Struggling to record everything you hear during a lecture is a sure-fire way to miss important points and give yourself a bad case of writers' cramp. A far better approach focuses on capturing essential material and working with it to strengthen understanding and memory.

Based on a technique developed by Cornell University professor Walter Pauk, The Cornell Note-taking System begins with the notepaper you use. Set up a note-taking column about 6 inches wide, and create a cue column about 2 ½ inches wide running down the left side of the page with a margin 2 inches deep across the bottom for your summary.

Use the large note-taking column to record "telegraphic sentences" from the lecture. ASAP after class, jot questions based on the lecture notes plus key words or phrases in the cue column. "Writing questions," says Cornell, "helps to clarify meanings, reveal relationships, establish continuity, and strengthen memory." Later, to review your notes or study for an exam, look at the cue column (cover up the note-taking column) and recite answers to questions or cue-words relating to facts or ideas. "Reflect on the material by asking yourself…'What's the significance of these facts? What principle are they based on? How can I apply them? How do they fit in with what I already know?'" Setting aside at least 10 minutes weekly to review your notes will boost retention. And use the space at the bottom of the paper to write a summary of the notes on that page.

Note-taking, says Christian Toto in The Washington Times article "Taking Note of This," should be "marked by intense listening and occasional writing." He cites American University's Kathy Schwartz, who recommends inspecting notes shortly after class to fill in the blanks or clean up handwriting because "Our memories start to fade within two hours of learning new information."

Did you miss Part 1 of our 4-Part series on How to Write a Research Paper? Click here.

The previous issue of Q&A! introduced our special series on writing research papers with information on the first steps in the process: selecting a topic and developing your thesis statement. Now you're ready for in-depth research, and that involves identifying sources.

There are two types of sources:

A primary source is an original document or manuscript or account of events such as a diary, letter, novel, play or poem, or an interview or oral history documenting someone's experiences, or data from a research study.

A secondary source is based on and analyzes or interprets a primary source, such as a journal article about a play or novel or reviews, biographies and editorials.

To locate primary sources, search using specific keywords such as correspondence, diaries and interviews. Periodical and newspaper articles may provide primary sources. You can search journal indexes such as Psychological Abstracts or Social Sciences Index in print form or via computer database.

Archival repositories like the following house many different kinds of primary sources:
NUCMC National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
NARA (The National Archives and Records Administration)
Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Also useful are Library of Congress Finding Aids and Indiana University Archives Finding Aids.

To locate secondary sources, simply search for books and articles on your topic.

Note-taking is an integral part of the research process, and you should use the system that works best for you. Make sure to use quotation marks to distinguish direct quotes in your notes and to record all pertinent information including title, author, editor, translator, edition, publisher, city of publication, publication date, issue number, volume number and page numbers.

Properly documenting all your sources -- books, articles, web sites, interviews, etc. — is essential, and you should always give proper credit to the sources of facts, ideas, and quotations in your notes (footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical references), and in your bibliography (also called a reference list or works cited page).

What do you need to document? Facts and statistics that are not common knowledge; direct or paraphrased quotations and excerpts; ideas, thought and opinions expressed by others that you discover in the course of your research.

What doesn't need to be documented? Common knowledge, accepted wisdom, common facts, and references to (or brief mentions of) commonly known literary, artistic and religious works.

There are several established formats for documenting your sources. A few popular styles are Modern Language Association, American Psychological Association, Chicago Manual of Style, Turabian, and American Sociological Association. Use the style required by your instructor.

Proper documentation won't be difficult or painful if you remember these tips:

1. Keep clear notes so you'll know which ideas came from a source and which you originated.
2. Write down your source when you copy a fact or quotation so you don't have to re-find it later.
3. Capture all the information you will need when you cite your source.
4. Start creating your bibliography entries as soon as you know you'll cite a source in your paper. It's easier to do this one at a time rather than in a large bunch.
5. If you aren't sure whether you need to credit a source, check with your instructor.

In the next issue of Q&A! — How to write a research paper, part 3 : Developing your outline and writing your first draft.

Don't complicate things. Using unnecessary words in your query will only confuse search engines and bog down your search.

University of Washington's Research 101 offers some valuable reminders for Selecting Key Words and Concepts, beginning with identifying the central concepts in your research question.

UW explains why — and how — to keep your keyword searches simple:

Computers are programmed to match strings of characters and spaces and do not often understand the natural language we use with each other. They can't guess what you mean, don't "read" subtexts, and are easily confused by ambiguity, so clarify for them what you will be looking for. Focus only on essential concepts.

"media coverage of 9/11"	Media cover events. Unless the media caused the event, this term is unnecessary.
"advantages of home schooling over public schools"	Value words like "favorite," "advantage," or "better" are not useful if you need to gather evidence to help you make a decision or develop a solution. Don't just grab an opinion or the "right" answer off someone else's shelf.
"dissertations about bioethics"	Many databases and search engines are programmed to ignore common words that don't impact a search. These are called "stopwords" and typically include terms like "the," "from," "about," "when," etc.