How Take Notes When Reading Is Useful

March 06, 2022 Post a Comment

When engaged in some form of study or research, either informally or formally, you will probably demand to read and have in a lot of data.

This folio describes how to accept effective notes while reading. Taking notes is a way to appoint with the printed word, and can help yous to retain more than of the information, especially if you summarise and paraphrase it.

In that location are plenty of ways to take notes, both in terms of the tools you lot utilize (pen and paper or computer, for instance), and the fashion of notes. Some of these may be more effective, and some may exist a matter of selection and personal preference.

This page covers some of the principles involved to help you lot make the most appropriate choice for you.

Farther reading from SkillsYouNeed

Nosotros have a series of other related pages that you may find helpful. Our page, Constructive Note-Taking covers how to accept notes when you are listening to the information, rather than reading it. It is therefore useful for classes, lectures, and meetings.

See our pages: Effective Reading and Disquisitional Reading for caption, advice and comment on how to get the nigh from, and develop your, reading.

Why Accept Notes When Reading?

Reading for pleasure or every bit a way to relax, such every bit reading a novel, newspaper or magazine, is usually a 'passive' exercise. When you are studying, reading should be seen equally an 'active' practise.

In other words, y'all engage with your reading to maximise your learning.

One of the most constructive ways of actively engaging with your reading is to make notes every bit you go along.

However, how much you have in seems to depend on how yous take notes. Research shows that students who took notes by hand, using pen and paper, tended to retain significantly more information than those who used computers. It was suggested that this was because those writing by manus tended to summarise the points more than, whereas those with computers tended to type verbatim and therefore appoint less with the content.

Paraphrasing and summarising what yous read in your own words is far more than constructive in helping you to retain information. This seems probable to apply whether yous are using a computer or a pen and paper.

By writing notes, in your own words, you volition be forced to recall about the ideas that are presented in the text and how y'all tin explain them coherently. The process of notation-taking will, therefore, help yous retain, analyse and ultimately recollect and learn what you take read.

What NOT To Practise

It is important to empathise that effective note-taking requires yous to write notes on what yous accept read in your own words.

Copying what others have said is non note-taking and is only appropriate when yous desire to directly quote an author. It can exist tempting, especially if your reading material is online, to copy and paste direct into a certificate. If yous do this, then you are unlikely to learn or reverberate on what yous have read, every bit copying is non engaging with the text.

Copying, Referencing and Plagiarism

As a general principle, yous should wait to summarise and paraphrase other authors' ideas rather than quote them verbatim. This helps to show that you have understood the ideas and are able to set them into context. When you summarise an writer's ideas, you need to provide a citation to the original source.

Information technology is, however, acceptable to quote some other writer if they brand a indicate specially neatly, but yous should do so sparingly. If you quote straight, your citation commonly needs to include the page number.

Copying and/or discussing someone else's ideas without proper attribution is plagiarism.

This is a serious academic offence. See our page: Academic Referencing for more information and instructions on how to reference properly.

Utilise online sources as appropriate only summarise, re-write and/or paraphrase and always reference.

Constructive Steps for Note-Taking

There is no magic formula to taking notes when reading. You lot simply take to find out what works best for you. Your note-taking skills will develop with practice and as you lot realise the benefits. This section is designed to help you get started.

ane. Highlighting and Emphasising

A quick and easy way to be active when reading is to highlight and/or underline parts of the text. Although the process of highlighting is not 'note-taking', it is oftentimes an of import first step. Many people as well recommend making brief notes in the margin. Of class, this is not a practiced thought if the book or journal does non belong to you! In such cases, brand notes on a photocopy or use sticky 'mail service it' notes or similar.

Highlighting key words or phrases in text will help y'all:

Focus your attention on what you lot are reading – and brand it easy to meet cardinal points when re-reading.
Think more carefully nearly the key concepts and ideas in the text, the bits that are worth highlighting.
Meet immediately whether you have already read pages or sections of text.

When yous come across words or phrases that you are not familiar with it may be useful to add them to a personal glossary of terms. Brand a glossary on a separate sheet (or document) of notes, then you can hands refer and update information technology equally necessary. Write descriptions of the terms in your own words to further encourage learning.

two. Making Written Notes

Although highlighting is a quick way of emphasising central points, it is no substitute for taking proper notes.

