Upon finishing this lesson, the students will be able to:

• Define the terms: outline, summary, paraphrase, plagiarism, citation, reference, and bibliography.
• Identify main ideas, topic sentence, supporting ideas in technical writing
• Create note cards using direct quotes with correct citations and paraphrases

Why take good research notes? (Make an Overhead)

• Recall main ideas
• Organize your thoughts
• Reflect your own thinking
• Avoid stealing others' words (plagiarism)
• Give credit to others for their ideas

Why take good research notes? (Make an Overhead)

• Recall main ideas
• Organize your thoughts
• Reflect your own thinking
• Avoid stealing others' words (plagiarism)
• Give credit to others for their ideas

There are three parts to the Instruction part of this lesson. It may be taught all at once or on different occasions as time permits. If the lesson parts are separated, make sure ample review takes place.

When you first begin looking for information on a topic, you should try to identify main ideas when you read. Main ideas are the main points you want to build your own thoughts around.

• Read a paragraph to the students without its topic sentence --usually the first sentence of the paragraph -- the sentence which introduces the main idea of the paragraph..
• Ask: Can you guess what the main idea of this paragraph might be?
• After students have a chance to supply their own ideas, re-read the entire paragraph adding the author's topic sentence, the sentence that introduces the main thought of the paragraph.
• Ask: Can you now tell me the main idea of this paragraph?
• Discuss the concept of the Main Idea until students understand it.

Using a topic sentence (often the first and/or last sentence in a paragraph), change it to one of the following:

• as part of an outline (use correct outline form)
• as a summary (consolidate or abbreviate what is in the sentence)
• as a paraphrase (restate in your own words the idea you want to remember)
• Repeat this task with the students using a new paragraph.
• Ask:
  • What is the main idea?
  • Are the Main Idea and Topic Sentence the same thing?
  • Can you make the Topic Sentence into an outline?
  • Can you summarize the Main Idea?
  • Can you paraphrase the Topic Sentence?
• Show a page with first and last sentences of the paragraph in a different color (Main ideas are often the first and/or last sentence of a paragraph.)
• Discuss: You could quickly scan for information by reading only the first and last sentences of paragraphs as you look for main topics.

Re-read the rest of the paragraph for details that give the supporting ideas of the paragraph. These supporting ideas form the body of the paragraph.

• Ask: Can you tell me the supporting ideas of this paragraph?
• Discuss the concept of the supporting ideas until students understand the concept.
• Show a page with first and last sentences of the paragraph in a different color (Topic Sentences). To show the supporting ideas, underline each supporting thought in a different color or marker.
• Discuss: You can quickly find supporting ideas for the main topics within the body of the paragraph.

When you begin gathering information for a research project, it's important to take good notes that collect the man ideas and support them with supporting ideas. As you learned with topic sentences, you can organize your own notes in one of three ways:

• One way to organize notes is to outline the article:
  • Sentences appear in outline form
    -- Identify one of the main ideas of a section or paragraph
    -- Identify the supporting ideas underneath in outline form
    
  • Citation information is listed at the bottom of the outline.
    -- Make sure you write down all the source information for the article you outline.
    
    
• Another way of organizing your notes is by making a summary of the article:
  • A summary is a consolidation or abbreviation of what has been written.
    -- It uses basically the same words--just not as many of them.
    -- The paragraph shrinks as words disappear.
    
  • Citation information appears at the bottom
    -- Make sure you write down the source for the material you summarize.
    
    
• One of the best ways to take notes is to paraphrase the article:
  • Paraphrasing says the same thing in a different way.
    -- When you paraphrase, or put something in your own words, you understand it better.
    -- You can think about it on your own without needing someone else's words to explain it.
    
  • Paraphrasing is restating in your own words the idea you want to remember.
    
  • Citation information appears at the bottom
    -- Make sure you write down the source for the material you paraphrase.

When you prepare a research project, it's important that you put your own thoughts into your work. You want to base those thoughts on facts and expert opinion, but it's your thinking and your words that should be in your project, not someone else's.

Every once in a while, though, someone else's words are so perfect you really want to show them off. When you do this, you need to recognize that person for those thoughts. That's when you need to use quotation marks, references and citations. If you make their words appear to be your own you are guilty of plagiarism. The dictionary defines plagiarism -- "to take (ideas, writings, etc.) from (another) and offer them as one's own." (Webster's New World Dictionary, 1984). If you use an author's idea and it's a new idea, one that most people have never heard, you need to use a citation even if you don't quote the author exactly.

• Quotation marks show that you've quoted someone else's words exactly.
• The reference comes right after the quotation in the text which tells us where the quotation came from in case we want to read more from that source. (It lists the author's last name and the year the source was published.)
• The Citation is usually listed on the bibliography page or references page. The citation gives a full listing of the source. It includes all the information someone would need to find the source.(Include the author's name, the title of the source, and the year and place it was published, etc. as required by your teacher.)

Your teacher will give you a reference sheet that shows you the different ways to cite books and articles. Try to follow the examples as you do your research.

It will help students to better understand these concepts if they are allowed some practice time with finding main ideas and actually taking notes.

• Have students practice reading only the first and last sentences of paragraphs from a text to each other.
  
• Read a paragraph and ask various students to identify the main idea, pointing out that different is good, that varying points of view make a difference in how the main idea is interpreted. Practice as listed below.
  
• Working in pairs, have one student read an assigned paragraph to another. Have the second summarize the main idea orally to the first and then write it down. Reverse roles and repeat. Have students turn in written work.
  
• Have students define: outlining, summarizing, paraphrasing. Define and discuss plagiarism and its legal ramifications. Continue by showing proper citation methods for various sources. (Discuss the needs/desires of the teacher for this part of the Practice Activity.) Supply examples.
  
• Allow the students to work on their own as they create note cards. Make sure they practice citations as well.

To review these concepts try the following:

• Go over definitions of terms and/or examples of citations.
• Use bulletin board for reinforcement.

Students should be able to respond to the following questions with responses similar to those below:

• WHY SHOULD YOU TAKE GOOD RESEARCH NOTES?
• to help recall the main ideas of what you read or hear
• to help organize thoughts in a meaningful way
• to help avoid stealing others' words and ideas
• to help reflect one's own thinking in your work
• What else have you learned from this lesson?