Note-taking (an Observe Record and Review Process) Is Most Improved by

9.iv: Annotation-Taking Strategies

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Introduction

One style to understand note taking is to realize that taking notes is only one function of the process. Effective note taking consists of iii parts: observing, recording, and reviewing.

1. Find an upshot. This function can be a statement past an teacher, a lab experiment, a slide show of an artist'due south works, or a chapter of required reading.
2. Record your observations of that event. This office means take notes.
3. Review what y'all have recorded. Memorize, reverberate, apply, and rehearse what you're learning. This part lifts ideas off the page and turns them into a working part of your mind.

Each role of the note-taking procedure is essential, and each depends on the other. Your observations determine what you tape. What you record determines what yous review. And the quality of your review tin can determine how constructive your next observations will be. If you lot review your notes on the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, for example, the adjacent day's lecture on the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 will make more sense.

Legible and speedy handwriting is too useful in taking notes. Noesis of outlining is handy too. A dandy pen, a new notebook, and a laptop figurer are all great annotation-taking devices.

Just they're all worthless—unless you participate as an energetic observer in form and regularly review your notes after class. If y'all accept those two steps, you can turn even the most disorganized chicken scratches into a powerful tool.

This is a well-researched aspect of student success in higher education. Study later on study points to the benefits of taking notes. The value is added in two ways. First, y'all get together a ready of materials that refreshes your retentiveness and helps you prepare for tests. Second, you are prompted to listen effectively during class.

Yous interpret new ideas into your own words and images. Yous impose a personal and meaningful structure on what yous see, read, and hear. Yous movement from passive observer to agile participant (Brazeau 2006). It'due south non that you accept notes so that you tin can learn from them later. Instead, you learn while taking notes.

Figurer applied science takes traditional annotation taking to a whole new level. You lot can capture key notes with word processing, outlining, database, and publishing software. Your notes become living documents that you tin search, bookmark, tag, and annal similar other digital files.

Sometimes, note-taking looks similar a passive affair, especially in large lecture classes. One person at the front of the room does most of the talking. Everyone else is seated and silent, taking notes. The lecturer seems to be doing all of the work.

Don't be deceived. Look more than closely. You'll encounter some students taking notes in a mode that radiates free energy. They're awake and alert, poised on the edge of their seats. They're writing—a concrete activity that expresses mental engagement. These students listen for levels of ideas and information, make choices about what to tape, and compile materials to review.

In higher educational activity, you lot might spend hundreds of hours taking notes. Making them more effective is a straight investment in your success.

Retrieve of your notes every bit a textbook that yous create—ane that's more current and more in tune with your learning preferences than whatsoever textbook you could purchase.

Annotation-Taking—Observe

Sherlock Holmes, a fictional principal detective and student of the obvious, could runway downwards a villain past observing the fold of his scarf and the mud on his shoes. In real life, a doc can save a life past observing a mole—one a patient has e'er had—that undergoes a rapid modify.

Groovy observers see facts and relationships. They know ways to focus their attention on the details and so tap their creative energy to discover patterns.

To sharpen your classroom ascertainment skills, experiment with the following techniques:

Complete outside assignments. The more familiar you are with a subject field, the more easily you tin blot important information during class lectures. Instructors usually presume that students complete assignments, and they construct their lectures appropriately.

Sit front and center. Students who get as shut equally possible to the front end and center of the classroom ofttimes exercise better on tests for several reasons. The closer y'all sit down to the lecturer, the harder it is to fall asleep. The closer you sit to the forepart, the fewer interesting or distracting classmates are situated between you and the instructor. Cloth on the board is easier to read from up front. Also, the teacher tin can meet y'all more easily when you have a question.

Sitting close to the front is a way to commit yourself to getting what you want out of school. One reason students gravitate to the back of the classroom is that they remember the teacher is less probable to call on them. Sitting in back can indicate a lack of commitment. When you sit down up front, you lot are declaring your willingness to take a gamble and participate.

Acquit a curt preclass review. Arrive early, and then put your brain in gear past reviewing your notes from the previous class. Scan your reading assignment. Expect at the sections you have underlined or highlighted. Review assigned problems and exercises. Note questions you intend to ask.

Notice—Be Circumspect in Class

Part of preparing to have notes is being observant virtually your own responses and reactions to what is going on in class. For example, sometimes your mind may wander, you might hear the instructor say something you disagree with, or you may feel sleepy during a lecture. These can be huge distractions to you while y'all listen. However, how you react when these situations happen will make all the divergence in your ability to remain circumspect in class.

Accept your wandering mind. Don't fight daydreaming. When you notice your mind wandering during course, look at it as an opportunity to refocus your attention. If thermodynamics is losing out to embankment parties, let go of the beach.

Exist with the instructor. In your mind, put yourself right upwards front with the teacher. Imagine that y'all and the instructor are the merely ones in the room and that the lecture is a personal conversation between the two of yous. Pay attention to the instructor's body language and facial expressions. Look the teacher in the eye.

Call back that the ability of this suggestion is immediately reduced by digital distractions— Net surfing, e-mail checking, text messaging, or reading social media feeds. Taking notes is a fashion to stay focused. The physical act of taking notes signals your mind to stay in the same room as the instructor.

