Principle
Separate what the source says from what you infer
Your future self deserves to know which sentences came from evidence and which came from you.
When it fits
- A note blends quotation, paraphrase, interpretation and recommendation into one confident paragraph.
When to avoid it
- The layers can interact; the purpose is traceability, not forbidding synthesis.
Why it matters
Use lightweight labels or structure for source claim, your interpretation and resulting implication. When the source is uncertain or limited, keep that boundary attached. This prevents a plausible inference from aging into a remembered fact.
An example
'Surveyed employers expect X' stays distinct from 'therefore my role will disappear,' which may not follow.
Check your result
A reader can identify the evidentiary layer of each important statement.
Keep this limit in mind
- The layers can interact; the purpose is traceability, not forbidding synthesis.
Evidence and sources
Personal information management research frames the job as a lifecycle of acquiring or creating, keeping, organizing, maintaining, finding or re-finding, using and distributing information in support of future needs.
The lifecycle is descriptive and does not prescribe one folder, tagging or note-taking system.
Personal Information Management · Abstract and overview
Note-taking research includes a retrieval-directed function in which notes externalize knowledge retrieved from memory, supporting the broader idea that a knowledge system can preserve a working representation rather than only copied source text.
The study examined prior-knowledge activation in learning and does not validate a general PKM workflow.