17 July 2014
Four basic rules should guide our notetaking when we do historical research:
1.
Any notes we take must (not should but must ) clearly distinguish between (a) the exact wording of the source; and (b) our own interpretation of what we think the source is saying.
2.
When we transcribe a document or passage from a source, we must—there's that word again—faithfully reproduce capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. If we feel we need to "clarify" something, then we place our addition or alteration in square editorial brackets [these things I'm using right here].
3.
When we abstract a document, we should (yes, we have a bit of leeway, here) preserve every essential detail in original sequence and context. Any string of three or more words copied from the source—or any distinctive or peculiar word—must, must, must carry quotation marks around them. When we create abstracts with no quotation marks, we are silently saying that we have paraphrased what the document has to say—that is, we have reworded everything to put the information into our own words. If we choose to do a brief "nutshell," then we label it as such.
4.
We must (boldface and italicized) always identify our source. That means we provide not only enough identification to find it again but also enough descriptive detail to support a judgment as to the nature and the quality of the source.
Four guidelines. Just four. If you can remember these, you can avoid all kind of needless heartache, dead ends, and charges of plagiarism.
IMAGE SOURCE: Can Stock Photo (http://www.canstockphoto.com/images-photos/note-taking.html#file_view.php?id= 19186127 : downloaded 28 June 2014), "Young african american woman taking notes for her study," csp19186127, by ammentorp; used under license.
Dear Editor; I see that you…
Dear Editor;
I see that you only use "transcribe" and "abstract", but not "extract". Could you expand on the differences between these terms, indicate when each is appropriate and possibly show a simple example?
I just finished taking copious notes (about six pages worth) based on a recording of your 2017 Raleigh NGS presentation, "Info Overload? Effective Project Management, Research, Data Management & Analysis". I now understand what you were trying to achieve in quick-lesson 20. Having that insight, this quick-tip subject came at a very opportune time, because getting a proper transcript or abstract is so critical to the Research Report and subsequent Research Notes.
(I should also mention that your discussion (in the recording) of how one must use the manual Research Report as the basis for data entry into a database program, and how those programs may even generate your Research Notes, tied everything together. Being a conceptual learner, I needed that overview before delving into the details.)