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The following explores one way to collect information for a technical writing project. The notecard application featured here is NoodleTools

NoodleTools does not provide a free trial for students; the yearly subscription is $15 USD. See NoodleTools

Note: NoodleTools was originally called NoodleBib. Most references to NoodleBib work for NoodleTools.

Start a Project in NoodleTools

Note: This segment is based on NoodleTools: Create a new project. katies50mom

In a NoodleTools project, you can describe your project ("recycling waste plastic"), develop its thesis, make bibiographic entries for potentially useful information sources, create notecards, develop the outline, and generate the rough draft—all consolidated in NoodleTools.

  1. With NoodleTools open, click Create a New Project. View
  2. Select a bibliographic style (for example, APA Starter). View
  3. Click Research question / thesis statement, and enter your research quesion and thesis answer. Show here are the blank form and a filled-out example: View

Add Sources to Your NoodleTools Project

Creating bibliographic entries manually can be tedious and difficult: you have to sequence the elements correctly, use periods and commas correctly, know what should be init cap or italics, and so on. NoodleTools prompts you for all that and formats your entries according to the style you've chosen.

  1. Now, to start adding the resources and citations for those sources you've found for your project, click New Source.
  2. To add a source, choose, for example, So, about all that plastic in the ocean..., click Website and then click Web Page for this example: View
  3. When you click Web Page, you see a detailed form that asks for the following:
    • Website: URL publication dates and access dates
      • For the source mentioned above, you would enter https://newatlas.com/plastic-ocean-cleanup/50277/ for URL; June 29, 2017 for publication date ; and June 15, 2023 for your access date.
    • Web Page: Contributors (authors) and web page title
      • Also for the source mentioned above, you would select Author under Contributors; enter Nick for First name; Lavars for Last name; and So, about all that plastic in the ocean... for Web page or document/article title.
    • Website: (again):
      • NoodleTools refers to the owner of the website. In this case, you would enter https://newatlas.com/.
    • Annotation: The annotation is strictly for your reference; it is not used in the document you will write. It is your memory jogger as to what the source is about and its usefulness. For the article cited above:

      Amount of waste plastic dumped into oceans; concern fir environmental impacts, including microplastic fragmentation, poorly understood consequences, and the urgency to reduce.

    Fill out the NoodleTools citation form as fully as you can: you'll need it to generate a bibliographic citation correct according to the bibliographic style you chose.

Create Notecards with NoodleTools

Before you can start creating notecards, start thinking of the subtopics for your research document on plastic pollution. Just collecting sources in NoodleTools would give you plenty of ideas. For the plastic pollution project, here are a few:

How much is there?
Where does it come from?
Where can it be found?
How is it disposed of?
Can it be recycled?
Is harmful to human health, to the environment?

Make some notecards on just the amounts subtopic (how much is there?) One of the first steps in creating a notecard is to assign a title:

Subtopic ideaNotecard title
How much is there?Total volume
Where does it come from?Sources
Where can it be found?Locations
How is it disposed of?Disposal
Can it be recycled?Recycling
Is it harmful to the environment?Enviromental harm
Is it harmful to human health?Human health harm

To create a notecard:

  1. In the main page of your NoodleTools project, click Notecards (or if you are on the Sources page, click New under NOTECARDS).
  2. Next, you see a blank notecard screen. To fill it in:
    • For Notecard Title, enter a title that identifies the source, keeping in mind NoodleTools will use the title as phrasing in the outline. (It can be changed later.)
    • Click Sources and select one of the sources you added to your bibliography. (If you started from Sources, the source is already filled in.)
    • Click Tags add an word or phrase that people can use to search the topic covered in the notecard; precede the tag with a #
  3. In the rest of the notecard form, you have three things to fill out:
    • Quotation: Find a quotation that you might use in your project. Be sure to put quotation within quotation marks.

      Try to find a quote that sums up the source or that has memorable phrasing. See reasons for quoting for details.

    • Paraphrase or Summary: Capture the gist of the source (not just the quotation) in your own words.

      • For a techdoc, paraphrase or summary is the best way to handle your sources. Create a bulleted list of the main points or topics covered in the source. See how to paraphrase and how to summarize for details.

    • My Ideas: Think of this part as your analysis of the source. How can you use it? How does it add to your project?

    You have a maximum of 65,535 characters to write in each of these three spaces. Use the spaces as rough draft zones: jot down multiple quotes, ideas about a paraphrase or summary, your analysis of the source. When you've made up your mind, transform these rough drafts into final drafts.

  4. Save and Close

NoodleTools will display your new note. You can click Notecards to display your notecards.

NT has us creating notecards for each source. Doesn't seem like a good idea. Create blank notecards for each item in the outline.

First, create these notecards (which are listed in no necessary order):

Bad Trips
Research Prohibited (1970s–1990s)
Cancer Anxiety
Resumption of Research (1990s and forward)
Alcoholism Treatment
Early Research and Theory (Pre-1970s)
Smoking Cessation
Addiction

To create a notecard for each on these topics:

  1. Click Notecards in the side panel.
  2. In Notecards, click New Notecard.
  3. In New notecard, fill out the following, for example, Addiction.

