NoodleTools for Researchers

You will create a project in NoodleTools for each of your research papers or projects. Each project contains your citations, notecards, and other work (outline, attachments, etc.).

On the Projects screen, click the green New Project button at the top of the screen.

On the Create a New Project screen, provide information about the project:

1. Enter a Project title. Enter a brief description that will help you remember the contents or purpose of this project when you see it later among other projects in your account.

2. Select a Citation style. Ask your teacher or instructor before choosing between MLA, APA, and Chicago. You will be able to change the style later if you need to, but since the data required to cite a source in one style can be different in another style, it is always best to start with the citation style your teacher is requesting.

3. Select a Citation level. The default level for MJC is Advanced. Make sure Advanced is selected.

4. Click Submit to create your new project. 

Your new project appears at the top of the Projects screen.

See video below for a quick demonstration on how to create a new project in NoodleTools:

NoodleTools has two main components -- source citation and note-taking. In general, you'll want to add a source citation first, then take notes for that source. Your notes can be information about where you found this source, how you want to use it, or questions about the source. This makes it simple to link your notes to the proper source.

• Click the project's title to open it.
• Next Click on the New Source button at the top of the screen. You'll be prompted to select "where" your source is (i.e., in print, on a website, in a database, etc.) and "what" your source is (i.e., a book, a magazine, a web page, etc.). After you make your selections, a new form appears.
• Fill in the citation form with information about your source, then click Save. The new citation appears on your Sources screen.

Take a look at this short video to see how you create a new source.

Notecards help you strategize and plan how you will use your sources. When you create a notecard you:

1. Save the author's original words, phrases or images from a source you intend to use in your research, and
2. Think about how to express those ideas and expand on them in your own words. Create one notecard for one idea or fact, and link each notecard to a source citation.

When you are ready to add notes to a source, the simplest place to do that is on the Sources screen. On your Sources screen, choose which source you want to create the notecard for then click the "New" link in the "Notecards" column. The saved notecard will automatically be linked to that source.

Click here to read more about the process.

Watch this brief video to see how to create a notecard in NoodleTools:

When you have multiple notecards, you can switch over to the Notecard Tabletop screen to organize, pile, and/or tag them. You can also start an outline (click the "Outline" checkbox at the top of the Notecard Tabletop screen) when you are ready to think about the structure of your final paper or project.

This is the point at which your notecards really begin to help you strategize, think about, and plan how to use your sources in your paper.

Watch the brief video below to see how to write your notecard for the best effect.

The MLA Handbook tells us that an outline gives you an overall view of your paper and helps you figure out how each section of your paper relates to the others. Outlines help you develop your paper because you can see the logical progression of your argument or thesis.

You can easily create outlines in NoodleTools using the notecards you've created for your sources.

You'll find the outline when you click on either the Tabletop View or Detail View within a project. You can access these views within your project on the blue project navigation bar along the left-hand side of the source screen.

Take a look at all of the help topics related to Outlines at the NoodleTools Help Desk:

In NoodleTools, you can work together with your classmates on a project, each of you contributing to the list of sources, notecards and an outline. You can also exchange comments or questions about the project.

To start a collaborative project, one student creates the project in their user account and then shares the project with other students by adding them. 

Click on the link below for detailed instructions: