Dr. T. with old oak tree in Gold Country
Using Source Cards & Note Cards
Guidelines for Using Note Cards and Source Cards
Source Card: Contains information about the source of information, such as author, title, publisher, copyright date, web address, etc.
Note Cards: Contains information about the topic; facts about the topic.
Source cards and note cards help you take notes in and organized manner. They also help you follow Fair Use of Copyrighted materials.
- Write the source card’s number in the upper right corner, circled.
- For each note card, write the source card’s number in the upper right corner, circled.
- Write notes on one sub-topic, idea or direct quote per note card.
- Paraphrase or use bullets. Do not copy!
- Use quotation marks for direct quotes. These you must copy accurately and include: who, when, and where.
- Write the page number of where you found the information on the bottom of the note card. Do not forget to do this!
- Write on one side only. This helps later as you sort cards into your outline.
- In addition to taking textual notes, write summaries or descriptions of charts, illustrations, maps of interest. You might want to go back to them later, and they will be easier to find. (Example: A good illustration of Washington crossing the Delaware River in black white.)
- When taking notes from different sources, you might have only 1 or 100+ note cards. It depends on the usefulness of the resource to your topic or question. There is no rule to the number of notes from any one resource.
- If you use the notes or illustration, the source must be cited. No exceptions. You must follow Fair Use of Copyrighted materials.
