5.3 Index Cards

Take advantage of index card affordances.

Chapter 2 described scaffolding your outline for a manuscript. The scaffold defeats the myth of inspiration by moving ideas from your mind to your world. Thinking becomes manipulating objects in the world. To succeed, the objects you manipulate must offer appropriate affordances to you. Section 5.3 describes the objects which bring Chapter 2’s scaffold into being.

5.3.1 Index Cards

The index card provides the primary object for the Chapter 2 scaffold. As discussed in Section 1.8, index cards offer many affordances to aid writing: writability, readability, writing short, arrangeability, groupability, portability, expendability, cooperativity, and duality. Such affordances mean index cards play key roles in other scaffolds discussed in Chapter 5. Your index card choices determine the nature of your writing scaffold.

For instance, index cards come in different sizes and different colors. I prefer using 3” x 5” index cards which I can easily find in various colors. As discussed in Section 1.8, these properties offer me different affordances which aid writing and outlining. My preferred, small, index cards force me to write short when I begin my scaffold. Card color permits me to make different topics or ideas immediately visible.

5.3.2 Printed Labels For Index Cards

Using index cards to build the Chapter 2 scaffold permits me to support group work on a project. Different people can view the index cards at the same time and can work together to manipulate the cards to refine the scaffold. Such group work requires legible information on displayed cards. Also, I may repeatedly use some information on cards because the same information applies to different projects. Therefore, I like to have stock index cards ready for repeated use because of their more permanent, easy-to-read format.

For example, I like to have stock questions for prompting topics (Chapter 3) in a more permanent form. Similarly, related projects conducted within my lab may lean on the same basic information. For instance, my lab’s work on musical networks emphasizes musical triads. I have several cards — one for each triad — to remind me of each triad’s basic properties, such as its type, its component notes, and its other characteristics.

I use computer-printed labels to create legible information for display on reusable index cards. I create labels in a word processor template, print the labels out, and stick each label on its own index card. For instance, I print Table 3-1 on Avery 5066 labels. Each page contains 30 different labels, and each question fits on one label. Stock questions become transformed into legible, more permanent index cards for repeated use. Furthermore, having a label pasted on an index card distinguishes the card from handwritten cards added when I answer stock questions. Thus, labels can make index cards visibly distinct.

5.3.3 Visible Distinctiveness

In many research settings, many different activities occur at the same time. Different projects may occur simultaneously, may involve different people, and sometimes different people will work on the same project. Managing scaffolds to deal with multiple projects or multiple people requires visual distinctiveness. I use visual cues to make differences between projects or people immediately visible.

One method to make differences visible uses spatial location: different projects, or the work of different people, become visibly distinct when you display the appropriate index cards in different places. For example, my lab contains many different corkboards; different corkboards hold cards related to different projects or to the work of different people. Corkboard size provides another reason to favor small index cards: you can display more small index cards on one corkboard.

When you cannot spatially segregate index cards for different projects or people, you can use other methods to make cards visibly distinct. For instance, I sometimes use colored dots to distinguish one set of cards from another.

5.3.4 Date Stamps

The Chapter 2 scaffold emphasizes using index cards to represent topics. Index cards can also support other activities related to a project, such as recording research questions you want to answer, sources you need to read, and so on (e.g., Section 5.5). I like to add dates to my index cards. When did I ask a question? When did I answer a question? When did I read a source? When did I add a topic card to my display? Because I try to date many different cards, I use an ink pad and date stamp for adding dates. I also use specialized pre-inked stamps (e.g., shapes like stars, or the word ‘rush’) to prioritize cards. Again, I try to make card properties immediately visible. Visibility makes scaffolds functional.

5.3.5 Storing Completed Index Cards

Chapter 3 provided a several supplementary scaffolds: stock questions for helping generate seed topics. You can handily create more permanent cards for repeated use by printing stock questions on labels and by sticking the labels on index cards.

I like to group such cards in a deck, wrap the deck with an elastic band, and store the deck away for future use. Your writing world should include places to store your card decks. My lab has several, including plastic boxes for index cards, small metal cabinets with drawers for cards, and a large filing cabinet with each drawer designed for card storage.