Chapter 6 | Managing Information & Taking Notes

I found this chapter to be extremely helpful.  I think too often we forget to "set" ourselves up for success.  By being methodical and deliberate in how we go about taking our notes and tracking our resources, which is the main focus of the chapter, we will find our path to a successful paper filled with ease and focus.  Headaches such as "where did that come from?", "what was that one thing that one person said?" or potentially even accidently plagiarizing a source will be avoided.  It's a little along the lines of the old adage "measure twice, cut once." 

Some of the main points Bedford makes is the importance of deciding how you will go about saving your information.  Will you be downloading articles into a file on your computer?  Copying and pasting urls and browsers into a email and sending it to yourself?  Or perhaps the old fashion way of printing out or photocopying your sources, which is likely going to be my method.  I’m a kinesthetic learner, I do my best when I have an opportunity to interact hands on with what I’m learning.  The simple act of highlighting, and taking notes in margins, helps me keep engaged and process what it is I’m reading. 

My only grip with how Bedford presents the information in this chapter is that I feel too many options within each potential category for note taking or tracking are offered/ touched on.  I know that we live in a world where there is not just one by many apps and technology tools for everything, but when initially introducing a concept (such as tracking notes via a mobile device) and then offering multiple options for how to do that, the reader can feel very daunted.  So much so that I likely will not even try mobile apps and again stick to the old fashion way.  In fact, I plan on using an "expanded" annotated bibliography, where I will site my source in MLA format, give a brief summary of the piece, as well as reference any notes or quotes I think will be useful.  This will allow me to keep track of my and works cited in the same place.