Postpone debate. When you hear something you disagree with, note your disagreement and let it become. Don't allow your internal dialogue to drown out subsequent material. If your disagreement is persistent and strong, make note of it and so move on. Internal debate tin can prevent you from absorbing new information. It's okay to absorb information you don't agree with. Just absorb information technology with the mental tag My instructor says ... and I don't concord with it.

Permit become of judgments virtually lecture styles. Human beings are judgment machines. We evaluate everything, specially other people. If some other person'due south eyebrows are likewise close together (or too far apart), if she walks a certain manner or speaks with an unusual accent, we instantly make upwardly a story almost her. We do this and so quickly that the process is ordinarily not a conscious one.

Don't let your attitude about an instructor'southward lecture style, habits, or advent get in the way of your education. Yous can subtract the power of your judgments if you pay attending to them and let them go.

You can even allow go of judgments virtually rambling, unorganized lectures. Turn them to your advantage. Accept the initiative and organize the material yourself. While taking notes, divide the key points from the examples and supporting evidence. Note the places where yous got dislocated, and make a list of questions to ask.

Participate in class activities. Ask questions. Volunteer for demonstrations. Join in-class discussions. Be willing to accept a risk or look foolish, if that'southward what it takes for yous to larn. Chances are, the question you call up is dumb is also on the minds of several of your classmates.

Relate the grade to your goals. If yous have trouble staying awake in a particular course, write at the top of your notes how that class relates to a specific goal. Place the reward or payoff for reaching that goal.

Think critically about what you hear. This suggestion might seem reverse to the postpone argue technique. Information technology's not. You might choose non to call back critically about the instructor'due south ideas during the lecture. That's fine. Exercise it afterward, every bit you review and edit your notes. This is the time to list questions or write down your agreements and disagreements.

Observe—What to Watch for in Course

Another important element to taking notes is knowing what to observe in course. During class, you want to listen and await for the teacher cues that help yous recognize the important information to know.

The following suggestions volition assistance y'all look for clues as to the of import material to know.

Exist alert to repetition. When an instructor repeats a phrase or an thought, brand a note of it. Repetition is a signal that the instructor thinks the information is important.

Listen for introductory, terminal, and transition words and phrases. Examples include phrases such equally the following three factors, in conclusion, the most of import consideration, in addition to, and on the other manus. These phrases and others indicate relationships, definitions, new subjects, conclusions, crusade and effect, and examples. They reveal the structure of the lecture. Yous can employ these phrases to organize your notes.

Sentinel the lath or PowerPoint presentation. If an instructor takes the time to write something on the board or show a PowerPoint presentation, consider the textile to be of import. Re-create all diagrams and drawings, equations, names, places, dates, statistics, and definitions.

Watch the teacher's eyes. If an instructor glances at her notes and then makes a point, it is probably a betoken that the information is especially important. Anything she reads from her notes is a potential examination question.

Highlight the obvious clues. Instructors often hint strongly or tell students indicate-blank that sure information is likely to appear on an exam. Use stars or other special marks in your notes next to this information. Instructors are not trying to hide what'southward important.

Notice the instructor's interest level. If the instructor is excited about a topic, information technology is more than likely to announced on an exam. Pay attending when he seems more animated than usual.

Attend form. For well-nigh courses, yous'll benefit past attending every class session. This allows you to observe and actively participate. If you miss a grade, and so catch up as chop-chop as possible. Find additional ways to discover class content.

Clarify policies on missed classes. On the first day of classes, find out about your instructors' policies on absences. See whether you will be allowed to make up assignments, quizzes, and tests. Also inquire almost doing extra-credit assignments.

Contact a classmate. Early in the semester, identify a student in each class who seems responsible and dependable. Exchange electronic mail addresses and phone numbers. If you know you won't be in class, contact this educatee ahead of time. When you observe that your classmate is absent, pick upward extra copies of handouts, brand assignments lists, and offer copies of your notes.

Contact your instructor. If yous miss a grade, electronic mail or call your teacher, or put a note in his mailbox. Ask whether he has some other department of the same course that y'all tin nourish and so that you lot won't miss the lecture data. Too inquire near getting handouts y'all might demand before the next class meeting.

Apply technology. If there is a website for your grade, check it for assignments and the availability of handouts y'all missed. Gratuitous online services allow students to share notes with one another.

These services use wiki software, which allows yous to create and edit webpages using any browser. Earlier using such tools, yet, check with instructors for their policies on notes sharing.

Record—Techniques for Effective Notation-Taking, Part one

The format and structure of your notes are more than important than how fast you write or how elegant your handwriting is. Y'all want to apply the method that works best for you so that they make sense when yous go back and review them. 1 method you can effort is to utilise key words to help you take effective and meaningful notes.

Use key words. An like shooting fish in a barrel style to sort the inapplicable material from the important points is to accept notes using key words. Key words or phrases contain the essence of communication. They include the following:

• Concepts, technical terms, names, and numbers
• Linking words, including words that describe activity, relationship, and degree (for example, most, to the lowest degree, and faster)

Key words evoke images and associations with other words and ideas. They trigger your memory. That characteristic makes them powerful review tools. One key word can initiate the recall of a whole cluster of ideas. A few key words can form a chain from which you tin reconstruct an entire lecture.

