Defining the topic:
What are some types of sources?
Before you actually begin looking for information, especially online, it's a good idea to develop some keywords to pinpoint the information that you really want. A search that is too broad will retrieve far too many possible resources, and many of them will not be what you need. You will save time by planning your search.
Choosing Good Keywords
Pick a topic that interests you. It makes the research more interesting.
Mind maps are great tools to help you organize information. Use them as you are getting started to brainstorm different possible topics discovered after gathering background information. They'll help you to generate keywords to search later. You can also use them when taking notes on things you read.
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Note taking is critically important to writing good papers.
So, how do you take good notes? You choose the most important words or ideas from a passage, article or chapter, and write them down. You can use a mindmap, notecards (3x5 or 4x6), the Cornell note technique, or even a special notebook. The most important thing is to keep your notes organized so that you remember the sources you used.
One way to do this is to use 4x6 note cards. They may be old fashioned, but using them keeps research both organized and moveable (and reusable) from paper to paper.
Setting up your note card system can be very easy. Each source from which you take notes should have its own bibliography card (Example A). Put it into proper APA format, and give it a number. The finished reference card will look something like this: