Organizing Your Research

Source Table

Another way of organizing your sources could be to use a source table in Word or Excel to keep all of your notes in one place. Using a source table in a program like Word or Excel can help you see all of your notes at once and could help you see the connections between your sources easily. You could list out the different quotes or main ideas from each source to make sure they align well with your thesis statement. 

There are a lot of ways that you can organize your table, and you should choose the method that makes the most sense to you. In your table, be sure to include the source name, author, page number (if available), and sections for the direct quotes or paraphrases you want to include. 

Below are templates you can use to organize your research using Word or Excel. Feel free to edit the template to organize sources in a way that works best for you.