Learning Skills
Note taking
- What Is the point of note taking?
- What kind of notes should you take?
- Reading for note taking
- Note taking tips
Printer friendly version of this article (.pdf)
What Is the point of note taking?
- Focusing attention. Note taking stops your mind from wandering as you read.
- 'Making' sense. You are pressed into finding and formulating the ideas in a way that makes sense to you.
- A form of external memory. The notes act as a kind of extension to the memory capacity of your mind.
- A symbol of progress. They may provide evidence of work and a boost to morale.
- Preparation for an assignment/essay. This is an essential part of assignment/essay construction
- Pulling the course together. They help create order, making ideas less confused and more useable.
What kind of notes should you take?
This depends on:
- The way your mind works
- The kind of text it is
- What you want to use the notes for
- The amount of time you think is reasonable to invest.
If you can, you should aim to take notes only on one side of a page. This has the advantage that you can spread out notes on a table and see what you have, without constantly having to turn over and check. If you do not spread out notes, you may be able to use the blank side facing for comments or additions. If you do this, make sure you do not separate the notes or you lose the comments in the appropriate place.
For assignment/essay notes, you need the title of a book, its author, publisher and place and date of publication. In the case of a journal article, you need the title, author, and name and date (including number) of the journal.
Reading For note taking
You need some type of system for reading and finding what information is useful.
Some people find the SQ3R system works well.
Whatever system you adopt to improve your reading and learning skills, it is virtually always useful to glance over the contents of a new chapter, article or book quickly before settling down to read it properly. When approaching a new topic, it is also very desirable to spend a few minutes early on in the piece, perhaps before you start to read, asking yourself a few questions and what you hope might be included and what you might learn.
Notes should not be simply a shorthand copy of the original text They should be an attempt to pick out the 'bones' of the text - or more specifically those points in the text which are relevant to your studies.