Worksheets: what are they, what are they for, parts, and types?

What are worksheets and how are they used in academic and research contexts?

Throughout our lives we are probably going to have to conduct more than one research of some kind. Whether at the work or academic level, it is not uncommon for us to have to work with high levels of information to document ourselves in order to carry out a task, or that we have to carry out some research.or we have to carry out some complex action or project.

In this sense, it is probably useful to be able to retrieve key ideas or concepts. Thus, it would not be a bad idea to generate some kind of brief document in which we can synthesize the information or idea we are working on in a quick and easily accessible way. One way to do this is to elaborate worksheetsa concept that we are going to go into in more detail in these lines.

What is a worksheet?

A worksheet is defined as a highly organized document of short length in which the most relevant information of a project or research is summarized, in order to keep a record of the key elements for understanding the study or the documents generated.It is used to keep a record of the key elements for the understanding of the study or the documents generated.

They are usually elaborated in small rectangular cards, although nowadays it is also very common to find them in digital format.

The use of worksheets allows the information to be compiled and at the same time the most important concepts and ideas related to the subject matter to be related, expressed in a clear and concise way.The use of worksheets allows the information to be compiled and related to the most important concepts and ideas regarding the subject matter, expressed in a clear and concise manner and in such a way that it can be quickly retrieved in times of need. It is also useful for maintaining order in the presentation of information.

It is important to bear in mind that each worksheet only expresses one main idea: it is not a question of presenting the entire research, but rather a summary, idea or list of the most necessary concepts for the user. In fact, it is it is common to find that for the same work or project a number of worksheets are used, depending on the type of information desired.depending on what kind of information we want to retrieve later.

What is it for?

The use of this type of worksheets can serve multiple purposes: they are common in public presentations, papers and communiqués as well as to keep an order of the main ideas in reports, databases and in the elaboration of long documents.

Finally, they are also useful when studying for an exam, since the synthesis of the information allows for a quick review of the main ideas and the relationship between them in the material studied.

Parts and main structure

The preparation of a worksheet is simple and can be carried out in different ways, but as a general rule a basic structure is followed that includes the following sections.

Author and date of publication

If the record in question is based on a work, research, paper or document, the citation of the authors of the work should be placed first..

The way to do it is identical to when we cite an author or authors in a research: surname and initial, separated by a comma and if there are several, also separated by commas. Subsequently, the year of publication is added in parentheses, on the same line.

This aspect may not seem very relevant, but the truth is that it is convenient to know where the information comes from and in case of working with multiple documents it may be easier to locate where we have started from to make the record.

Title

Placed below the previous item, the title is one of the main parts of the worksheet.. It is necessary that it allows us to see in a quick and clearly visible way the subject that we are dealing with, encompassing the ideas that are going to be worked on.

Generally it will be the title of the article or book chapter from which we start, although it can also be a title chosen by us. This section, together with the previous one, would form the heading of the file.

3. Body

The body or content of the record is the set of information that we compile: the summary, the list of ideas or the conclusion drawn from the research..

It must be clear and understandable, so that we do not need to resort to other elements or information beyond what is on the card. It can be either a written document or an outline, or even pictorial elements.

4. Other data/references

It is worth adding the publisher or magazine where it was published, the city and the pages from which the information is extracted.. The key references of the research should also be included, in this case at the bottom of the record (especially in summary or synthesis records). Sometimes the reason for which the worksheet is being prepared is also added.

Types of worksheets

So far we have discussed what a worksheet is and what parts it (usually) has. However, not all worksheets are used for the same purpose and do not have the same contents: there are different types of these documents. Among the most common are the following.

1. Textual worksheets

A simple type of worksheet in which only a sentence or a phrase is transcribed. only a sentence or a short fragment of the original work is transcribed, with the same language and words as in the original.with the same language and words as in the original. The fragment of interest is copied, in quotation marks.

Paraphrase Worksheets

This type of worksheet is very similar to the previous one, except that in this case, instead of transcribing literally a fragment of the text, we try to express what we have understood from it in our own words. we try to express what we have understood in our own words..

3. Summary/synthesis worksheets

This type of record is characterized by the fact that it is elaborated in order to obtain a brief summary of the article, research, book or chapter under analysis.. The aim is to be able to understand in a general way what the research or analysis is about.

The central ideas should be placed first and then the secondary ideas that are linked to this and/or examples. Technically, the summary card basically looks for the key ideas while the summary cards try to offer a shorter version of the whole text, but they are used in broadly the same way.

4. Analysis worksheet

As in the paraphrase worksheet, in this case we also work on what we have understood through our own words. However, the content is not a reflection of the work we started from, but rather our personal analysis or conclusions about it. our personal analysis or conclusions about it..

It is not necessary to include in this case the studies from which we started, since the content of the card is exclusively our own elaboration.

5. Terminology table cards

The content of these cards is a table defining the main concepts of the text analyzed..

6. Question-problem worksheets

In this type of worksheet, the body is intended to serve as a point at which to elaborate and answer the questions or problems that the research has unraveled.

7. Field research worksheets

Sometimes we will want to make an index card that does not talk about information present in texts, but perhaps about the product of an experiment designed by ourselves or an interview. In this case we will use the field research sheet, in which we will summarize the information from the results of the experiment or the interview. summarize the information from the results of the experiment or the interview conducted..

In this type of record, the header should include the person interviewed, the date of the interview/experiment and the point at which the information will be used.

8. Mixed records

This is a combination of some of the above. Probably one of the most common is that it includes the summary or synthesis and analysis, or the textual record and the paraphrase or analysis record.