Writing a research paper can feel daunting. It might not even be the sitting down and writing part that gives you pause, but the tasks of selecting a stance, searching sources, identifying quotations that support your point, and wrangling all of your sources into properly formatted citations. Here are some tried-and-true strategies to help you keep track of your sources as you embark on your next research assignment. These are not necessarily chronological tips; pick and choose to see what works for you.
Tip #1: Save sources as you go.
How many of us have spent hours researching and exploring resources like EBSCO and JSTOR only to feel like we can’t remember where we saw that one perfect article? While enjoying the benefit of the interwebs and the countless academic articles at your fingertips, be sure to email helpful articles to yourself and/or download and save the PDF versions of articles that you’re considering using. That way, you don’t have to repeat the searches you did earlier and re-trace your steps.
You may even want to copy-paste source info into a Word document and make notes as you go to remind yourself how you might use a source. This will help you remember but also give you a jump-start when it’s time to make your Works Cited or References page. Here are some examples of what research notes might look like:
Cummings, Mary, et al. “OVER THE HORIZON.” Scientific American, vol. 308, no. 1, 2013, pp. 26–37. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org
This source paints a picture of what flying cars in fifty years might look like.
“A drone in every driveway” (29).
$300,000 price tag (28).
Hsu, Jeremy. “When Cars Fly.” Scientific American, vol. 310, no. 4, 2014, pp. 28–30. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org
A brief warfare example.
Focus on software and its application “even if flying cars don’t pan out” (28).
Tip #2: Print strategically.
You don’t need to print all pages of every article you find on JSTOR. You will have quite the stacks of sources surrounding you if you did that. However, once you’ve narrowed down your research to the sources and quotes you want to incorporate, you can print out the source’s info page (to help you later with your citations) and the page of the source that the quote falls on. Staple them together too; this will help you keep everything organized. Printing strategically is one way to avoid having dozens of tabs open on your computer at once. There also is something nice about having quotes in hand as you craft your research paper: It’s a visual aid as well as a tangible way to think through the flow of your paper. This page with a highlighted quote will come before this next one, and so on.
Tip #3: Record page numbers on a piece of scratch paper.
This may sound a bit like common sense, but we’ve all had a book from the library or inter-library loan that had a wealth of quote-worthy information in it and we couldn’t remember which page that favorite quote was on. As an undergraduate, when I had hard copies of articles or if I had the actual book in hand, I fully utilized little sticky notes or the Post-It note flags, but there is the risk that those fall out or get stuck on the wrong page. What I recommend is grabbing a scratch paper to jot down something like, “BEST QUOTE EVER p. 787 in Resource of the Year.” Having quotes, topic of quotes, and the page numbers recorded on scratch paper can also aid you in grouping quotes based on themes or section topics when you create an outline and start writing.
Tip #4: Type up direct quotations and color code them.
This tip is applicable once you’ve done a bit of research and are ready to select the quotes that might make the final cut into your research paper. Type up the quotations that you’re thinking of using, color code them for each source/author, and include a page number:
This way, you can later go through and ensure that you include complete parenthetical citations and Works Cited, but you don’t have to stress over questions like, “Wait, where did this quote come from?” or “Who wrote that again?” Plus, having the quotes typed up can get you started on the writing process. Arrange the typed quotes and you’re halfway to an outline!
There are many ways to stay organized while gathering sources for your assignment. This is not an exhaustive list. Figure out what works for you. Identify how you best can capture the quotes and the authors of those quotes so you can weave them into your own awesome critical analysis. Giving people credit for their words and ideas is important and doesn’t have to be scary.
Happy researching!
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Stacey Parker graduated from Concordia University Irvine in 2010 with a BA in English and minors in creative writing and marketing. She currently serves as the Student Services Assistant for the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program, a creative living-learning community for students interested in writing and the arts, at the University of Michigan. She is also a freelance copy editor for Concordia Publishing House and the editorial assistant for Lutheran Mission Matters, a journal published twice a year by the Lutheran Society for Missiology. She loves spending time with her husband and her pugs, Duke and Chewy, watching movies, reading, traveling, and sending real mail to her family and friends.