Research Paper Note Cards printable pdf download

Research Paper Note Cards

Beginning the Research Paper—How to Make Note Cards

1. Choose a topic.

2. Do some general background reading and then write your prospectus.

What is this?

A paragraph that says what you want to learn about in your paper and names specific

subtopics who want to do more research on.

Non-Example: Quakers

I’m going to write about the Quakers. The Quakers came to the colony of Pennsylvania in

the late 1600s. They bought land from the Indians instead of just taking it. They believed

everyone was equal.

Example:

I’m interested in looking at the connection between Quakers and the women’s suffrage

movement. The Quakers believed all human beings were equal in God’s eyes, whether they

were Quaker, Protestant, black, white, Native American, etc. They were considered radical in

the seventeenth century because they said that women were allowed to speak at Church. I

learned that a couple of important leaders in the women’s suffrage in the 1800s and 1900s

were Quakers. I plan on doing more research about how the Quakers’ religious beliefs

influenced the American women’s suffrage movement.

3. Find some sources—(reqs = 3 books, 2 print sources)

4. Begin making your notecards.

How do I make notecards?

There are two types of notecards: source cards and research cards.

I. Source Cards

You will make one of these when you find a source that you are going to use in your paper.

The purpose of this card is to record the bibliographic information. Here is an example:

Source #1

Farah, Mounir A., and Andrea Berens Karls. World

History: The Human Experience - The Modern

Era. New York: Glencoe, 2001.

You won’t have that many source cards—probably 4-7. But you need them!

Research Paper Note Cards