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 How
to Write a Term Paper
 Take
Efficient Notes
Begin and
Organize a Research Paper
Courtesy
of Thomson Gale - www.gale.com
This guide is designed to support you as you use
electronic and print resources to:
Take
Efficient Notes
Keeping complete and
accurate bibliography and note cards during the research process is
a time (and sanity) saving practice.
1. If you have
ever needed a book or pages within a book only to discover that
an earlier researcher has failed to return it or torn pages from
your source, you understand the need to remind students that
honor among scholars demands respect for materials as well as
for ideas.
2. Bibliography
and note cards: Every researcher has a favorite method for
taking notes. Below are some suggestions to customize for your
own use.
a. Bibliography
cards
1) There may be
far more books and articles listed than you have time to
read, so be selective when choosing a reference. Take
information from works that clearly relate to your
thesis, remembering that you may not use them all.
2) Use a
smaller or a different color card from the one used for
taking notes.
3) Write a
bibliography card for every source.
4) Number the
bibliography cards. On the note cards, use the number
rather than the author's name and the title. It's
faster.
5) Another
method for recording a working bibliography, of course,
is to create your own database. Adding, removing, and
alphabetizing titles is a simple process. Be sure to
save often and to create a back-up file.
6) A
bibliography card should include all the information a
reader needs to locate that particular source for
further study.
7) Most of the
information required for a book entry (Gibaldi 112):
a) Author's
name
b) Title of
a part of the book [preface, chapter titles, etc.]
c) Title of
the book
d) Name of
the editor, translator, or compiler
e) Edition
used
f) Number(s)
of the volume(s) used
g) Name of
the series
h) Place of
publication, name of the publisher, and date of
publication
i) Page
numbers
j)
Supplementary bibliographic information and
annotations
8) Most of the
information required for an article in a periodical (Gibaldi
141):
a) Author's
name
b) Title of
the article
c) Name of
the periodical
d) Series
number or name (if relevant)
e) Volume
number (for a scholarly journal)
f) Issue
number (if needed)
g) Date of
publication
h) Page
numbers
i)
Supplementary information
9) For
information on how to cite other sources refer to the
MLA
Handbook
b. Notes cards
1) Take notes
in ink on either uniform note cards or uniform slips of
paper. The slips of paper are easier to carry if you are
working on a very long paper
2) Devote each
note card to a single topic identified at the top. Write
only on one side. Later, you may want to use the back to
add notes or personal observations.
3) Include the
number of the page(s) where you found the information.
You will want the page number(s) later for
documentation, and you may also want page number(s)to
verify your notes.
4) Most novice
researchers write too much. Condense. Abbreviate. You
are striving for substance, not quantity.
5) Keep direct
quotations at a minimum. If you must quote, use ellipses
(...) wherever possible. Be sure to copy patiently
word for word. Save time. Be accurate when you first
take notes. Quote from the original source, if possible.
A secondary source may have misquoted the original.
6) Suggestions
for condensing information:
a)
Summary: A summary is intended to provide the
gist of an essay. Do not weave in the author's
choice phrases. Read the information first and then
condense the main points in your own words. This
practice will help you avoid the copying that leads
to plagiarism. Summarizing also helps you both
analyze the text you are reading and evaluate its
strengths and weaknesses (Barnet and Bedau 13).
b)
Outline: Use to note a series of points.
c)
Paraphrase: Do not quote words and phrases from
the original. Simplify the language and list the
ideas in the same order. A paraphrase is as long as
the original. Paraphrasing is helpful when you are
struggling with a particularly difficult passage.
d)
Combination: Blend the above techniques.
7) Be sure to
include your own insights or flashes of brilliance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson warns you to "Look sharply after
your thoughts. They come unlooked for, like a new bird
seen on your trees, and, if you turn to your usual task,
disappear...." To differentiate these insights from
those of the source you are reading, initial them as
your own. (When the following examples of note cards
include the researcher's insights, they will be followed
by the initials N. R.)
8) Run a
hardcopy of a promising essay. Highlight key sentences
and passages and make marginal notes. Note those areas
that apply specifically to your thesis.
9) When you
have finished researching your thesis and you are ready
to write your paper, organize your cards according to
topic.
