Note-taking

1. Note-taking

2. Reasons for taking notes • Help you remember something • Help in planning of a project or piece of writing • Re-order material • Help you understand your learning • Show other people Reasons for taking notes affect the way you make them

3. Note-taking and note-making • Note-taking involves writing down most of what you hear or read without processing the information • Note-making is more active and forces you to think, as you have to select, analyse and summarising what you hear or read

4. Benefits of note-making • Forces you to think • Helps you pay attention • Helps your understanding • Helps you concentrate • Helps you remember more • Provides a permanent record • Facilitates learning

5. Techniques – linear notes • Make notes in the form of lists or phrases

6. Mindmapping • Uses arrows and circles to connect key words /phrases and should create a spreading pattern  

7. Highlighting, annotating and underlining • Involves drawing lines under information, highlighting with a coloured pen, or writing notes in the margin • Allows you to pick up the meaning of text when you refer back to it • Try not to highlight everything! • You usually need to make written notes too

8. Summarising • Bringing together notes you’ve already made to make a new, shorter version • Less likely to commit plagiarism • Abbreviating words can speed up the process

9. Tips for note making • Label notes clearly, and note full source info – eg book, author, publisher and place of publication, page numbers etc • Deciding what to note depends on what you already know and what your assignment question is • Put quotation marks around anything you’ve copied exactly from a book

10. Making notes from lectures • Make sure you’re prepared beforehand - know the topic of the session and note down any questions you have before the session • It’s more important to understand what’s being said than making notes • Try not to write down everything • Use headings • Ask questions if unclear • Don’t switch off if you get a handout • Review your notes as soon as possible afterwards

11. Have you got enough notes? • Roughly the word count of a task should be doubled when writing notes ege a 1500 word essay should have 3,000 words of notes • You might make more notes than you use – don’t worry if you don’t use them all – better to be relevant with what you do write • Keep essay question or topic in mind when writing and using notes