Whatever Works for You
Ch. 18 of Writing About Literature defintely had some good points, but I'd like to focus on one thing.
"As you take down notes, you will be aqcuiring your own observations and thoughts. Do not push these aside in your mind, on the chance of remembering them later, but write them down immediately" (268).
When I was new to doing research papers, I did exactly what Roberts says not to do. I would take notes, highlight, whatever, but I wouldn't write down my thoughts that went with them. Thankfully, I quickly corrected this bad habit and began writing down my thoughts and how I would organize the source into my paper. I'm not a big fan of note cards. Instead, I write or highlight the quote on a regular piece of paper, then I put a number by it indicating what paragraph it's going to appear in. But in order for this to work, I need to make an outline of the paper first.
I love outlines. Notecards scare me, but I've never actually tried using them. I'm going to try for this research paper for Monday just because it seems like something that could be beneficial to me.