 A key component to avoiding plagiarism is developing a consistent and clear way of tracking your sources and keeping notes on your sources. Tracking your sources as you research is like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for yourself. The path you take through information sources like books, articles, and websites is almost never straight or predictable. With all the twists and turns you take, you might need a reliable way back to a source you passed by or a source you used and now need to cite. The method for tracking sources that we demonstrate here is called a double entry journal. It addresses key issues that come up any time you have sources to keep track of. Source citation information, the sources location, those ideas and quotes from the source that you want to save, and those ideas and questions that come up for you during your research. This method can be adapted to any format you like including paper and pencil if that's your preference. Here we demonstrate with Microsoft Word, but any word processing program on any device or operating system will work. First open up a new document. You will use this only as a research tracker, so keep it separate from your paper or presentation. Give it a heading, then insert a two column table. Click Insert in the menu, then Table in the ribbon below. Select two columns by as many rows as you like. Between 5 and 10 rows is probably a good number to start with. Then click on the words Insert Table as shown here. Use one row of the table for each resource you consult. The left side column is for information directly from the source, and the right side column is for your own original words and ideas. To start, type or copy and paste information about the source into the left column. You want to include everything you'll need to cite the source, or you can simply copy and paste a citation if one is available. Then type in a note about where you found the resource, for example from the library, from a website, or maybe a book you borrowed from a friend. Include a link too if the source was found online. Since the left column has information directly from the source, it will have direct quotes as well as summaries and paraphrases. Note how helpful this is. Anything from the left column that you use in your paper you know will need to be cited. As you add information, use quotation marks around quotes and page numbers for everything. You'll need those when you go to create your in-text citations for your paper. Remember to make use of the right column too. It's there to track your own ideas and questions. It's a place for you to process your own responses to what you're reading and to track any questions that come up for you as well. As you read and research more, continue to add more quotes and ideas for each source. As you locate more sources, add them into the table you created. Start a new row for each new source, always starting with information on citing and locating the source. By using this method you will always be able to find a source again and always know where a quote, phrase, or idea came from. As a nice bonus, the notes you make in the right side column might provide a head start on a first draft of your paper.