WRITING NOTECARDS
Use 4 by 6-inch cards. On each card you need the following information:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
author
heading
page numbers
your note: a quotation, paraphrase, or summary
your own comments in a different color pen
Write only one note per card. You do not want to write more than one note per card because later you will need
to shuffle your cards to follow the order that you will use for your paper. If you wrote more than one note on
a card and each note needed to be used in a different part of the paper, you would not be able to shuffle your
cards to fit the order of the paper. The purpose of notecards is to facilitate arranging notes to write the final
paper.
The following offers an example of three basic kinds of notecards: quotation card, paraphrase card, and summary card. Because this handout will be printed in black and white, italics have been used to distinguish the
added comments from the notes taken from the original source. In actuality, a pen of a different color from the
one used to write the notes would be used for comments.
Example of a Quotation Card
END OF INNOCENCE
Gillis
744
Joyce Carol Oates’ story is “about endings: the end of childhood, the end of innocence.”
Gillis’ interpretation of the story focuses on the coming of age
theme in the story.
A quote card must use quotation marks around all of the words taken from source.
Example of a Paraphrase Card
Symbolism: Kitchen Door
Gillis 744
The door serves as a passage between family and the world of
terror; the final scene at the door is filled with tension.
Gillis emphasizes the importance of spatial dimensions in the
story. The door is one of the boundaries in the story that divides
spaces in the story, in this case, the world inside Connie’s home
and the world outside where Connie flirts with adventure.
Center for Academic Excellence, Saint Joseph College, Judy Arzt, November 20, 1997, Revised 2001
1
Example of a Summary Card
World of Adventure: Day vs. Night
Gillis 744
The daylight world of home is safe, whereas the nightlife world of neon lights and
fast-food hamburger joints is an alluring world of excitement, beckoning Connie
on—just as the green light shining at night at the end of the dock in The Great
Gatsby provoked Gatsby to dream of adventure.
Connie is attracted to the nightlife and wants to escape her daylight life at home.
Oates emphasizes the contrast through lighting. The lighting at home is warm and
comforting, whereas the lighting at night is glaring and harsh. The comparison that
Gillis makes to Gatsby emphasizes that both works of literature deal with the theme
of the tragic consequences of a human mind propelled by the glamour of adventure.
This summary card condenses information found in a lengthy paragraph and highlights the main point made in the paragraph.
Some Pointers about Writing Notecards
1. If the card covers information that goes over one page, mark on the card where the information for a new
page starts. In the event that you use only information from one of the pages in your paper, you will
need to know the exact page for your parenthetical citation.
2. Use the ellipsis (…) on quotation cards to indicate omitted text. Use the ellipsis to save time, so you do
not write out the full quotation when parts of it are unnecessary.
3. Use brackets [ ] if you want to insert text of your own within a quote.
4. Check paraphrases carefully to make sure that you have not used any of the author’s original words/
phrases. If you have, insert necessary quotation marks.
Original Note Cards
In addition to notes that you take from references, you should write notecards with your own ideas about what
you would like to include in your paper. Identify the author of these cards as yourself. You should write your
last name or write “own” on the card where you would ordinarily write an author’s name.
Center for Academic Excellence, Saint Joseph College, Judy Arzt, November 20, 1997, Revised 2001
2