This allows you to use abbreviations in your notes and when drafting your paper, but the details are there for the citations when you need them. Make sure you do the same with photocopies. Avoid later panic by writing down full details before you let go of the book or article. Put your master list into the correct citation format, so the master list can be used for your citations without further work and modified only slightly for the bibliography. If you keep your notes in a notebook, leave lots of space so you can write labels and comments in the margins.
Some people like to keep notes on separate cards or sheets, with labels for the topic of each note.
That allows for grouping and synthesizing of notes later. It's especially satisfying to shuffle and recombine notes and see how various sources interact to stimulate new thinking. Citations Writing Research Student Help Main Maintained by Kelly Hatley.