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