TAKING NOTES AND

IN-TEXT CITATIONS

HOW TO READ FOR INFORMATION

Do NOT start at page one and plan to read from start to finish.
First

Use the index and to identify specific pages for your topic.

Read the specific pages and take notes.

Second

Use the table of contents to identify specific chapters for your topic.

Scan the topic for headings to make it even more specific.

Skim the pages (read the first sentence of paragraphs) to find applicable pages.

Only read the applicable pages.

Take notes as you read.

WHY TAKE NOTES?

All the ideas in your essay are not your own.
Since you have multiple resources you need to indicate

what ideas come from what authors.

The Works Cited page does not allow for this.

TAKING NOTES
As you read you need to take notes.
Write down paraphrases
Write down quotes
ALWAYS INCLUDE THE PAGE NUMBER and THE TITLE!

It is better to have too many notes than not

enough.

IN-TEXT CITATION FIRST TYPE

One of the ways Beauforts wealth is understood to be new is in the

way that he insists on his wife wearing her gowns as soon as she
acquires them (Wharton 212), giving off the impression that she is
like her rivals (Wharton 212), the lesser women that her husband
insists on associating with despite his entrance into the New York
tribe through his influential marriage.

Notice how after the paraphrase or quote the author is included with

the page number.

This is because the reader of the essay needs to know what author

came up with the idea.

IN-TEXT CITATION SECOND TYPE

As Martha Banta points out, Edith Wharton viewed womens fashion

as one of the more important markers by which she traced shifts in

the social habitus (52) so that the opening scene in which Newland
Archer gazes upon Ellen and Mays attire provides a wealth of
information to those acquainted with Victorian style.

Notice how this time only the page is included after the paraphrase or

quote.

This is because the sentence already indicated what author came up

with the idea.