Lakewood High School

English Department

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After taking this module, you will be able to do the following:

1. Explain the need to organize and keep track of sources for citation purposes.
2. Employ several techniques for organizing written and electronic source materials.

These learning objectives are derived from the Jefferson County Pacing Guides 5.a and 5.b.

It is important to organize your sources and keep track of materials you use to create an English essay, history paper, or other writing assignment.

When writing for an English assignment, you will need to properly cite sources and create a works cited page. These are required so you can give proper accreditations and avoid plagiarism.

It is much simpler and can save considerable time if you organize your sources as you find them.

There are generally two types of material you research for a writing assignment:

1. Written sources such as books, periodicals, printed articles
2. Electronic sources, particularly the Internet.

Because these types of sources are significantly different, there are different strategies for organizing them.

You may want to develop your own strategies after viewing these suggestions.

Organizing written sources can be challenging especially if you do not own the original source. Here are four techniques to employ:

1. Keep and label a folder for your written sources such as articles or copies of excerpts from books.
2. Summarize points and put quotation marks around direct quotes
3. Create a master source key page with a list of sources and an index number. Write the index number on the first page of the source (with a sticky note), copy, or handwritten notes.
4. Where you cannot make a copy, hand write the important information and keep this in your folder. Additionally, also keep the following:

a) Details required to make the in-text citations and the works cited reference page (e.,g, author, date published, page number, publisher, etc).

b) Summary of key points with quotation marks around exact quotes.

1. Keep copies of assignments with the works cited reference page in your master key source file

There are two types of electronic sources: Internet sources and electronic documents.

Internet Sources

1. Use bookmarks in your Internet browser. It is best to create a top level folder called School and place the documents you use there.
2. Save important documents to your local disk drive if you have a computer or print them out to keep a hardcopy.

Electronic Documents

1. Create a folder called School. Create subfolders in that directory by course such as English and History.
2. Create a Word or text document with a master source key list of references. Keep a file with copies of all the web site and URLs. Note you need more than just a URL for a citation (e.g., date retrieved, authors, etc). URLs may also change (e.g., News Story), so you need to ensure you have information for a citation saved as well.

If you do not own a computer, a laptop, or if you use school computers, you will need a way to access your files and bookmarks on these different computers. Here are a few tips:

Portable bookmarks

1. Foxmarks can be used in a Firefox browser or www.foxmarks.com can be used in any browser. You can access, edit, add, delete, and click to your bookmarks in any browser on any computer.
2. You can create an account here.

Electronic Documents

1. You can buy a flash drive at almost any store for less than $10 (e.g., BestBuy, Target) to keep files and move between computers.
2. You can email files from a home or school email system to a free Internet email account such as gmail or Yahoo to access at school. These free accounts let you archive and save files electronically for later access. Go here for a free gmail account.

The key points for organizing your sources are as follows:

• You need to organize your material to help you properly cite sources and avoid plagiarism
• Written sources can be organized with folders and master source key pages
• Electronic sources can be organized with file folders, bookmarks, and electronic master source key documents

You have completed the module on Organizing Sources.

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