Note-taking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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