Categorize your notes for sorting - Engaging sources - Part I. Research and writing: from planning to production

A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th edition - Kate L. Turabian 2007

Categorize your notes for sorting
Engaging sources
Part I. Research and writing: from planning to production

Finally, a conceptually demanding task: as you take notes, categorize the content of each one under two or more different keywords (see the upper right corner of the note card in fig. 4.1). Avoid mechanically using words only from the note: categorize the note by what it implies, by a general idea larger than the specific content of the note. Keep a list of the keywords you use, and use the same ones for related notes. Do not create a new keyword for every new note.

This step is crucial because it forces you to distill the content of a note down to a word or two, and if you take notes on a computer, those keywords will let you instantly group related notes with a single Find-command. If you use more than one keyword, you can recombine your notes in different ways to discover new relationships (especially important when you feel you are spinning your wheels; see 4.5.3).