It is best to take notes on either 4”x 6” or 5”x 8” cards (size of handwriting and individual preference for amount of white space are factors in this choice). It is good to limit information on the cards to material that is actually in the source. Opinions and reflections about the material are more appropriately recorded in the research journal.

• A reference to indicate which source the information came from
• A heading (called a slug) that corresponds to a topic or sub-topic from the working outline
• Page numbers to tell exactly where the information noted came from in the book or article

Notes on the cards should either be phrases (student is less likely to descend into unintentional plagiarism using phrases!) or material that is quoted exactly.  

Material should be quoted exactly when

• The information is statistical in nature
• The writer is an exceptional authority in the field
• The “author” is a primary source of information
• The writing is of exceptional quality
• The ideas are original to the writer of the source