Program / Course 23: Research Methodology / Lesson 1.4
What you will learn
- Record full bibliographic details for every source at the moment you use it.
- Take notes that clearly separate quotation, paraphrase and your own comment.
- Set up a simple system of files or notebooks that keeps a project in order.
- Explain why careful notes protect against plagiarism and wasted time.
The big idea
Good research depends on good records. Every source needs its full details written down when you first use it, and every note needs a label showing whether it is a direct quotation, a paraphrase or your own thought. Most mistakes in papers, including accidental plagiarism, begin as sloppy notes. A plain, steady system that you actually follow is better than an elaborate one you abandon. The purpose is that, months later, you can find any fact, see where it came from and trust what you wrote down.
Key terms
- Bibliographic data
- The details needed to identify a source: author, title, editor or translator, place, publisher, date, edition, and page numbers.
- Direct quotation
- The exact words of a source, copied inside quotation marks with the page number.
- Paraphrase
- A restatement of a source’s idea in your own words and sentence structure. It still needs a citation.
- Summary
- A short account of the main points of a longer passage, in your own words, with a citation.
- Annotated bibliography
- A list of sources, each followed by a few sentences describing and evaluating it.
- Research log
- A dated record of what you searched, what you found and what you decided, which lets you retrace your steps.
- Reference manager
- A program that stores bibliographic data and can format citations. Free examples exist.
Background
Most research projects go on for weeks or months. In that time you read many sources, change your mind, and lose track of things. A student who writes ‘Augustine says grace comes first’ on a card, without the work, edition or page, will have to find the passage again later, or will leave a claim in the paper that cannot be checked. Time lost in re-finding sources is one of the commonest frustrations of beginners.
There is also an ethical side. Plagiarism, as the next lessons explain, often happens by accident. A student copies a sentence into notes without marks, forgets that it is not hers, and later pastes it into a draft as if it were her own. A habit of marking every note clearly prevents this. It also makes honest citation easy, because the source details are already at hand.
No single method is best. Some people prefer paper cards or notebooks, some prefer word processors, spreadsheets or note-taking apps, and some use free reference managers such as Zotero. What matters is consistency and completeness. The method should let you answer three questions about any note: what exactly does the source say, where exactly does it say it, and what is my own comment?
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Record the source first
Before you take any note from a source, write its full bibliographic data. For a book, record author, title, editor and translator if any, edition, place of publication, publisher and year. For an article, record author, title, journal name, volume, issue, year and page range. For an online source, record author or organization, title, the date you read it and the address where you found it.
Give each source a short label, such as the author’s surname and a year, and use the label on every note from it. If the details are complete at the start, formatting a citation later is quick.
Step 2: Mark every note by type
Use a code you will not forget. For example, put exact quotations in quotation marks and add the letter Q, write paraphrases with the letter P, and write your own thoughts in brackets with the letter M for ‘mine’. Always add the page number.
If you copy and paste from an electronic text, mark it as a quotation immediately, in a different color if you can. Never leave pasted text unmarked, even for a minute.
Step 3: Copy exactly, paraphrase honestly
When you quote, copy character by character, including spelling and punctuation, and use square brackets for any change. When you paraphrase, read the passage, close the book, and write the idea from memory in your own words. Then check against the source for accuracy. If your sentence follows the original closely, you have only altered it, and should quote it instead.
Quote when the exact words matter, such as a definition or a famous phrase. Otherwise paraphrase, since a paper made of long quotations says little of its own.
Step 4: Organize by question, not only by source
Sort notes under the sub-questions of your project. Create a folder or section for each, such as ‘Tertullian’s reasons’, ‘Scholars who disagree’ and ‘Evidence that does not fit’. A note can be filed in more than one place.
Keep a working outline that you update as the argument changes. A research log, with one dated line for each session, records what you searched and where you stopped, which is a help when you return after a break.
Step 5: Back up and review
Keep copies of your notes and drafts in a second place. Once a week, read through your notes and write down what has changed in your understanding.
Write a two or three sentence annotation for each major source, saying what it is, what it argues and how far you trust it. These annotations become the raw material for your literature review and your evaluation of sources.
- If I read this note a year from now, could I find the exact page it came from?
- Is it clear which words in this note are mine and which belong to the source?
- Did I record the edition and translator, not only the title?
- Can I find all my notes on one sub-question in one place?
- Have I noted the evidence that does not fit my thesis?
- Where is my backup?
Examples
A poor note
‘Augustine: grace comes before the will and makes it free.’ No work, no page, no sign of whether this is a quotation, and no way to check it. (A constructed example.)
