Appendix A. Skimming Your Sources and Taking Notes © 2010 by Bedford/St. Martin's 1

To skim a book,read the following parts

• The preface and introduction• The acknowledgements• The table of contents• The notes at the end of the chapters or the

end of the book• The index• A few paragraphs from different portions of the

text

Appendix A. Skimming Your Sources and Taking Notes © 2010 by Bedford/St. Martin's 2

To skim an article,read the following parts

• The abstract• The introduction• The notes and references• The headings and several of the paragraphs

Appendix A. Skimming Your Sources and Taking Notes © 2010 by Bedford/St. Martin's 3

Three types of note taking:

• Paraphrasing – rephrasing someone else’s words with your own words.

• Quoting – making a verbatim copy of the original.

• Summarizing – using your own words to rewrite a passage to make it shorter without losing the essential message.

Appendix A. Skimming Your Sources and Taking Notes © 2010 by Bedford/St. Martin's 4

Record bibliographical information as you go

• Author• Title• Title of the periodical (if applicable)• Publisher (for books)• Place of publication (for books)• Date of publication• Volume and number (for periodicals) • Pages• Call number