    4. Notecard Title: something like Addiction URL: something like Addiction Web page or document/article title: Addiction Name of the website: Addiction

    Note: For the moment, ignore all the other stuff NoodleTools wanrs to fill out for each source

  4. Click Save and Close.
  5. Follow the same steps to create notecards for the rest of the topics above.
  6. Click Notecards in the side panel:
  7. Now, create the subitems:

    8. Drag notecards into rearrange them as you wish, something like this, but not in any order....yet:

    To make the top-level items meaningful, click the three vertical dots on a notecard, select Rename:

    Rename the top-level notecards:

    Part I ==> Part I. History
    Part II ==> Part II. Positive Aspects
    Part III ==> Part III Negative Aspects

    Now, get the notecards you've created in the obvious traditional-outline order:

Stack (Arrange) Notecards on the Table Top

Imagine that in research on plastic pollution you've created notecards on the amount of waste plastic generated, the sources of that waste plastic, and the contents of that waste plastic.

To create a stack (pile):

  1. Click Tabletop View in the side panel.
  2. Drag a notecard onto a related one, for example, A. Smoking Cessation onto Part II. Good Aspects. Drag Alcoholism Treatment and C. Cancer Anxiety to Part II also.
  3. Create the other two stacks (Part I and Part III), and check to see if your results resemble this:

If you've created your stacks (piles) but discover that another notecard must be added to your project, how do you add it to stack and how do you add it to an outline?

To add a new notecard to an existing stack:

  1. Create the new notecard as you normally would.
  2. Find the new notecard in Tabletop View.
  3. Click Add to Pile
  4. Select the pile you want to add it to.

Develop an Outline with NoodleTools

When you've got a number of notecards out there, you can start looking at your outline:

  1. To see the Outline link, click either Tabletop View or Detail View.
  2. Click Outline.
  3. To start, click Add in the Outline panel:
  4. Click Add topic (sibling):
  5. Drag the Part I stack and release on top of Topic in the Outline pane. The topics in of Part 1 display as outline elements:
  6. To add the Part II stack, first, click Add (sibling). Another Topic will open at the bottom of the outline.
  7. Drag the Part II stack onto Topic and release.
  8. Click Add (sibling) again, and do the same with the Part III stack. Your finished outline will resemble this:

To clean up the outline:

  • To add the full title to I, II, and III, double-click Topic and type the title.
  • Select the Part II and Part III items and click Delete.
  • The subentries and change or delete the capital letters.
  • Use the arrows at the top of the outline panel to rearrange items.

This link walks you through the process, thanks to Mr Ahlborn and his 9th graders at an unnamed high school:
Using NoodleTools to Create an Outline. First part shows how to drag and pile notecards.

If you've created a new notecard to an existing stack, how do you add it to an outline?

Can't figure this one out!

To add a new notecard to an outline in NoodleTools, you can either drag and drop a notecard from the Tabletop View or Detail View onto a specific topic in your outline, or you can create a new notecard and then associate it with an outline topic. Detailed Steps: 1. Open the Outline and Notecards: Navigate to your project in NoodleTools and open both the outline and the notecards (Tabletop View or Detail View). 2. Select the Target Topic: In your outline, click on the topic where you want to add the notecard. 3. Drag and Drop (if using Tabletop View): If you're using the Tabletop View, find the notecard you want to add, and drag it from the Tabletop onto the selected topic in the outline. 4. Drag and Drop (if using Detail View): If you're using the Detail View, locate the notecard, and use the drag handle (three lines in the upper-right corner) to drag the notecard onto the desired outline topic. 5. Creating a New Notecard (if needed): If you haven't already created the notecard, click the "New" button in the Notecard section to create a new notecard. Fill in the details (title, content, source, etc.) and save it. Then, drag and drop it onto the outline topic as described above. 6. Verification: Once a notecard is linked to an outline topic, you'll see a notecard icon appear next to the topic in the outline. Additionally, in the Tabletop View, notecards linked to an outline will have a checkmark in the upper left corner.

Generate a Rough Draft with NoodleTools

Turning your notecards into a rough draft in Noodle Tools

How to export and print the outline

  1. proj details UP! View
  2. In the same dialog, write a brief description of your project (for example, methods of recycling waste plastic). View
  3. Click Create Project.
  4. To access this project you just created, click Projects in the menu bar, and then click the link on the name of your newly created project under My Projects.

Related Information

A particulary good tutorial on the traditional note-taking method has been developed at Bonita Springs Middle Language Arts Department. You can go download it here: How to Organize a Research Paper using Notecards. Makes you want to write a research paper!

NoodleTools: Create a new project. katies50mom
NoodleTools: Create Outlines.Caleb Collins
NoodleTools Help Desk
NoodleTools: Notecards and Outlines. Tiffin University
NoodleTools: Notecards. noodletools.com
NoodleTools: Write a Notecard. noodletools.com
NoodleTools: Make and Use Notecards. katies50mom
NoodleTools: Notecards and Outlines. mmrhslibrary
NoodleTools: Works Cited. Rachel Leisure
NoodleTools How-to Guide: Create & Use an Outline
Using NoodleTools to Create an Outline
How to open and view notecards in the Tabletop View. doesn't say why
How to create an outline in NoodleTools
https://libguides.westsoundacademy.org/noodletools/outline#s-lg-box-wrapper-31799706">How to Add Notecards to the Outline
Using NoodleTools to Create an Outline. First part shows how to drag and pile notecards.
Noodletools : Step #5 : Add a Notecard Quabbin Media. best, but contradictory!
how-to-create-a-notecard part 1
Write a notecard in NoodleTools part 2
NoodleTools Tutorials: Notecards
How to export and print notecards
Quick guide for students has an animation of notecard
NT help
Take a look at the old-fashioned way of taking notes, the way it was "supposed to be done": Note Taking for Technical Reports.

I would appreciate your thoughts, reactions, criticism regarding this chapter: your response—David McMurrey.