To see how key words work, take yourself to an imaginary classroom. You are now in the centre of an anatomy lecture. Picture what the room looks similar, what it feels similar, how it smells. You lot hear the teacher say:

• Okay, what happens when nosotros look directly over our heads and see a piano falling out of the sky? How exercise we take that signal and translate it into the action of getting out of the manner? The first thing that happens is that a stimulus is generated in the neurons—receptor neurons—of the eye. Light reflected from the piano reaches our optics. In other words, we encounter the piano.
• The receptor neurons in the eye transmit that sensory point—the sight of the piano—to the body'southward nervous system. That's all they can do—pass on information. Then we've got a sensory signal coming into the nervous system. But the neurons that initiate move in our legs are effector neurons. The information from the sensory neurons must be transmitted to effector neurons, or nosotros will get squashed by the piano. There must exist some kind of interconnection between receptor and effector neurons. What happens between the two? What is the connexion?

Key words, every bit you might notation in this example, include stimulus, generated, receptor neurons, transmit, sensory signals, nervous system, effector neurons, and connection. You can reduce the instructor'due south 163 words to these 12 primal words. With a few transitional words, your notes might look like this:

• Note the last key word of the lecture: connection. This give-and-take is office of the instructor's question and leads to the next point in the lecture. Exist on the lookout for questions like this. They can help you organize your notes and are ofttimes clues for test questions.

Record—Techniques for Effective Note-Taking, Part 2

If key words exercise non work for you as a method of note-taking, you might endeavor one of the following strategies:

Use pictures and diagrams. Make relationships visual. Re-create all diagrams from the board, and invent your own. A drawing of a pianoforte falling on someone who is looking up, for example, might exist used to demonstrate the relationship of receptor neurons to effector neurons. Label the eyes receptor and the feet effector. This movie implies that the sight of the piano must be translated into a motor response. By connecting the explanation of the process with the unusual flick of the piano falling, yous can link the elements of the procedure together.

Write notes in paragraphs. When it is hard to follow the arrangement of a lecture or put information into outline grade, create a series of informal paragraphs. These paragraphs should contain few complete sentences. Reserve consummate sentences for precise definitions, direct quotations, and important points that the instructor emphasizes past repetition or other signals— such every bit the phrase This is an of import indicate.

Copy fabric from the lath or PowerPoint presentation. Tape central formulas, diagrams, and issues that the instructor presents on the board or in a PowerPoint presentation. Copy dates, numbers, names, places, and other facts. You tin can fifty-fifty use your ain signal or code to flag important material.

Use a three-band binder. Three-ring binders have several advantages over other kinds of notebooks. First, pages can be removed and spread out when you review. This way, you can become the whole motion-picture show of a lecture. Second, the three-ring folder allows you to insert handouts right into your notes. Third, you can insert your own out-of-class notes in the right society.

Use only i side of a piece of paper. When you apply one side of a page, you can review and organize all of your notes past spreading them out side by side. Most students find the benefit well worth the cost of the paper. Perhaps y'all're concerned about the environmental impact of consuming more paper. If so, you can apply the blank side of old notes and apply recycled paper.

Apply iii × 5 cards. As an alternative to using notebook paper, employ 3 × five cards to accept lecture notes. Copy each new concept onto a split up three × 5 card.

Go along your own thoughts separate. For the nearly role, avoid making editorial comments in your lecture notes. The danger is that when yous render to your notes, you might mistake your own ideas for those of the instructor. If you want to make a comment, conspicuously label it every bit your own.

Use an I'chiliad lost point. No matter how circumspect and alert you are, you might get lost and confused in a lecture. If it is inappropriate to ask a question, record in your notes that you were lost. Invent your own signal—for example, a circled question marking. When you lot write downwards your code for I'm lost, leave space for the caption or clarification that you will get later. The space will also be a signal that you lot missed something. Later, you can speak to your instructor or ask to encounter a fellow pupil's notes.

Record—Techniques for Constructive Note-Taking, Part three

When choosing an effective annotation-taking strategy, you might find that 1 method works best in your math class and another works best in your history class. Experiment with them and use what works best for yous.

Here are a few more than strategies to choose from that you may find helpful:

Label, number, and date all notes. Develop the habit of labeling and dating your notes at the showtime of each class. Number the page, too. Sometimes, the sequence of material in a lecture is of import. Write your proper noun and telephone number in each notebook in case you lose it.

Use standard abbreviations. Be consequent with your abbreviations. If y'all make upward your own abbreviations or symbols, write a key explaining them in your notes. Avoid vague abbreviations. When you utilise an abbreviation such as comm. for committee, yous run the risk of not existence able to remember whether you lot meant committee, commission, common, or commit. One way to abbreviate is to leave out vowels. For example, talk becomes tlk, said becomes sd, American becomes Amrcn.

Leave blank space. Notes tightly crammed into every corner of the page are difficult to read and difficult to utilize for review. Give your eyes a pause by leaving plenty of space.

Later on, when you review, you tin use the blank spaces in your notes to clarify points, write questions, or add other textile.

Take notes in different colors. You tin use colors as highly visible organizers. For example, yous can signal important points with red. Or use one color of ink for notes nearly the text and another color for lecture notes.

Use graphic signals. The following ideas can be used with whatever note-taking format:

• Use brackets, parentheses, circles, and squares to group information that belongs together.
• Employ stars, arrows, and underlining to indicate of import points. Flag the nigh important points with double stars, double arrows, or double underlines.
• Utilise arrows and connecting lines to link related groups.
• Use equal signs and greater-than and less-than signs to indicate compared quantities.
• To avoid creating confusion with graphic symbols, write a "dictionary" of your symbols in the front of your notebooks.

