Tip 5: Keep your research organized and in one place.
Organizing and keeping your research together as you gather it will help you easily access the articles, books, etc. and will make writing the bibliography a cinch.
Also, you'll probably end up researching over a period of time and you don't want to look around for something that you already found once before.
To keep your information organized, try:
- Using a separate notebook or binder section for each assignment.
- Using file folders — one for each assignment. Throw all of your printed or photocopied articles into this folder, along with searches, notes, or whatever you think will help.
This may seem time consuming when you're doing your research, but it will actually save you time in the end.
Can't a Computer Help Me?
Bibliographic management software (such as ProCite, EndNote, and Reference Manager) can help you keep track of your citations and can even format them in the citation style of your choice. The drawbacks are that you'll have to invest time in learning how to use the software, and of course it costs money. However, a free alternative is a tool called Zotero, which is an add-on for the Firefox web browser. Many campus computer labs have bibliographic management software if you're interested in giving it a try. Go to the UCLA Campus Computer Labs web site and do a software search on "Endnote" (or other software) to see where it's available.