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This activity is inspired by an idea called "Narrative Note taking" developed by the author Bruce Ballenger in a book called The Curious Researcher

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This activity is inspired by an idea called "Narrative Note taking" developed by the author Bruce Ballenger in a book called The Curious Researcher. Be sure to complete four steps below to get full credit. You'll be working with one specific research source to complete the steps.

Choose a strong source to use for this topic, such as a scholarly article or an article you found via a library database like ProQuest (Links to an external site.)

 

 

After you read the source, I hope you'll find that completing the steps gives you more insight into the source (and that you will try this technique with other sources for your paper, too).

 

Step One: Choose one of the sources you've found that you plan on using in your Formal Report, and please state the information about the source in MLA Works Cited format. There's information on doing citations here: http://edcc.libguides.com/mla8 (Links to an external site.)

 (use the tabs at the top of the page to find specific guidelines for citing specific sources: books, articles, etc). 

Step Two: Write "a rapid summary" (Ballenger) of the source, starting with the words: What I understand this source to be saying is.... The idea here is to write out your first response to the source.

This step will probably take a couple minutes: aim for writing a paragraph that's three to five sentences long.

 

Step Three: After taking a little break, this time doing what Ballenger calls "[telling] the story of your thinking, a narrative of thought that begins with what you initially might have believed about the topic covered in your source, and then how that thinking was influenced by what you read." Start this fast writing session with the words: When I first began reading this, I thought __________, and now I think __________. When you get stuck, repeat the prompt again, and fill in the blanks with something else you learned/discovered from reading this source.

This step should take a little more time (I'd say at least 10 minutes).

 

Step Four: Sum up your ideas about this source and state how it will be useful in writing your Formal Report. Just a sentence or two here is fine. :)