Use recorders effectively. Some students tape lectures with audio or digital recorders, just there are persuasive arguments against doing and then. When you tape a lecture, there is a potent temptation to daydream. Later on all, you can ever mind to the lecture again later on. Unfortunately, if yous let the recorder practise all of the work, you are skipping a valuable part of the learning process.

There are other potential problems too. Listening to recorded lectures can take a lot of time— more time than reviewing written notes. Recorders can't answer the questions y'all didn't ask in grade. Also, recording devices malfunction. In fact, the unscientific Hypothesis of Recording Glitches states that the tendency of recorders to malfunction is directly proportional to the importance of the fabric. With those warnings in mind, you tin utilize a recorder effectively if you choose. For example, you tin can utilize recordings as backups to written notes. (Bank check with your teacher outset. Some adopt not to be recorded.) Plow the recorder on, and then take notes as if information technology weren't in that location. Recordings can be specially useful if an instructor speaks fast.

Tape—The Cornell Method

A annotation-taking system that has worked for students around the world is the Cornell method (Pauk and Owens 2011). Originally developed past Walter Pauk at Cornell Academy during the 1950s, this approach continues to exist taught across the United States and in other countries every bit well.

The cornerstone of this method is what Pauk calls the cue column—a wide margin on the left side of the paper. The cue cavalcade is the fundamental to the Cornell method'due south many benefits. Here's how to use information technology.

Example Notes Using the Cornell Method

Format your paper. On each sail, draw a vertical line from top to bottom about 2 inches from the left border of the paper. This line creates the cue column—the space to the left of the line. Y'all can likewise find websites that allow you to print out pages in this format. Just practice an Internet search using the primal words cornell method pdf.

Take notes, leaving the cue column blank. As you read an assignment or mind to a lecture, take notes on the right side of the paper. Fill up this column with sentences, paragraphs, outlines, charts, or drawings. Do not write in the cue cavalcade. You'll use this space later, as you do the next steps.

Condense your notes in the cue column. Retrieve of the notes you took on the right side of the paper as a fix of answers. In the cue cavalcade, list potential test questions that correspond to your notes. Write ane question for each major term or point.

Equally an culling to questions, you can listing central words from your notes. Another option is to pretend that your notes are a series of articles on different topics. In the cue cavalcade, write a newspaper-mode headline for each "article." In any case, be brief. Cramming the cue column full of words defeats its purpose—to reduce the number and length of your notes.

Write a summary. Pauk recommends reducing your notes even more than by writing a cursory summary at the bottom of each page. This stride offers you another way to engage actively with the fabric.

Use the cue column to recite. Comprehend the correct side of your notes with a blank sail of paper. Go out only the cue cavalcade showing. Then, look at each item you wrote in the cue column and talk well-nigh information technology. If yous wrote questions, answer each question. If you wrote cardinal words, ascertain each word and talk nearly why it's of import. If you wrote headlines in the cue cavalcade, explain what each ane means and offer supporting details. Subsequently reciting, uncover your notes and look for any of import points yous missed.

Record—Listen Map

Heed mapping, a system developed by Tony Buzan (1991), can exist used in conjunction with the Cornell method to accept notes. In some circumstances, you might desire to utilize mind maps exclusively.

To understand mind maps, commencement review the features of traditional note-taking. Outlines (explained in the adjacent section) divide major topics into minor topics, which are subdivided further. They organize information in a sequential, linear way.

The traditional outline reflects only a limited range of brain function—a point that is oft made in discussions about left-brain and right-brain activities. People often use the term right brain when referring to artistic, pattern-making, visual, intuitive brain activity. They use the term left
brain when talking almost orderly, logical, stride-by-footstep characteristics of idea. Writing teacher Gabrielle Rico (2000) uses another metaphor. She refers to the left-brain way as our sign heed (concerned with words) and the right-brain mode every bit our design mind (concerned with visuals).

A mind map uses both kinds of brain functions. Mind maps can contain lists and sequences and evidence relationships. They can as well provide a picture of a subject area. They work on both verbal and nonverbal levels.

1 benefit of mind maps is that they rapidly, vividly, and accurately testify the relationships between ideas. Too, mind mapping helps you think from full general to specific. By choosing a main topic, you lot focus showtime on the large motion picture, and so zero-in on subordinate details. Past using only key words, you tin can condense a big field of study into a pocket-size expanse on a heed map. Yous can review more speedily past looking at the key words on a mind map than past reading notes word for discussion.

Example Notes Using Listen Mapping

Give yourself plenty of room. To create a heed map, apply bare paper that measures at to the lowest degree 11 by 17 inches. If that's not available, turn regular notebook paper on its side so that you can take notes in a horizontal (instead of vertical) format. If y'all use a computer in grade to take notes, consider software that allows you to create digital mind maps that can include graphics, photos, and URLs.

Make up one's mind the main concept of the lecture, article, or chapter. Every bit you listen to a lecture or read, effigy out the primary concept. Write it in the middle of the paper and circle it, underline it, or highlight it with color. You can also write the concept in large letters. Record concepts related to the chief concept on lines that radiate outward from the centre. An culling is to circle or box in these concepts.