Call back your chief purpose in taking notes is to learn, and probably to gear up for some form of writing. When you commencement kickoff to have notes, you may find that you take as well many, or not enough, or that when you revisit them they are unclear, or yous do not know which is your stance and which is the stance of the author. You will need to work on these areas - like all life skills, taking effective notes improves with exercise.

There are two main elements that y'all demand to include in your notes:

The content of your reading, unremarkably through brief summaries or paraphrasing, plus a few well-chosen quotes (with page numbers); and
Your reaction to the content, which may include an emotional reaction and as well questions that you lot feel it raises.

It tin be helpful to separate these two physically to ensure that you include both (come across box).

Your notes may also have various forms and manner, for case:

Linear, or moving from one section to the side by side on the folio in a logical way, using headings and sub-headings;
Diagrammatic, using boxes and flowcharts to help you motility effectually the page; and
Patterns, such equally heed maps, which allow a large amount of information to be included in a single folio, but rely on you lot to remember the underlying information.

The style that yous use is very personal: some people prefer a more linear approach, and others similar the visual elements of heed-mapping or diagrams. It is worth trying a number of approaches to encounter which one(s) work best for you, and under which circumstances.

Height TIP! A Suggested Format for Notes

One useful way to make notes that encourages yous to include both content and reaction is to divide your folio into two.

Use the left-paw side to summarise and paraphrase the content. When you lot first start taking notes, information technology is worth including a reasonable level of detail (say, one judgement per paragraph), although as you get more than experienced yous volition go a better feel for when this is not necessary. You should also tape a few interesting quotes (in quotation marks, and with details of the page number).
Use the right-paw side to comment on your reaction, including whether you lot agree or disagree with the writer. Information technology is worth adding details of any personal memories that are 'jogged' by the content, equally this will aid you to remember it amend.

As you consummate each page of notes, bank check to make sure that both columns are reasonably full.

Remember to include the source of each bespeak, including the page and/or paragraph number, to make it easier to refer back if necessary.

When referring to a volume, record the author's name, the date of publication, the title of the book, the relevant page number, the name of the publisher and the place of publication.
When referring to a magazine or newspaper, tape the name of the author of the article, the date of publication, the name of the article, the proper name of the publication, the publication number and page number.
When referring to internet sources, tape (at least) the total URL or web address and the engagement you accessed the information.

See our folio: Academic Referencing for more detailed information on how to reference correctly.

As well as notes on the detailed content, it is likewise worth compiling a summary at the end of each section or chapter.

A summary is, by definition, precise. Its aim is to bring together the essential points and to simplify the principal argument or viewpoint of the writer. You should be able to utilize your summary in the futurity to refer to the points raised and use your own explanations and examples of how they may apply to your subject area surface area.

3. Reviewing and Revising Your Notes

Once you lot have gone through the text and made notes as you get, you will have a reasonable summary of the certificate, and your reactions to it.

However, as y'all read the whole document, other things may emerge. For case, as you reflect on your reading, you may find themes emerging, or yous may observe that your earlier reactions have softened or sharpened as you have gone through, particularly for books.

It is therefore helpful to review your notes a few days subsequently completing them. In particular, yous may want to:

Apply headings or different sheets (or documents) to dissever different themes and ideas;
Employ brightly coloured pens or flags to highlight important points in your notes. Y'all may detect it useful to have a elementary arrangement of color-coding, using different colours for particular themes or bug; and
Note where your opinions changed, and why.

4. Organising Your Notes

Depending on your circumstances, yous may find you accumulate a lot of notes.

Notes are of no employ to you if you cannot find them when you need to, and spending a lot of fourth dimension sifting through piles of papers is a waste product of time. It is therefore important to ensure that your notes are well-organised and you can find what you want when you lot demand it.

How you organise your notes will depend on whether they are 'physical', written on paper or 'digital', stored on a estimator, or a combination of the two. It will too depend on your personal preferences, but practiced options include binders and folders, whether real or digital. There are also a number of apps that can aid you to store and recover information effectively.

Finding Your Way

Ultimately, how yous write and organise your notes is up to y'all. It is a very personal choice, and y'all may also find that you have different preferences for reading for assignments, lectures and more general reading.

It is, still, important that you find a way of doing it that works for you, because notation-taking is one of the most effective ways of recording and retaining information.

Lawson Loore1983