Research Skills: Source Cards and Note Cards

Research Skills: Source Cards and Note Cards Hoffman, Jan. "A Girls Nude Photo, and Altered Lives." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 26 Mar. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. .

Making Source Cards Index cards torecord bibliographic information about each source of information

Number each source card to correlate with your note cards. See handouts "Working Bibliography and Works Cited" and "Making Source Cards" for more detailed directions.

Example from NY Times article1Annotation of SourcesOn the back of each source card, write a few sentences that summarize the source and why it will be useful for your research.

Example: Annotation of NY Times articleThis article presents the situation of "Margarite," a middle school girl who sent a "sext" (nude photo) to her boyfriend. The article explores the causes and effects of sexting on this girl, her school community, and other teens. The article also considers sexting as a general problem people are trying to figure out how to deal with. This article is useful because it has a great example of how devastating this problem can be for a teen. Making Note CardsIndex cards used to recordinformation about specific topics related to your research subject

Number each note card to correspond to its source. Write one of your research suptopic headings at the top of each card. Write only one main point or idea on each card. Only write information directly related to your statement of purpose. Write only essential words; abbreviate and use bullet points when possible. Be accurate; double check facts, statistics, adn quotations. Enclose direct quotations in quotation marks and include the speaker's name, if not the author of the work. Use brackets [ ] to add your own words to a quotation or ellipsis (...) to leave words out of a quotation. Write the page number for a print source, and "np" for no page for electronic sources. If you cannot fit all the notes on one side of a card, write "over" and continue on the back, or start a new card and new heading and number it "2." Take notes in a variety of methods: summary, paraphrases, and quotations.

Three methods for taking notes

Summaryconcise notes and information put in own words; contains only main points and ideas; much shorter than original source. Paraphrasenotes in own words that retells information in more detail than a summary. Bullet points, phrases, lists, etc. helpful in paraphrasing. Quotationword for word notes from original source; enclose in quotation marks. Use sparingly. Causes--Margarite's story 1

Margarite's mother guessed her daughter's unhappiness and loneliness caused her to send the sext to Isiah, a boy she liked who was paying attention to her. Margarite's parents were divorced and she lived with her father but did not get along with her stepmother. At school, her grades were slipping. Socially, she was not doing well either. She lost one of her good friends (the girl who forwarded the picture to others), partly because of a fight over a boy. This girl also turned others against Margarite and she was eating lunch all alone at school. She spent her free time home alone with her phone and computer. np

Summary-shorter than original, put in own words

Original text:

In the fall of 2009, Margarite, a petite, pretty girl with dark hair and a tiny diamond stud in her nose, was living with her father, and herlife was becoming troubled. Her relationship with her fathers newwife was tense. Her grades were in a free fall.Her social life was deteriorating. A good friendship with a girl hadsoured, abetted by a fight over a boy. This girl would be the one whowould later brand Margarites photo and forward it. In the shifting power dynamics of middle school girls, the formerfriend understood well that she who sneers first sneers best. The flickof a cutting remark, swiftly followed by Just kidding! The eye roll. Asthe animosity between the two girls escalated, Margarite felt shunnedby an entire group of girls and was eating lunch by herself. At homeshe retreated to her bedroom, alone with her cellphone andcomputer. Her mother would later speculate that Margarite desperately neededto feel noticed and special. That December, just before the holidaysshe took the photo of herself and sent it to Isaiah, a low-key, likableathlete she had recently gotten to know.

Statistics 1 24% of 14-17-year-olds have participated in nude photo sexting by cellphone or online (source: AP and MTV 9/09 Internet poll)5% of same age group (both boys and girls) had used cellphones to send nude photos or videos; 18% received them (source: Pew Research Ctr phone poll, 12/09np

ParaphraseNotes in own words, roughly the same length as the original.

Original Text:

An Internet poll conducted for The Associated Press and MTV by Knowledge Networks in September 2009 indicated that 24 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds had been involved in some type of naked sexting, either by cellphone or on the Internet. A December 2009 telephone poll from the Pew Research Centers Internet and American Life Project found that 5 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds had sent naked or nearly naked photos or video by cellphone, and that 18 percent had received them. Boys and girls send photos in roughly the same proportion, the Pew survey found.

Definition of sext 1

"an imprecise term that refers to sending sexual photos, videos or texts from one cellphone to another" np

Quotation note card example copy exactly, enclose in quotation marks, use sparingly

Original text- Around the country, law enforcement officials and educators are struggling with how to confront minors who sext, an imprecise term that refers to sending sexual photos, videos or texts from one cellphone to another.Integrating notes into text Always provide context for your notes. Introduce them with your own ideas and say something about them. Use them to support, prove, and illustrate your ideas.Whenever possible, use a combination of signal phrases and parethentical citations. A signal phrase comes before the researched material. It names the author or source and often also gives brief information to establish credibility. See MLA Papers MLA-3, b. A parenthetical citation comes at the end of the researched material. It provides brief information that links to the works cited entry. Most often, it will consist of an author or title, and if a print source, page number.

Examples of in-text citations One cause of sexting may be a desire for positive attention in young girls who feel isolated and unhappy. For instance, one middle school girl who made a decision to send a sext that quickly went viral at her school and had disastrous consequences was Margarite. After the event occurred, Margarites mother guessed her daughter's unhappiness and loneliness had caused her to send a nude photo to Isiah, a boy she liked who was paying attention to her. Many factors contributed to Margarites unhappiness. Her parents were divorced. She lived with her father but did not get along with her stepmother. At school, her grades were slipping. Socially, she was not doing well either. She had lost one of her good friends (the girl who first forwarded Margarites picture to others), partly because of a fight over a boy. Margarite lost more friends because of this situation, and she was soon eating lunch all alone at school. As a result of the loss of her friends, she spent her free time home alone with her phone and computer (Hoffman). This combination of problems would be difficult for any middle school student to face.

Sexting is a term that is relatively new. New York Times reporter Jan Hoffman, who specializes in reporting on issues affecting adolescents, defines sexting as "an imprecise term that refers to sending sexual photos, videos or texts from one cellphone to another. According to the online version of the Oxford Dictionary, it is the sending of sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone. What both these definitions of sexting have in common is that the messages are sexual in nature and that they are sent from one cell phone to another. Does this mean that only the sender, but not the receiver, of the message is guilty of sexting? What might cause a young girl to put herself in a situation where she would send such a message to a boy and risk her reputation?