Recording Your Findings Review

Way back in Chapter 1 we talked about taking notes on the information you find. We think that learning to record your findings and take accurate notes is important enough to present here as a review.

There are many different ways to keep track of the information that you find. Try out some of the ideas below on different assignments to find the one that works best for you.

• Download or Photocopy material from sources and write citations for sources.
• Record notes either on paper or in an electronic document (e.g., Microsoft Word or Google Docs), including citation information.
• Use an Online Reference Management Tool to take notes and keep track of quotations and citations online. For example, try NoodleTools, which you have free access to as a Contra Costa College student. 

No matter which method you use to record information about your topic, be sure to note the identifying information about the source in order to provide an accurate citation. You will need to know:

• author and/or editor
• title of book or article
• if source is a book, name of publisher and date of publication
• if source is a journal article, title of journal, volume number, issue number, and date if given; pay close attention that magazines and newspaper articles are cited differently than journal articles
• if source is from an online database, you'll need the name of the database and your date of access
• page number on which information appears
• publication date
• URLs to database items and webpages

Visit the library's citation page for more information and examples illustrating how to correctly cite your sources.