Learn about the different types of job sheets

The worksheets are instruments used to collect important information of a work carried out, which can serve as a support for the data written in the document, or can help us to study in a more direct way some point of the investigation which we want to emphasize more.

The realization of these files is very important when it comes to storing and facilitating access to information that is required more frequently with respect to what you want to study. Previously they used to be made on cardboard with rectangular cuts, but today with so many advances in technology, they began to be used digitally. This is because many of the electronic devices used by most people (see mobile phones or tablets, for example) have a special program or note application, in which we can write files of all kinds.

The types of worksheets are divided according to the type of information that you want to place, be it from books, magazines, newspapers, biographies, characters or writers, among many more topics. The important thing is to put the most relevant information in a place that can be accessed more easily.

Classification of worksheets

• Long textual file: are those that have more than 35 words. They are usually from works with many important points to highlight, for which it is necessary to attach enough information to them.
• Short textual file: they are characterized by always having less than 35 words, being the opposite of the long textual file, as its name indicates. This type of file is much more direct in terms of the importance of the information that you want to collect.
• Summary tab: the information is abbreviated as much as possible without changing the original idea, or simply the most relevant or highlighted of the research is placed.
• Textual citation sheet: An important paragraph or fragment of the work is placed, always placing quotation marks to support or verify the information placed or extracted from the research.
• Bibliographic file: They are files intended to store information that comes directly from a book or article, which can be used to facilitate future research, as a reinforcement of another source of information.
• Hemerographic file: These have practically the same objective as the previous ones, but they are used when you want to get information from a magazine or newspaper.
• Biographical information: They store information of an important person, in which personal data must be placed, such as: place of birth, date, most important jobs, among others.
• Interview sheet: They are based on collecting the information of some people whom you want to interview, in order to have the information provided by them in a more organized and accessible way.
• Paraphrase sheet: In these it is possible to write freely about the investigated topic in your own words.
• Personal file: They are tokens for the collection of information from people. In this case, you can enter data, such as the full name, telephone numbers, email, postal area, place of residence, address, among many others, that are useful for contact.

How to make a job form?

There is a basic structure to give order and meaning to the different types of existing worksheets. This information will only change depending on the type of token that is being made, but its framework will remain the same. Next, it will be demonstrated how to structure the worksheets according to their type.

Research files, interviews or questionnaires: When making this type of files we must take into account the following aspects of its structure.

• The title of the research, or the interview, should be placed in the upper right part of the document, that way everyone who has the opportunity to read it will have knowledge of it, thanks to the place where it is located.
• In the upper left part of the work sheet, the name of the interviewee, what he does, the date and time when the questionnaire was carried out, will be placed. This is in both cases, since in a research project people must be interviewed to get information on a topic.
• Then the most important information described by the interviewee is placed, avoiding placing the questions that were asked.

Summary tabs: These have the same structure as those described above, the difference is that the book, newspaper, magazine or story from which the information was obtained must be placed in the upper right part; while on the upper left side the author of the work, the page of the book and the date of completion should be placed.

Personal comment sheets: These are the ones that we saw previously as the paraphrasing cards and they are structured in the same way as the summary cards, with the only difference that when placing the information, the quote of the fragment that you want to comment on must be added in quotation marks, and then place the personal argument of a certain sentence.

Analysis sheets: They could be taken as another branch of the paraphrase cards, since they consist of expressing your opinion on a topic, which you have been studying for a long time. To structure these files, the information placed in the upper left part should be ignored, since no comment, phrase, or fragment of the writer will be placed.

As simple to do as they are to describe, worksheets turn out to be an excellent data collection and survey instrument, since they provide us with the information in a much more organized way and with greater access, than looking for them in their original sources, among thousands of sentences or pages.

After knowing all their types and the ways to structure them, you can not have any excuse to start doing them at home, at work, or in any field that requires them.