Use primal words only. Whenever possible, reduce each concept to a single word per line or circumvolve or box in your mind map. Although this reduction might seem awkward at first, information technology prompts you lot to summarize and to condense ideas to their essence. That means fewer words for you to write now and fewer to review when it'south time to prepare for tests. (Using shorthand symbols and abbreviations tin aid.) Primal words are ordinarily nouns and verbs that communicate the bulk of the speaker'southward ideas. Choose words that are rich in associations and that tin can help you recreate the lecture.

Create links. A unmarried mind map doesn't have to include all of the ideas in a lecture, book, or article. Instead, you tin link heed maps. For case, draw a mind map that sums up the v key points in a chapter, and and then make a separate, more detailed mind map for each of those cardinal points. Within each heed map, include references to the other heed maps. This technique helps explicate and reinforce the relationships among many ideas. Some students pin several mind maps next to 1 some other on a bulletin board or record them to a wall. This allows for a dramatic—and effective—look at the big flick.

Record—Outline

A traditional outline shows the relationships among major points and supporting ideas. I benefit of taking notes in the outline format is that doing so tin can totally occupy your attention. You are recording ideas and also organizing them. This process can be an advantage if the fabric has been presented in a disorganized way. By playing with variations, you can discover the power of outlining to reveal relationships among ideas. Technically, each word, phrase, or sentence that appears in an outline is chosen a heading. Headings are arranged in unlike levels:

• In the first, or top, level of headings, annotation the major topics presented in a lecture or reading consignment.
• In the second level of headings, record the key points that relate to each topic in the commencement level of headings.
• In the third level of headings, record specific facts and details that support or explain each of your second level of headings. Each additional level of subordinate heading supports the ideas in the previous level of heading.
• Roman numerals offering one way to illustrate the deviation between levels of headings.

Case Notes Using Outlining

Feel gratis to utilise different annotation-taking systems for different subjects and to combine formats. Do what works for yous.

For example, combine mind maps along with the Cornell method. You tin modify the Cornell format by dividing your paper in half. Reserve one-one-half for mind maps and the other half for linear data such equally lists, graphs, and outlines also as equations, long explanations, and word- for-word definitions. You tin can incorporate a mind map into your paragraph-mode notes whenever you experience 1 is appropriate. Mind maps are also useful for summarizing notes taken in the Cornell format.

John Sperry, a teacher at Utah Valley Country College, developed a note-taking system that tin can include all of the formats discussed in this lesson:

• Fill a three-ring folder with fresh paper. Open your notebook so that you lot see ii blank pages—one on the left and i on the correct. Plan to take notes across this unabridged two-page spread.
• During course or while reading, write your notes just on the left-side folio. Place a large nuance next to each main topic or signal. If your teacher skips a step or switches topics unexpectedly, just keep writing.
• Later, apply the right-side folio to review and elaborate on the notes that yous took earlier. This page is for anything you want. For case, add visuals such as heed maps. Write review questions, headlines, possible test questions, summaries, outlines, mnemonics, or analogies that link new concepts to your current knowledge.
• To continue ideas in sequence, place appropriate numbers on top of the dashes in your notes on the left-side page. Even if concepts are presented out of order during class, they'll still be numbered correctly in your notes.

Review—Techniques for Reviewing Your Notes

Recollect of reviewing every bit an integral office of note-taking rather than an added job. To make new information useful, encode it in a mode that connects it to your long-term memory. The central is reviewing.

Review within 24 hours. The sooner you review your notes, the better, peculiarly if the content is difficult. In fact, you tin commencement reviewing during class. When your instructor pauses to set up the overhead brandish or erase the board, scan your notes. Dot the i'southward, cross the t'due south, and write out unclear abbreviations. Another fashion to use this technique is to get to your next class as quickly every bit you can. Then utilize the four or five minutes earlier the lecture begins to review the notes you just took in the previous class. If you practice not become to your notes immediately after form, you can all the same benefit past reviewing them later in the twenty-four hour period. A review right earlier you go to slumber can also be valuable.

Think of the mean solar day's unreviewed notes equally leaky faucets, constantly dripping and losing precious information until you close them off with a quick review. Remember, it'southward possible to forget near of the material within 24 hours—unless y'all review.

Edit your notes. During your first review, fix words that are illegible. Write out abbreviated words that might be unclear to you lot later. Make certain you can read everything. If you lot can't read something or don't understand something you can read, mark it and make a note to ask your instructor or some other educatee almost information technology. Check to meet that your notes are labeled with the appointment and class and that the pages are numbered.

Fill in key words. As you review your notes, focus on extracting important concepts. Using the cardinal give-and-take principles described earlier in this module, go through your notes and make a listing of key words or phrases. These key words volition speed upwardly the review procedure afterward. Besides experiment with the Cornell method for taking notes, which centers on organizing your notes on the basis of key words.

Utilize your primal words as cues to recite. Encompass your notes with a blank sheet of paper and so that you can see just the key words in the left-side margin. Take each cardinal discussion in lodge, and recite as much equally you can about the point. So, uncover your notes and look for any important points you missed.

Conduct short weekly review periods. One time a week, review all of your notes again. These review sessions don't need to take a lot of time. Even a 20-minute weekly review period is valuable. Some students find that a weekend review—say, on Sunday afternoon—helps them stay in continuous bear on with the material. Scheduling regular review sessions on your calendar helps develop the habit.

