Notecards thesis

For example, if you are writing a paper on the life and works of the poet, Langston Hughes, you may have cards with topics such as: It keeps you focused in your research. You will be less likely to write down unnecessary information (facts that are not related to your topic) if you are careful to write down the topic for every card.

Think of it as the title, or main idea of the card. After writing down the information, figure out how you could briefly categorize, or title it. For example, if you are writing a paper on the life and works of the poet, Langston Hughes, you may have cards with topics such as: It keeps you focused in your research.

For each topic, you could have any number of cards from several different sources. Later, as you write your paper, each card topic becomes a body paragraph (supporting idea) in your paper. As you find interesting facts about your topic during your research, you should write them down.

Organizing Once you have written the information down on the note cards, you only need to go back and organize your cards by topic. Group together all the cards that have the same topic (i.e. all the cards titled: " Hughes' Poetry " should be together). When you finish, you should have your cards in piles, one topic per pile.