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Seldom will a whole book, or even a whole article, be of use as subject matter for any given research paper. To find the information you need for your paper, you must turn to many books and articles, rejecting most of them altogether and using from others a section here and there. You cannot take the time to read each book carefully. You must use the table of contents and the index, and you must learn to scan the pages rapidly until you spot the passages that you need. The universally approved system for the taking of notes employs 3 x 5 cards. Each card contains a single note with a subject heading to indicate just where the note will fit into the outline. Each card must also show the source of the note and the exact page or pages of the source. Never continue a note from one card to the next or write on the back of a card. Another form of note-taking is to xerox pages from a source ant then to highlight and label sections of the xeroxed page. The student should be especially careful not to plagiarize when using this method of note-taking. Four types of note-taking will be illustrated in this guide. Each note card is taken from one paragraph in "How Does a Poem Mean?" by John Ciardi. Follow the links to see examples.
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