Consider typing your notes. Some students type up their handwritten notes on the computer. The argument for doing so is threefold. Starting time, typed notes are easier to read. 2d, they take up less infinite. Tertiary, the process of typing them forces you to review the material.

Create summaries. Mind mapping is an splendid way to summarize large sections of your form notes or reading assignments. Create one map that shows all the main topics yous want to call back. Then create another map about each main topic. After drawing your maps, expect at your original notes, and fill in annihilation you missed. This organization is fun and quick.

Example Mind Map Summary

Some other selection is to create a crook sheet. There's merely i guideline: Fit all your review notes on a single canvas of paper. Employ any notation-taking format that you desire—listen map, outline, Cornell method, or a combination of all of them. The beauty of this technique is that information technology forces you lot to pick out main ideas and key details. At that place's not enough room for annihilation else!

Some instructors might let you use a summary sheet during an exam. Only even if you can't use it, you'll benefit from creating one while you written report for the test. Summarizing is a powerful way to review.

Turning PowerPoints Into Notes

PowerPoint presentations are mutual. They can likewise exist lethal for students who want to master grade content or those who but desire to stay awake.

Some students stop taking notes during a PowerPoint presentation. This choice can exist hazardous to your bookish health for several reasons. For ane affair, PowerPoint presentations don't always include all of the fundamental textile. Depending on them tin leave large gaps in your notes. When you stop taking notes, you might also stop beingness an active participant in class.

To create value from PowerPoint presentations, have notes on them. Continue to notice, record, and review. See PowerPoint every bit a style to guide rather than to supervene upon your own notation-taking. Even the slickest, smartest presentation is no substitute for your ain thinking.

Experiment with the following suggestions. They include ideas about what to do before, during, and after a PowerPoint presentation.

Before the presentation. Sometimes, instructors make PowerPoint slides bachelor before a lecture. If you have computer access, download these files. Scan the slides, just as you lot would preview a reading consignment.

Consider press out the slides and bringing them along to class. (If y'all own a copy of PowerPoint, then choose the Handouts option when printing. This will save paper and ink.) You lot can take notes direct on the pages that yous print out. Be certain to add the slide numbers if they are missing.

If yous employ a laptop figurer for taking notes during course, so you lot might not want to carp with press. Just open up the PowerPoint file and type your notes in the window that appears at the bottom of each slide. After form, you tin can print out the slides in note view. This will show the original slides plus any text that you added.

During the presentation. In many cases, PowerPoint slides are presented visually past the instructor merely during form. The slides are not provided as handouts, and they are non bachelor online for students to print out.

This makes it even more important to accept effective notes in class. Capture the main points and fundamental details as you lot normally would. Use your preferred note-taking strategies.

Be selective in what you write down. Determine what kind of textile is on each slide. Stay warning for new topics, main points, and important details. Taking too many notes makes it hard to go on up with a speaker and separate master points from minor details.

In any case, go beyond the slides. Record valuable questions and answers that come upwardly during a discussion, fifty-fifty if they are not a planned part of the presentation.

Afterwards the presentation. If you printed out slides before class and took notes on those pages, and then find a manner to integrate them with the rest of your notes. For example, add together references in your notebook to specific slides. Or create summary notes that include the major topics and points from readings, form meetings, and PowerPoint presentations.

Printouts of slides can brand review tools. Use them every bit cues to recite. Cover upwardly your notes so that only the main paradigm or words on each slide are visible. See whether y'all can remember what else appears on the slide, along with the central points from any notes you added.

Also consider "editing" the presentation. If you take the PowerPoint file on your figurer, make some other copy of information technology. Open up upwardly this re-create, and meet whether you can condense the presentation. Cutting slides that don't include anything you want to remember. Likewise, rearrange slides and so that the order makes more than sense to you. Remember that yous can open up the original file later if you want to see exactly what your instructor presented.

Taking Notes When Your Teacher Talks Quickly

Instructors are unlike in their communication style. Sometimes, instructors talk very rapidly, and information technology may seem hard to take notes.

The following strategies can help y'all have notes when your teacher talks quickly:

Take more time to prepare for class. Familiarity with a subject increases your ability to pick up on central points. If an instructor lectures quickly or is difficult to understand, conduct a thorough preview of the material to be covered.

Be willing to make choices. Focus your attention on central points. Instead of trying to write everything down, choose what you think is important. Occasionally, you will make a less-than- perfect option or even neglect an important point. Worse things could happen. Stay with the lecture, write down key words, and revise your notes immediately after class.

Exchange photocopies of notes with classmates. Your classmates might write down something yous missed. At the same time, your notes might help them. Exchanging photocopies can fill up in the gaps.

Exit large empty spaces in your notes. Get out plenty of room for filling in data you lot missed. Use a symbol that signals you've missed something so that you can call up to come back to it.

See the instructor later class. Accept your grade notes with you, and show the instructor what yous missed.

Utilize an sound recorder. Recording a lecture gives y'all a risk to hear it over again whenever you choose. Some audio-recording software allows you to vary the speed of the recording. With this feature, you can perform magic and actually slow down the teacher's speech.

Before class, take notes on your reading assignment. Y'all tin take detailed notes on the text earlier grade. Leave enough of blank space. Accept these notes with you to class, and simply add together your lecture notes to them.

