Journal

A journal can be a good way to collect and organize sources and drafts for a writing project. It can be as small as a notebook with occasional entries or as large as a Research Journal, which can be especially helpful with managing large research projects.

 Research Journals

A good model for a research journal has four sections: Research Log, Bibliography, Source Notes, and a Drafts and Ideas section.

Research Log

The Research Log is both a record and a to-do list. Record in the research log:

• What you accomplished in a given research session
• Questions to ask to prompt further research
• References to Look up
• Notes about possible sources
• For motivation, always try to end each entry with at least one thing to work on next time.

Bibliography

The Bibliography section of a Research Journal can contain a list of promising leads or actual sources as well as some quick annotation. Creating a list of works cited during research can save time later on when writing up the final report.

Source Notes

To avoid multiple trips to the library and the risk of plagiarism, source notes can be a lifesaver. The system of notation is, of course, up to the researcher but for citation purposes there is at least minimum amount of information that should be collected including:

• Author(s) name
• Title of the work
• Title of the source i.e. Journal name
• Year of publication
• page number of source

When writing down the information make sure that you note whether it is a quote, paraphrase, or summary of the information.

Drafts and Ideas

For this section, the name really says it all. The ideas may be prewriting activities and the drafts is self explanatory. However, I would like to recommend that the report writer save all of their drafts, even the ones that they are sure that they won't use anymore since you never know when an idea and its associated writing that was thrown out with the first draft becomes important again for the third draft or another paper altogether.