A good note
‘Source label: Augustine, On Grace and Free Will (translator and edition recorded on source sheet). P, ch. 5 [use the chapter or page in your own copy]: Augustine says that God’s grace works to make the will able to choose the good, not to remove it. M: Compare with what he says in the earlier work. Check scholarship on whether this is a change.’ The note identifies the source, marks paraphrase, and separates the writer’s comment.
A bibliographic entry kept at the start
For a real example, a student recording Bruce Metzger’s The Text of the New Testament would write down author, title, edition, place, publisher and year from the title page of the copy actually used, since editions differ and page numbers change between them.
Different perspectives
Academic scholarship
University guides to research stress keeping full records from the start, separating quotation from paraphrase, and saving the details needed for citation. Many historians keep a research log and annotated bibliographies. This is regarded as basic professional practice, not an optional extra.
Monastic and patristic habits of reading
The Christian tradition has long valued slow, attentive reading. Monastic writers practiced copying and meditating on texts, and early Christians produced florilegia, collections of excerpts from the Fathers. These collections could be useful, but they also taught later scholars a lesson: extracts without their context or source can mislead, so the origin of each excerpt must be kept.
Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox students alike
Students in all three traditions face the same discipline in note-taking. The commandment against false witness (Exodus 20:16) is understood in each of them as a duty to report things as they are. In scholarship that includes recording honestly what a source says and where it says it.
Digital tools
Some researchers favor free reference managers and searchable notes, while others find paper cards or a plain notebook clearer. Both approaches work. A reference manager can speed formatting but can also copy errors from online catalogs, so its entries should be checked against the book itself.
Why it matters
Careful records make research faster, writing easier and honesty simpler. They protect the reader, who may want to check a claim, and the writer, who may be accused of copying or carelessness. They also build the habit of precision that every other skill in this course depends on.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: I can remember where I found it, so I do not need to write it down.
Correction: Memory fails after a few weeks, and a project may last months. Write the details when you read, not when you write up.
Misunderstanding: Copying into my notes is not plagiarism, because it is only for me.
Correction: Plagiarism happens when copied words reach a paper unmarked. Unmarked notes make this very likely. Mark every quotation at the moment you copy it.
Misunderstanding: I need expensive software to do research properly.
Correction: A notebook or a plain document is enough if used consistently. Free tools exist for those who want them, but the method matters more than the tool.
Misunderstanding: More notes are always better.
Correction: Notes should serve your question. Copying everything buries the useful material. Record what bears on your sub-questions and what contradicts your thesis.
Knowledge check
What details should you record for a book?
Author, title, editor and translator if any, edition, place of publication, publisher, year, and the page numbers you use. Recording the edition matters because page numbers and sometimes the text differ between editions. Taking these from the title page of the copy you actually used avoids later errors.
How should you separate quotation, paraphrase and your own comments in notes?
Use a consistent code. Put exact words in quotation marks and label them as quotations with the page. Mark paraphrases with a different label, and enclose your own thoughts in brackets or label them as yours. Never leave copied text unmarked, since it may later be mistaken for your own wording.
Why should notes be organized by sub-question as well as by source?
A paper is organized around an argument, not around the order in which you read. Filing notes by sub-question lets you see all the evidence on one point together, spot gaps and contradictions, and draft each section quickly. Source labels on each note still let you cite properly.
What is a research log and why keep one?
A research log is a dated record of what you searched, what you found, what you decided and where you stopped. It lets you retrace your steps, avoid repeating searches and explain changes in your thesis. It is especially useful when you return to a project after a break.
Think it through
- What is your current way of keeping notes, and where could it fail you?
- Have you ever lost a source you meant to use? What would have prevented it?
- Why might early Christian collections of excerpts both help and mislead later readers?
- How does keeping honest notes relate to the commandment against false witness?
Independent assignment
A set-up for a project
In your own notebook or in a document, build the record system for your own project. Create a source sheet with full details for three real sources you plan to use, take two notes from each (one quotation and one paraphrase), mark them by type, and write one annotation of two or three sentences per source. Add a short research log entry. Write about 300 words of explanation of why you chose this system. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration Look at the title page and bibliography to see what details a full record of a scholarly work includes.
- J. B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers Practice recording the editor, translator and edition of this collection.
- Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 14) Practice recording the details of a collection of primary sources.
- Exodus 20:16 The commandment against false witness.
- Colossians 3:23 Work heartily.
- 2 Timothy 2:15 Handle the word of truth correctly.