10. As you
research, create a working outline that includes the
note card headings and explores a logical order for
presenting them in your paper.
3. Below are
examples of bibliography and note cards compiled while
researching Beloved. Formats follow the
MLA Handbook for
Writers. For more examples of MLA style for bibliography
and note cards, refer to the above handbook
a. Thesis: Both the
spiritual and physical enslavement of Baby Suggs, Sethe,
Denver, and Beloved are shaped by chattel slavery and
reflected in their houses at Sweet Home and on Bluestone
Road.
b. Bibliography
card : A book by a single author # 1 Otten, Terry, The
Crime Of Innocence in the Fiction of Toni Morrison.
Literary Frontiers Edition, #13. Columbia: University of
Missouri Press, 1989.
c. Note cards from
above source:
#1 [bibliog. cd
#] spiritual state of women [topic] p. 81: T. M. deals
with good and evil and their relationship. She explores
the ability of an evil system like slavery to corrupt
slave owner and slave; both carry responsibility for
action.
#2 isolation of
124 p. 92 In all TM's novels isolation from the
community leads to tragedy: necessary to reconnect for
"recovery of order and wholeness."
d. Bibliography
card: A work in an anthology compiled by two editors #2
Henderson, Mae G. "Response" to "There Is No More Beautiful
Way" by Houston A. Baker Jr. in Afro-American Literary
Study in the 1990s. Eds. Houston A. Baker Jr. and
Patricia Redmond. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1992, 155-163.
e. Note card from
the above source: #2 Afro-Amer. writers break with
traditional role of home p. 161 Henderson responds to
Baker's view of the role of place in Afro-American
literature. African-American women break with traditional
views of space. If a home can be a place of growth and
maternal nurturing, it can also be a place of destruction.
124 is a place where Baby Suggs nurtures, where Sethe
nurtures and murders, and where Beloved, Denver and Sethe
enter into a struggle for survival. Beloved must be driven
out and Denver must find the courage to leave the front
porch. N. R.
f. Bibliography
card for a book by two authors: #3 Gilbert, Sandra M. and
Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer
and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New
Haven: Yale University Press. 1984.
g. Note card from
the above source: #3 Houses as prisons/ agoraphobia and
anorexia p. 85. 19th century women wrote about imprisonment
and escape in novel after novel. Ironically, houses were
depicted as both "woman's place" and a prison. In the lives
if these trapped women's agoraphobia and anorexia are
closely associated with their imprisonment.
h. #4 Horvitz,
Deborah. "Nameless Ghosts: Possession and Dispossession in
Beloved." Studies in American Fiction, Vol.
17, No. 2, Autumn, 1989, pp. 157-67. Republished in
Literature Resource Center. Gale. (1 January 1999).
i. Note card from
the above source: #4. Connections between and among
generations of slave women pp. 1-2 Although the ghost of
Beloved represents all the slave women who have never had a
voice, she is not limited to being a symbol. She is "rooted
in a particular story and is the embodiment of specific
members of Sethe's family." She is the spirit of all women
dragged on board a slave ship, of Sethe's hanged mother, of
Sethe's murdered child, and of all the black women who try
to trace their roots back to Africa. No wonder 124 is so
filled with pain and anger! N.R.
Begin and
Organize a Research Paper
"Life is not free from its forms." - Wallace
Stevens
Where to begin? You may
be one of those eager researchers described earlier. If so,
inspired by your thesis, you have already begun writing your
paper. If, however, you still feel overwhelmed and are staring
at a blank page, you are not alone. Many students find writing
the first sentence to be the most daunting part of the entire
research process. "The best antidote to writer's block is — to
write" (Klauser 15).
1. Be
creative. Cluster (Rico 28-49).
a. Clustering
is a form of brainstorming. Sometimes called a web, the
cluster forms a design that may suggest a natural
organization for a paper.
b. Like a
sun, the generating idea or topic lies at the center of
the web. From it radiate words, phrases, sentences and
images that in turn attract other words, phrases,
sentences and images.
c. The
following outline suggested by the above web may change
often during the writing of the paper, but it is
a beginning.
I.
Introduction
II. General
history of slavery.
