian Social Justice, 2004). This will save you time if you have to return to the passage again later.

 

Resist the temptation to copy all of the information in the author’s exact words. Instead, capture the essence of the key ideas as they relate to your paper, in your own words. It is still important to record the source information even if you intend to paraphrase rather than quote. If you do record a direct quote, be sure to identify it with quotation marks or in some other fashion.