Get Organized!

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. Tidy Up!
• 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 Refworks and EndNote) can help you keep track of your citations and can even format them in the citation style of your choice. The one drawback is that you'll have to invest time in learning how to use the software. To learn more, see the Library's Citation Tools page.

If you are not ready to learn a new software, you should at least e-mail the information from the database to yourself. This way, you will have all the information you need to write your bibliography. Keep yourself organized by creating a folder for the paper in your e-mail account or on your Desktop, and store all your citations in that folder.