How to Take Research Notes—Seven Steps from ehow.com

1. Write down all the bibliographical information - author's name, publisher, date and place of publication - on a 3-by-5 index card when you find a source for research material you would like to use. This will be called a "source card.

2. Number all your source cards.

3. Skim through each source for information on your subject.

4. Write down the information you wish to note on an index card, called an "information card" (4-by-6 cards work great for this). Write only one piece of information per card, using a direct quote, a paraphrase, a summary, or anything that will help you remember the information.

5. Jot down the page number of the source from which you got the information on the information card.

6. Number each information card to correspond to the source card of the work from which it comes so that you can always refer back to the source.

7. Organize your information cards according to your working outline. For example, if you are writing a paper about mountain wildlife, separate the cards about bears from the cards about moose. This way, you avoid searching through the cards when writing the paper.