Go to the lecture again. Many classes are taught in multiple sections. That gives y'all the chance to hear a lecture at least twice—once in your regular form and once again in another section of the class.

Larn shorthand. Some note-taking systems, known equally shorthand, are specifically designed for getting ideas downwards fast. Books and courses are bachelor to help you acquire these systems. You can besides devise your own autograph method past inventing i- or two-letter symbols for mutual words and phrases.

Ask questions—fifty-fifty if you're totally lost. Many instructors allow a question session. This is the time to ask virtually the points y'all missed.

At times, you might feel so lost that y'all tin't even formulate a question. That's okay. I option is to written report this fact to the instructor. She can often guide you to a clear question. Some other option is to ask a related question. Doing so might lead you to the question you really want to ask.

Enquire the teacher to irksome downwardly. This solution is the about obvious. If asking the instructor to slow down doesn't piece of work, enquire her to repeat what you missed.

Taking Notes While Reading

Taking notes while reading requires the aforementioned skills that apply to taking class notes: observing, recording, and reviewing. Employ these skills to take notes for review and for research.

Review notes will look similar the notes yous have in class. Take review notes when you want more than detailed notes than writing in the margin of your text allows. Yous might desire to unmarried out a particularly hard department of a text and make separate notes. Or make summaries of overlapping lecture and text material. Because yous can't underline or make notes in library books, these sources will require separate notes, likewise.

To take more than effective review notes, employ the following suggestions:

Gear up priorities. Single out a particularly hard section of a text and make separate notes. Or make summaries of overlapping lecture and text material.

Use a variety of formats. Translate text into Cornell notes, mind maps, or outlines. Combine these formats to create your ain. Translate diagrams, charts, and other visual elements into words. Then, opposite the process by translating straight text into visual elements.

However, don't let the creation of formats arrive your way. Even a uncomplicated list of key points and examples can become a powerful review tool. Another choice is to close your book and but get-go writing. Write chop-chop nigh what you intend to remember from the text, and don't worry about following whatever format.

Condense a passage to key quotes. Authors embed their essential ideas in central sentences. As yous read, continually ask yourself, What'southward the point? Run into whether you can point to a specific sentence on the page to reply your question. Look especially at headings, subheadings, and topic sentences of paragraphs. Write these cardinal sentences word for word in your notes, and put them within quotation marks. Copy as few sentences as you can and still retain the cadre meaning of the passage.

Condense past paraphrasing. Pretend that you have to summarize a affiliate, article, or book on a postcard. Limit yourself to a single paragraph—or a single sentence—and employ your own words. This is a great fashion to test your understanding of the material.

Take a cue from the table of contents. Await at the table of contents in your book. Write each major heading on a slice of paper, or key those headings into a file on your calculator. Include page numbers. Next, run into whether y'all tin improve on the table of contents. Substitute your ain headings for those that appear in the volume. Turn single words or phrases into complete sentences, and use words that are meaningful to you.

Adapt to special cases. The style of your notes tin vary according to the nature of the reading material. If you are assigned a brusk story or verse form, for case, then read the unabridged work in one case without taking any notes. On your offset reading, simply enjoy the slice. When y'all finish, write downwardly your immediate impressions. So, get over the piece over again. Make brief notes on characters, images, symbols, settings, plot, bespeak of view, or other aspects of the work.

Note key concepts in math and scientific discipline. When you read mathematical, scientific, or other technical materials, copy important formulas or equations. Recreate important diagrams, and draw your own visual representations of concepts. Also write downwards data that might appear on an exam.

Taking Research Notes

Take research notes when preparing to write a paper or deliver a spoken language. One traditional method of enquiry is to take notes on three × 5 cards. You write one thought, fact, or quotation per card, along with a note well-nigh the source (where y'all found it). The advantage of limiting each card to ane item is that you can hands adjust cards co-ordinate to the sequence of ideas in your outline.

Taking notes on a estimator offers the same flexibility as alphabetize cards. Just include one idea, fact, or quotation per paragraph along with the source. Think of each paragraph as a separate card. When you're fix to create the get-go typhoon of your paper or presentation, just motion paragraphs around and then that they fit your outline.

Include your sources. Whether you use cards or a computer, exist sure to include a source for each note that yous accept.

Say, for example, that you lot find a useful quotation from a volume. You want to include that quotation in your paper. Copy the quotation word for word onto a card, or key the quotation into a computer file. Along with the quotation, note the book'southward author, title, appointment and place of publication, and publisher. You'll need such information later when you create a formal list of your sources—a bibliography, or a list of endnotes or footnotes.

Whenever possible, impress out or brand photocopies of each source. For books, include a copy of the championship page and copyright page, both of which are found in the front affair. For magazines and scholarly journals, copy the table of contents.

For each volume yous consult, record the following:

• Author
• Editor (if listed)
• Translator (if listed)
• Edition number (if listed)
• Total championship, including the subtitle
• Name and location of the publisher
• Copyright engagement
• Page numbers for passages that y'all quote, summarize, or paraphrase

For each commodity you lot consult, tape the post-obit:

• Author
• Editor (if listed)
• Translator (if listed)
• Full title, including the subtitle
• Proper noun of the journal
• Volume number
• Effect number
• Event date
• Page numbers for passages that yous quote, summarize, or paraphrase

For other types of sources, ask your instructor for guidelines about what information to record.

