Writing a paper with sources

Before we begin, this discussion is an overview, just an overview. These steps involve far more than what I cover here. And the problems listed are not an exhaustive list.

A literature review, or a term paper that uses sources and cites them, need not be a problem, although most people dread doing them. Even if you write literature reviews frequently, they can be trouble. They are trouble because most people don’t know how to approach the things, and then they foul it up. The worst way to foul up a literature review is to plagiarize, of course, but a lot of other things can go wrong as well. Usually, I see five problems that crop up in literature reviews.

Generally, when you do a literature review or term paper, you are responding to an assignment, either a class assignment or in preparation for experimental research. Your first order of business is to first make sure you understand the assignment. The second is to realize that no assignment is specific enough that simply responding will work. Such assignments are usually vague because the teacher knows the topic is broad and expects the student to do some reading, pick an area of interest, and then focus on that. Otherwise, the paper ends up being a mishmash of garbage that the teacher, or graduate advisor, finds extraordinarily frustrating to read. So after you make sure you understand the assignment, do a little general reading to find an area of interest, then you are ready to start work. 

This is when the five problems crop up.

First, you have to decide when to start on the paper. The problem here is that starting the paper does not involve writing. You can’t write if you don’t have anything to write about, so you must allow time to find out something that you’re willing to put on paper. Start now, the day you get the assignment, not a week before the paper is due, not two weeks before, not even a week from now. You need a lot more time than you realize, and even if you start immediately, you’re still going to be rushed at the end. But at least if you start now, you will have something others will want to read—that is, you will have some content.

So step two (and problem two) is to find sources. Here you can get librarians to help out. You’ll find all kinds of ways to generate sources, too many, in fact, provided you have allowed yourself some time and you are willing to ask questions of people who know how to do literature searches. What you do not want to do is to choose the first five (or 10, or 15, or however many are required) sources that you come across. You want to choose not the first sources you find, but the best you find. And you want to get enough information about those sources so that you can cite them and stick them in a reference list properly.

Avoid problem two by searching extensively for sources, choosing the best, and making sure you have the right information for citations and reference lists.

Step three, and problem three, comes when you have the sources. These days the sources often come as a PDF or some sort of web link. That’s always good. But don’t let them sit on the computer. You now have to read them. Do not take notes yet. Once you have read those articles, read them again. Do not take notes yet. Read them again. Are you taking notes? Stop it.

That is problem three. You have to understand those sources. Read them until you do understand them. Don’t take any notes until you know what that article is about. You cannot take notes on something you do not understand. Make marginal comments if you want. Highlight words that you think are important. Outline the article. Those will help you understand what that article says. Do not highlight full sentences, and do not use complete sentences to outline the article. An outline is simply a list, an ordered list, yes, but a list. Use key words in that list.

(There is a reason for this. That reason has to do with problem number four and step four.)

Keep in mind that few articles are well enough written that you can and will understand them in one reading. Some are so badly written that the best thing you can do is discard them. (A side comment here—you do not want your article falling into this category. An unreadable, and therefore unread, article is a waste of your time as well as the reader’s time.)

Once you are certain you understand the source, then take notes. That is step four. Take those notes in a separate medium, another word processing file, a spreadsheet, note cards, whatever you find most comfortable. Take notes using key words without copying sentences. Track those notes as well. Make sure every note is tied to source. Use a notetaking system that allows you to sort your notes by concept and still keep track of the source of each concept. Note taking is not hard, but it takes up a lot of space, and it is difficult to keep track of which information came from which source. Don’t lose track. Taking notes is not only step four, it is problem four. You’ll find more ways to create trouble for yourself here than nearly anywhere else in writing a paper.

Now put the sources away. From this point until you have a draft, you will not use the sources themselves, only the notes. The process to this point has a goal: avoiding plagiarism. If you work with the source directly in front of you, expect plagiarism. It will happen. It’s almost unavoidable. You have the original in front of you. How hard it is to come up with a paraphrase for that original? Nearly impossible—that’s the answer. Writers with a lot, a whole lot, of experience can do it, but only because they have had more practice than they can even explain.

You have read and understood the sources, you have taken notes by concept, and now you face the final step before writing, and the final problem. You need to outline your material. If you have taken notes by concept, that outline is relatively easy. List the concepts. Put them in order. Think of a sentence that focuses all those concepts into a single unit. That’s an outline. You’ll have sources that discuss the same concept. All that source material on that concept goes together. (Now you know why you kept track of sources as you took notes.) One quick way to see how this works is to stack your notes on your desk, physically, with each concept going in a separate stack. Each stack becomes one element of your outline.

Write that outline out and write out your focus statement. Tape both over your desk where you can see it as you begin your first draft. Write from your notes and from the outline. Write from your memory and your understanding of the sources. Write in your own words, trying to explain what the source said so that anyone who reads what you write can understand.

Are you done? Of course not. You need to cite each source as you use the notes from that source, and you need to cite using the correct format and using it consistently. There are computer programs for that, and they help, but ultimately, you as the writer are responsible for getting it right. You need a reference entry for every source you used, and you need to use the correct format for that as well. You need to proofread, not once but several times. You need to check your draft against the sources themselves to make sure you stated the information accurately.

A warning: it’s not that linear. Most of the time, you have to backtrack, do portions of the process again, rework your outline, resort your notes, rethink your focus. You write, and then you outline a second time or a third time or a fourth time. And then you realize you didn’t get enough information, so you go hunting for more, read more, take more notes…Writing is messy, but it is satisfying.

Most people don’t like to write. They like to have written. (Dorothy Parker said that first.)