III. The
impact of slavery on Baby Suggs before she lived at
124
IV. Sethe's
mother and slavery
V. Sethe's
life at Sweet Home
VI. Sethe's
flight from Sweet Home
VII. 124
Bluestone Road
A. Baby
Suggs
B.
Sethe
C.
Denver
D.
Beloved
E. Past
generations of enslaved women
F.
Contemporary black Community
VIII.
Conclusion
2. Start
directly with your outline.
a. If
clustering is not a technique that works for you, turn
to the working outline you created during the research
process.
b. If you have
not already done so, group your note cards according to
topic headings. Compare them to your outline's major
points. If necessary, change the outline to correspond
with the headings on the note cards.
c. If any area
seems weak because of a scarcity of facts or opinions,
go back to your primary and/or secondary sources for
more information or consider deleting that heading. Your
outline should have approximately the same amount of
information in each area.
3. Once you
have written a working outline, consider two different
methods for organizing it.
a. Deduction:
1) A
process of development that moves from the general
to the specific. Deduction is the most commonly used
form of organization for a research paper on
literature.
2) The
thesis statement is the generalization that leads to
the specific support provided by primary and
secondary sources.
3) The
thesis is stated early in the paper. The body of
the paper then proceeds to provide the facts,
examples, and analogies that flow logically from
that thesis.
Ex. A
brief outline for a deductive approach to a
paper on Beloved:
Thesis: The spiritual
and physical enslavement of Baby Suggs, Sethe,
Denver, and Beloved is shaped by chattel slavery
and reflected in the houses at Sweet Home and on
Bluestone Road.
A brief
outline of the body of the paper:
1)
Describe the historical elements of slavery
in North America and its impact on the lives of
slave women in particular. Explore the effect of
chattel slavery on life at Sweet Home,
Kentucky.
2)
Analyze the consequences of life at Sweet
Home upon 124 Bluestone Road, Ohio,
and upon the spirit and body of
each of the three generations of women who live
there.
3) The
thesis contains key words that are reflected in
the outline. These key words become a unifying
element throughout the paper, as they reappear
in the detailed paragraphs that support and
develop the thesis.
4) The
conclusion of the paper circles back to the
thesis, which is now far more meaningful because
of the deductive development that supports it.
b.
Chronological order
1) A
process that follows a plot with a traditional time
line or that unravels a plot line that includes such
elements as flashbacks.
2) A
chronological organization is useful for a paper
that explores cause and effect.
4. Now it's
time to write the first sentence of the first draft of the
first paragraph.
a. Writing the
first draft of an introductory paragraph is like writing
in water. You will probably revise it again and again.
Knowing this, plunge ahead. Below are a few guidelines
for creating a mature introduction:
1) Begin
with a "compelling condition or situation" (Sorenson
151). The first sentence of the following
introduction to the paper on Beloved is
designed to interest the reader. By ending the
paragraph with the thesis, the writer leaves the
reader with a clear indication of the paper's
direction. The introduction is a kind of funnel,
with the narrow end (the thesis) ushering the reader
into the body of the paper.
EX. A
murdered baby haunts 124 Bluestone Road. And she
is not alone. The presence of the spirits of
African women once chained in the holds of slave
ships, flung alive into the sea, or brutalized
by their owners intensifies 124's sadness and
anger. Clearly houses provide no protection for
the women in Toni Morrison's Beloved.
Chattel slavery turns a plantation in Kentucky
and a Victorian farm house in Ohio into
crucibles for the black mothers and daughters
who are trapped in them. The spiritual and
physical enslavement of Baby Suggs, Sethe,
Denver and Beloved is shaped by and reflected in
the houses at Sweet Home and Bluestone Road.
2) Begin
with an anecdote that sets the stage for the content
of the paper (151).
Ex. No
longer satisfied with pranks, the baby ghost at
124 Bluestone Road picks up the dog and slams it
against the wall. Stoically, Sethe knocks it out
with a hammer, sets its broken legs and pushes
its eye back into the socket. After that the dog
lives under the porch....
3) Use a
quotation that reflects the theme of the paper or
that is drawn from the primary source itself (151).
Ex.
"124 was spiteful. Full of baby venom. The women
in the house knew it and so did the children."
b. In addition
to presenting the thesis, the introduction also suggests
the general organization of the paper.
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