RESEARCH

How to fill outNotecards

TWO TYPES OF CARDS Source Card

Library Call # (top left corner) Source letter for reference (top right corner) the proper MLA format for the kind of source

(middle) Note Card

Subject of Note Card (Descriptive Heading) (top left corner)

Source letter and card number (top right corner)

Fact or quotation to include in your paper (middle)

Page number (after the information)

EXAMPLES

Look closely at the handout entitled How to Create Note Cards

THREE TYPES OF NOTE CARDS

Quotation

Summary

Paraphrase

QUOTATIONS

Put quotation marks around material that you copy word for word!

When quoting a source that already uses quotation marks, change the author’s double quotations for single quotation marks. According to Harold Bloom, “’the essence

of The Great Gatsby is double vision’” (25).

QUOTATIONS CONTINUED If you are going to alter the quote by

adding your own thoughts, use brackets around your own words.

If you are going to omit words or sentences from the quoted material, use ellipsis points. Words – use 3 dots… Sentences – use 4 dots…. “Dickens was a keen observer of life…he

showed sympathy for the poor” (Magill 27).

QUOTATIONS CONTINUED

When quoting a line of poetry, put the lines of poetry in quotation marks. You may use two or three lines of poetry by separating each line with a slash (/). Langston Hughes describes the realities of

life in “A Dream Deferred”: “What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?/ Or fester like a sore?” (10).

SUMMARIZING AND PARAPHRASING

A summary captures the key ideas of an author in a few words.

This is a restatement in your own words of the thoughts and ideas of a writer. Usually paraphrased material is written in about the same number of words as the original.

Hint: Read the material; then close the book before you write the note card.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS!! Write only on ONE side of the notecard. You will need ONE note card for each

quotation, author’s idea, statistic, graph and chart.

Put quotations marks around material that is copied word for word!!!

Remember to write down the page number for each note card.

You will have one source card for each source, but multiple note cards for the same source.

EXAMPLE 1

Right or Wrong?

EXAMPLE 2

Right or Wrong?

EXAMPLE 3

Right or Wrong?