Avoid plagiarism. When people take material from a source and neglect to admit that source, they are committing plagiarism. Fifty-fifty when plagiarism is accidental, the consequences can exist harsh.

Many cases of plagiarism occur during the process of taking inquiry notes. To preclude this problem, recall that a major goal of taking research notes is to clearly carve up your ain words and images from words and images created by someone else. To come across this goal, develop the following habits:

• If y'all accept a direct quote from 1 of your sources, enclose those words in quotation marks and notation the information about that source.
• If you lot have an prototype (photo, illustration, chart, or diagram) from one of your sources, note the information about that source.
• If you summarize or paraphrase a specific passage from i of your sources, use your own words and note the information about that source.
• If your notes include any idea that is closely identified with a particular person, note the information about the source.
• If you lot include one of your ain ideas in your notes, but note the source as "me."
• If you're taking notes on a computer and using Internet sources, be especially careful to avoid plagiarism. When you copy text or images from a website, split those notes from your own ideas. Employ a dissimilar font for copied cloth, or enclose it in quotation marks.

You do not need to note a source for these:

• Facts that are considered common knowledge (The history of the twentieth century includes two world wars.)
• Facts that can exist easily verified (The US Constitution includes a group of amendments known as the Nib of Rights.)
• Your own stance (Hip-hop artists are the near of import poets of our age.)

The bottom line: Ever present your own work—non materials that have been created or revised past someone else. If you're ever in doubt most what to do, then take the safest course: Cite the source. Give credit where credit is due.

Taking Notes in Online Courses

You may not e'er take classes in a formal classroom setting. Many classes are now offered online. The following suggestions will aid with taking notes and keeping runway of information in online courses.

Exercise a trial run with applied science. Verify your access to course web sites, including online tutorials, PowerPoint presentations, readings, quizzes, tests, assignments, bulletin boards, and chatrooms. Ask your instructors for the website addresses (URLs), e-mail addresses, and passwords. Piece of work out any bugs when you start the course and well before that outset assignment is due.

Develop a contingency plan. Murphy'southward Police of computer crashes states that technology tends to pause downward at the moment of greatest inconvenience. You might not believe this slice of sociology, merely it's still wise to prepare for it:

• Find a "technology buddy" in each of your classes—someone who tin contact the instructor if you lose Internet admission or experience other reckoner issues.
• Every day, back upwardly the files created for your courses.
• Continue extra printer supplies—paper, toner, and ink—on hand at all times. Don't run out of necessary supplies on the 24-hour interval a paper is due.

Have notes on form material. You can print out anything that appears on a reckoner screen. This includes online grade materials—articles, books, manuscripts, eastward-mail letters, chatroom sessions, and more.

The potential problem is that you might skip the note-taking procedure altogether. (I can just print out everything!) You would so miss the chance to internalize a new idea by restating information technology in your own words—a principal benefit of note-taking. Event: Material passes from figurer to printer without ever intersecting with your brain. To prevent this problem, take notes on your online form material.

Ask for help. If you experience confused about anything you're learning online, inquire for help right away. This is especially important when you don't see the instructor face-to-face in grade. Some students simply drop online courses rather than seek help. E-postal service or phone call the instructor earlier you make that pick. If the instructor is on campus, y'all might be able to arrange for a meeting during part hours.

Manage time and tasks carefully. Courses that take identify mostly or totally online tin can become invisible in your weekly academic schedule. This reinforces the temptation to put off dealing with these courses until late in the term.

Avoid this mistake! Consider the real possibility that an online course tin can take more time than a traditional, face-to-face up lecture class.

1 primal to keeping upwardly with the course is frequent contact and careful time management:

• Early in the term, create a detailed schedule for online courses. In your agenda, list a due date for each assignment. Break big assignments into smaller steps, and schedule a due date for each step.
• Schedule times in your agenda to consummate online course work. Requite these scheduled sessions the same priority every bit regular classroom meetings. At these times, check for online announcements relating to assignments, tests, and other course events. Check for course-related east-mails daily.
• If the class includes discussion forums, bank check those daily likewise. Look for new posts and add together your replies. The point of these tools is to create a lively chat that starts early and continues throughout the term.
• When you receive an online consignment, email any questions immediately. If you desire to meet with an instructor in person, request an appointment several days in advance.
• Give online instructors enough of fourth dimension to respond. They are non always online. Many online instructors have traditional courses to teach, along with assistants and inquiry duties.
• Download or print out online course materials as soon as they're posted on the class website. These materials might non be available later in the term.

Focus your attention. Some students are used to visiting websites while watching Television receiver, listening to music, or browsing their social media feed. When applied to online learning, these habits can reduce your learning and imperil your grades. To succeed with online learning technology, turn off the distractions. Whenever you get online, stay in accuse of your attention.

References

Brazeau, Gayle A. "Handouts in the classroom: Is annotation taking a lost skill?" American Periodical of Pharmaceutical Education 70, two (2006): 38.

Buzan, Tony. Apply Both Sides of Your Brain. New York: Dutton, 1991.

Pauk, Walter and Ross J. Q. Owens. How to Report in College, tenth ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2011.

Rico, Gabrielle. Writing the Natural Way. New York: Penguin, 2000.

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Source: https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Counseling_and_Guidance/Book:_OpenNow_College_Success_%28Cengage%29/09:_Developing_Learning_Strategies/9.04:_Note-Taking_Strategies

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