7. Read another paragraph or section from your first source. Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6.
8. When you run out of room on the card labeled "A", or you begin taking notes on a different main topic, take a new index card. Label this new card "A-1" and continue taking notes from your first source. You may also need "A-2", "A-3", etc. Make sure you continue to write the changing page numbers and main ideas (slugs) on each notecard from your first source.
9. Find a second source of information. Make a 2nd documentation card. Label it "B" (steps 1 and 2).
10. Make notecards labeled "B", "B-1 ", "B-2", etc. from this second source of information by following steps 3 through 8.
11. Continue this process, labeling all notecards from your source "C", notecards from your 4th source "D", and so on until you have taken all the notes you need.
12. Check to see if your teacher requires a certain number of sources or certain types of sources. Make sure you have fulfilled this requirement.
13. Put all your notecards from source A on a flat surface in front of you. Check the slug, or main idea, in the left hand corner of each card. Put all the cards with the same slug into the same pile.
Lay out your notecards from source B in another row. Again, check the slug in the left hand corner of each card. Put all the cards with the same slug into the same pile. Are there any notecards from source B that have the same slug as notecards from source A? If so, put them into the same pile.
Continue this process until the notecards from all your sources have been sorted into piles.
14. Now comes the hard part - you must THINK before you writes This is called synthesis.
Does your teacher required a certain order to the information in the final report? If so, this is the order you follow in writing paragraphs from your notecards.
If there are no requirements you are free to be creative. Do YOU see a logical order in which to present your information? For example, you might want to tell your audience what country your report is on before writing a paragraph about the climate.
On a new index card, list the slugs from the left hand corners of your notecards in the order you think best completes your assignment.
15. Using this list of slugs, organize your notecards in this same order until all your cards are in one pile. You are now ready to write your report by turning the information from your notecards into paragraphs.
16. Always make a copy of your final report and Works Cited Page. Put these, with all your notecards, in a safe place until you have received your final grade.