I have been teaching Research Writing for approximately fifteen years. In the first few years, I avoided the use of note cards because it was "old fashioned" and nobody really did that anymore, right? I quickly learned the papers were not good, and a lot of them were right on the edge of being plagiarized. The students were not reading the research. For years, they had been told not to print the articles in an effort to save paper, which created issues with them not fully reading or understanding the information. This also created the issue of cutting and pasting the information they found "important" from various articles into a word document for later use, but they never remembered to cite the sources of the original articles nor did they remember where the articles' words ended, and their words began. As you can imagine, as a teacher trying to teach the concept of research while teaching the dangers of plagiarism, this "method" of research was a recipe for disaster. By the third year, I decided, I didn't care if notecards were old-fashioned, I was bringing them back.
I teach research through the use of colored pens, highlighters, and extra-large notecards. I require my students to print out the articles and highlight the important information. As they highlight the information, they take notes from the article on extra-large notecards with a pen that corresponds to the highlighter. Every step of the process is very organized and meticulous. I teach my students that they must immerse themselves into the research to understand the research. By putting the extra time and effort into the process, they really do take more pride in what they are doing, and they care about what they are reading.
About my class
I have been teaching Research Writing for approximately fifteen years. In the first few years, I avoided the use of note cards because it was "old fashioned" and nobody really did that anymore, right? I quickly learned the papers were not good, and a lot of them were right on the edge of being plagiarized. The students were not reading the research. For years, they had been told not to print the articles in an effort to save paper, which created issues with them not fully reading or understanding the information. This also created the issue of cutting and pasting the information they found "important" from various articles into a word document for later use, but they never remembered to cite the sources of the original articles nor did they remember where the articles' words ended, and their words began. As you can imagine, as a teacher trying to teach the concept of research while teaching the dangers of plagiarism, this "method" of research was a recipe for disaster. By the third year, I decided, I didn't care if notecards were old-fashioned, I was bringing them back.
I teach research through the use of colored pens, highlighters, and extra-large notecards. I require my students to print out the articles and highlight the important information. As they highlight the information, they take notes from the article on extra-large notecards with a pen that corresponds to the highlighter. Every step of the process is very organized and meticulous. I teach my students that they must immerse themselves into the research to understand the research. By putting the extra time and effort into the process, they really do take more pride in what they are doing, and they care about what they are reading.
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