Research Step 3: Write
Completion requirements
Unit 3
Survivors!
Research Step 3: Write
Taking Notes
Taking notes is the process you use to write down important information. When you take notes, you do not just copy sentences from your resource.
It is important that you learn a few things about taking notes before you start doing it.
Click on the question mark image to the right to begin learning about finding what’s important in a paragraph, and making notes about it. You will begin learning how to decide what’s important, and how to write it down.
Click on the image above to view the Brain-pop video about main ideas.
Now that you have begun learning how to take Main Idea & Detail notes, it’s time to start writing your own notes.
Follow these steps:
- Use one resource at a time. Read through the resource, checking each paragraph as you go for important information, main ideas, and details – just like Moby and Annie did in the Brainpop video, and when you were summarizing in previous lessons.
- Note taking is about looking for main ideas and details. You already know a lot about finding main ideas and details. These are the skills you use to take notes.
- Write down the main ideas and details you find in short form. Include information that is the most important or the most interesting – not every single thing that is written there. Put the title of the resource you are using at the top of a page in your Reader’s Notebook, and make the notes from that resource on the same page. Use a separate page for each resource.
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Download PDF
- Download the document Reader's Notebook: Taking Notes.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: When the download screen opens:
- Click the "Open with" button.
- Select "Adobe Reader".
- Click "OK".
- You will then be able to view the document Reader's Notebook: Taking Notes.
- Can't view the file? View Skill Builder: Saving Dynamic PDFs.
- You might find information in a resource that you think you already wrote down from another resource on another page. If this happens, check your notes from the other resource to see exactly what’s there. If the new resource has new information, write it down. If the information in the new resource is the same, don’t write it down again – just go on.
Remember that you can take notes with a pencil on a piece of paper, or use a computer word processing program.
Save
How to save a file:
- Have the file open and select Save As from the File menu.
- Name your Reader's Notebook: Taking Notes file in this format: jsmith_takingnotes and save the file to your Documents folder.
Use this Bibliography Form to create a bibliography to include at the end of your presentation.
A bibliography is just a list of resources that gives credit to the authors that supplied the information you are using.
Download PDF
- Download the document Bibliography.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: When the download screen opens:
- Click the "Open with" button.
- Select "Adobe Reader".
- Click "OK".
- You will then be able to view the document Bibliography.
- Can't view the file? View Skill Builder: Saving Dynamic PDFs
When you think you have found enough information for your research, go back to your list of questions.
Does the information you have found answer all the questions? If the answer is yes, you are done taking notes. If your answer is no, go back to your resources to find answers.
Now, you are ready to go on to the next step.
Does the information you have found answer all the questions? If the answer is yes, you are done taking notes. If your answer is no, go back to your resources to find answers.
Now, you are ready to go on to the next step.