How to Make Source & Note Cards

Keep your information straight with source cards.

Effectively crafted source and note cards can make the potentially intimidating task of composing a research paper more manageable. By following proper source and note card formats, you can ensure that your information is well-organized and make the process of actually composing your paper less difficult. When creating your research organization cards, you must pay attention to details to ensure that the resulting tools are reliable and useful and not, instead, inaccurate and burdensome.

Instructions

1. Gather resources. Search your local library or the Internet for reliable sources with information relevant to your paper topic.

2. Assign your first resource a source number, placing this number in the upper right corner of your source card.

3. Place a citation, in proper MLA or APA format (or another format if required by your teacher), in the center of the source card. Include the author, title, publisher, city of publication and date of publication.

4. List the location in which that source can be found in the lower left corner of your source card. For example, if you got the source from the Perrysburg Library, you would list "Perrysburg Library" in the lower left corner.

5. Place the source's call number in the lower right corner of the source card. List the entire call number, allowing for easy retrieval of the book if you need to consult it again.

6. Place the topic of the note card on the top of the card. Use a short phrase to identify the topic, such as "Cell Parts." Center this phrase so it stands out from the rest of the text.

7. List information gathered from one page of that source in bullet form on your note card. If you include a direct quotation, mark it as such to ensure that you do not accidentally plagiarize. Do not list information from more than one page on one card.

8. Place the page number from which you obtained the information in the lower right corner of your notecard.

References

• South County Secondary School: Research -- Source cards, note taking and note cards
• Cambrige Rindge and Latin School: Source and Note Cards