Notecards save my life

--Roberts Ch 18, pg 264

I couldn't agree more with Roberts when it comes to using index cards for my notes. All through high school, my teachers mandated that we use index cards when preparing our research papers (I had to write four, one for each year in each of my English classes). The index cards are actually more useful for me than writing an outline. When I write an outline, it ends up being far too detailed, and thus it's really a waste of time, because all I'm doing is transferring my note cards into an outline. If I have the option, I try to skip that step. When I use index cards for my research papers, they basically write my paper for me. I hate to say this, but I think they're more effective for me than the presubmission papers we've been doing for class. It's not that the presubmission papers aren't useful--they definitely are--but I think I just have a preference to index cards, because the system works well for me. I like being able to spread my quotes out onto a large table  and order them exactly how I want them to appear in my paper. 

The only thing I really do differently than Roberts is I don't put the full source on every index card---because I usually have too much information for the index card. Instead, I make a different set of cards dedicated to my sources, which are then numbered. I place the number of the source in the corner of the index card so I know what source I'm pulling from. I also include a subject or keyword, because this helps me to organize my notes later. I never paraphrase when I'm taking notes if I can help it. I'd rather record all direct quotes and then paraphrase later than forget that I already paraphrased and make a second paraphrase that's too similar to the original. It's my own fool-proof system to avoid plagiarism.