There are many ways to take notes on your readings while you are working on a literature review. Here's one simple method. Create a document for each article you read and follow a consistent format for your note taking. It only needs be a page in length. Suggested sections are below:
- Citation of work read
- Background
- Major Findings
- Themes
- Your Thoughts/ Reactions
- Direct Quotes
- So What?
Write this document in your own words so that when you come back to it to incorporate into a larger literature review narrative, you can easily know when to directly cite, when your're paraphrasing and what you're original thoughts are.
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