Write all notes for your paper on 3-by-5 cards. At the bottom right corner of each card, put the source: the last name of the author, the page number if applicable, and the year date (if using APA style). In addition, make a separate bibliographical note card for each source that you use, noting whether it's a print source or a Web source. On this bibliography card, put the author's name, the title of the article or book, the publisher and the date. If it is a journal article, record the name of the journal and the volume number. These bibliography cards will be useful when you write your list of sources. It will save you time if you write the bibliographical information about your sources on these cards before you write your paper.
Find out from your instructor which type of documentation she wishes for you to use. Some common documentation styles: MLA style, which is often used for literature research papers; APA style, which is used for the sciences and psychology; and Chicago style, which is used for history and art history. Each of these documentation styles will require a slightly different approach when you write the first draft of your paper. Buy a student handbook or find a reliable source on the Internet about how to cite correctly. The OWL site at Purdue University is a great, up-to-date guide to citation. The rules change frequently, so you need a manual or guide that is current.
Refer to your print or Web manual as you write your first draft to figure out how to configure your in-text citations. For example, in MLA style, you simply put the author's last name and a page number in parentheses at the end of a sentence or quote. In APA style, however, you put the author's last name, a comma and the year of publication in parentheses at the end of a sentence. In Chicago style, you insert an end note after the sentence you wish to document, and you write a footnote including the author, the title of book or article, the date, the journal and/or publisher and a page number. (Subsequent references to that source can be referenced simply by the last name and a page number.)
Use signal phrases in the body of your text to let the reader know where you got your ideas. For example, you might write, "Shelby Foote says that the Battle of Gettysburg showed that the South could not win the war," followed by an end note referring the reader to the book where you got this information (in Chicago style). Or, you might write, "Harold Bloom sees Ophelia as the main cause of Hamlet's derangement (Bloom 65)," if you are using MLA style. In subsequent references to an author, you can use his last name only: "Foote goes on to say ..."
or "But Bloom does not believe ..."
Organize your bibliographical note cards by putting them in alphabetical order by author's last name. Now you are ready to write your list of sources at the end of the paper. These lists go by different names in different documentation styles. In MLA style it is called the Works Cited list; in APA style it's called the Reference List; and in Chicago style, it's called the bibliography. But in all cases, this list will give enough information to the reader that she can find all of your sources and read them herself. Each entry will have the author's name, last name first; the title of the book or article; the publication date; the name of the journal if it's an article; and the publisher if it's a book.