Note-making for assignments

What is the purpose of note-making?  Stephen Bailey in "Academic Writing" says that note-making stops us first and foremost from plagiarizing.  I found this statement provocative.  Surely, problems with plagiarizing weren't the main reasons that students need to write notes.  Then I thought about my own note-taking practices.  I first went to university when no students, I mean no students, had computers of any kind.  I used a steno pad to keep notes of the resources I used from the library at University of Toronto.  I keep a record, on this pad, of every reference I used at the library.  Many books didn't even circulate.  You had to keep an accurate record because tracking down a book that you had failed to provide complete references for was an incredible waste of time and effort.

Go forward three years and I was in Teacher's College.  I had assignments in which I played a rather exciting game with the university computer.   I had a friend who had a "Commodore 64".   Three years later, I was in Grad School and the computer and programming was part of the curriculum.  But want does any of this have to do with note-taking or plagiarism?  Everything.

Obviously, when you have no choice you have to write down everything that is important or you can't actually write an essay.  You can't find information easily at your fingertips.  You know if you could, you would still write down where you found this information as a reference.  So, good note-taking practices are instilled in you from the very beginning.

In fact, it's more than that.  Good note-taking ensures that you will see the information you gather in a sequence.  You need to read through the whole article to ensure that you know the point of the article you are reading.  In fact, you know that an article has to present a coherent argument.  If it isn't there, you should consider that this article is not academically worthy and should not be included in your paper.

Students now are very lucky.  Getting information easily is helpful.  However, there are traps for the unwary.  Students who fail to see that they must provide a trail back to their research can face problems such as plagiarism.  Additionally, they will not be able to find this information to help them with their exams.

KB

Is it burned or burnt?

There are some issues that come in discussion.  One, only slightly less popular than when and where to use I/me, is the issue of when and where to use say "burnt" or "burned" or "sleeped" or "slept."  Okay, the second one is easy.  Any English speaker knows that "sleeped" just isn't right.  It sounds wrong; you know in your gut exactly what to do. 

Robert Allen notes in How to Write Better English that two things of extreme importance.  First, you must follow the same format every time.  So, if you write "wept" instead of "weeped", you should always do the same thing throughout the work you're writing.  He also notes that when the word is used as an adjective before a noun, the "t" form is generally preferred.  So, we say "burnt cakes" and "spilt milk".  Again, it important to realize that these forms just sound better.

Here is a list Allen provides that could bear some looking over:

burn                        burned                            burnt
dream                     dreamed                         dreamt
dwell                      dwelled                          dwelt
lean                        leaned                            leant
leap                        leaped                            leapt
learn                       learned                          learnt
smell                      smelled                          smelt
spell                       spelled                           spelt
spoil                       spoiled                           spoilt

These choice of which verb form to take is different say between the UK and Canada.  Normally, in Canada you would say:
I dreamed I returned to Manderley last night.
I spelled the last word incorrectly in the spelling-bell and thus, did not get the prize.

KB