When you are charged with conducting a research project, your teacher expects that you will utilize the ideas, data, interpretations, and even words of other writers, researchers, and scholars. Researchers often build upon the work of others and use existing information to generate new ideas and theories. However, there is a fine line between legitimate research and plagiarism. You must acknowledge the author, or creator, of the original work and document this source in your bibliography. As a result, it is easier to collect this information during your research as opposed to backtracking at the end of the project and trying to retrace your steps online.
As you uncover relevant information and useful resources, particularly those online, take great care in noting the citation information for each one. You will use this information during the writing process to give proper credit to the author and to cite direct quotes along with words and ideas from the original source. How can you ensure that you properly use another person's words or ideas? Take notes in your own words and clearly mark essential quotes.
As you uncover relevant information and useful resources, particularly those online, take great care in noting the citation information for each one. You will use this information during the writing process to give proper credit to the author and to cite direct quotes along with words and ideas from the original source. How can you ensure that you properly use another person's words or ideas? Take notes in your own words and clearly mark essential quotes.
Research Note Tools
What should your notes include? You need to track the information needed to create a formal bibliography such as the title, author, publication date, publisher, and for websites the online address and date that you accessed the resource. Be sure to read through the section on giving credit and to note the information required for the citation style (e.g., MLA, APA) designated by your teacher. You can use a graphic organizer, like the one below, or notecards to document your work.
You can either use paper tool, like the one to the right, or an online resource such as:
|
|
How to Use Original Works: Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize
In crafting the final product, you will undoubtably utilize the ideas of others. It is essential that you understand the differences between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing information that you uncover during the research process. The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University designed a guide to help you better understand each writing strategy and how to successfully use it in your paper. Here is an overview of each writing strategy:
Quotations
Paraphrasing Summarizing |
"Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author."
"Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly." "Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material (Purdue Owl, 2010)." |
Be sure to keep these writing strategies in mind during the writing stage and to ensure that you properly document cite the words and ideas of others. When in doubt, include a citation in the body of your work that references the original author.
Track Your Research Online
You can keep track of your research online through a set of bookmarking tools. With these tools, you can monitor your research progress and leave a bread crumb trail across the Internet -- it can serve as a way to retrace your steps in the event that you lose your notes or forget to document information necessary for the formal bibliography. Here are some free resources to explore:
- Diigo. Diigo is nifty online tool that enables you to highlight websites, bookmark resources, attach sticky notes, and share your thoughts with others. "As you read on the web, instead of just bookmarking, you can highlight portions of web pages that are of particular interest to you. You can also attach sticky notes to specific parts of web pages...whenever you return to the original web page, you will see your highlights and sticky notes superimposed on the original page, just what you would expect if you highlighted or wrote on a book" (Diigo, 2010). To use Diggo, you simply need to download and install a toolbar into your browser.
- Delicious is a free social bookmarking service that allows you to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source. It is a great way to categorize, remember and share all those great sites. You can easy sync bookmarks from multiple computers and ensure access to all of resources! It was recently acquired by Yahoo! and requires an account to access the saved resources.
- Google Bookmarks. It is a free service, similar to Delicious, that is offered to users with Google Accounts. The newest feature is the ability to create and share lists with friends and colleagues. To access this tool, simply log into Gmail or your Google Account.
- Zotero. "Zotoro is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives where you do -- right in the browser itself" (Zotoro, 2008).