Reading and making notes

The two key principles are [1] to be meticulous and accurate, and [2] to be active rather than passive.

The most effective note-taking is active not passive. Active learning helps you to make meaning from what you learn: passive learning is allowing yourself to be an empty vessel into which knowledge is poured with no way of organising or making meaning from it. You are less likely to remember things you learn passively, which means more checking your notes while you're writing assignments, and more repeated effort when you come to revise.

Passive note-taking includes:

• underlining words
• cutting and pasting from online documents
• trying to write everything you hear in a lecture
• copying slides from the screen
• copying lots of direct quotes rather than putting the ideas in your own words 
• writing notes on everything you read, because you're not sure what will turn out to be important 
• not evaluating or criticising the sources you use, but just accepting them as suitable evidence 

Active note-taking means:

• thinking about what you want to get out of your research before you start
• looking for answers to any questions you may have about the topic
• looking for connections within the topic you're studying, and to other topics on your course
• writing notes mostly in your own words - your own explanation of what something says or means
• recording direct quotes only when it's important to have the exact words that someone else has used (i.e. when how they say something is as significant as what they say) 

You'll know how good your notes are when you try to use them! Here are some suggestions to make your notes easier to read, easier to understand and easier to find when you need them.

• Make your notes brief and be selective
• Keep them well-spaced so you can see individual points and add more details later if necessary
• Show the relationships between the main points (link with a line along which you write how they relate to each other, for instance)
• Use your own words to summarise - imagine someone has asked you "so what did x say about this?" and write down your reply
• Illustrations, examples and diagrams can help to put ideas in a practical context 
• Make them memorable using: colour, pattern, highlighting and underlining
• Read through to make sure they're clear - will you still understand them when you come to revise?
• File with care! - use a logical system so you can find them when you need them, but keep it simple or you won't use it.

These two forms of note-taking are useful for different things.

Linear notes

Linear notes are what most people are used to doing. They are written down a page with headings and subheadings. They should have plenty of room for detail.

Here are some suggestions for making linear notes more useful.

• Use loads of HEADINGS for main ideas and concepts
• Use subheadings for points within those ideas
• Stick to one point per line
• Underline key words
• You can use numbering to keep yourself organised
• Use abbreviations - and don't worry about using full sentences
• Leave plenty of SPACE - for adding detail and for easy reading

Spidergrams

Spider diagrams are on one page and are good for showing structure and organising your ideas. They are sometimes called mindmaps, which indicates how they are good for making connections clear and visual.

Though some people don't like this style of note-taking, there are a number of advantages to using spidergrams:

• They keep your notes on one page - so you're less likely to ramble
• They show the main points at a glance
• They keep points grouped together - good for essay structure
• They clearly show where there are gaps which need more research

To make a spidergram:

• Use whole side of paper - A4 at least!
• Put the subject in the centre
• Use one branch per main point - radiating outwards
• Don't start by making your points too big - you will need more space than you think
• You can add how the points are connected on the joining spokes 
• Make it large enough - enough space to add detail
• Add smaller branches for detail & examples
• Summarise just enough to remind you of point - details and definitions can be added as footnotes
• Label with the source

Trying to listen, think, read from slides, and write notes at the same time is not just difficult - it's plain impossible! So cut down the amount of notes you take in lectures and do more listening:

What you do before and after lectures can be as important as what you do during them. If you can anticipate the main points, you will find the lecture easier to understand, and you will have a better idea of when something is worth taking a note of. So:

Before the lecture...

• Think about the title and outline description of the lecture and how this connects to the rest of the module
• Think about what you know about the topic already, and what you expect or hope to learn from the lecture
• If it's a completely new topic, try to get a basic idea of what it's about beforehand - review the slides uploaded on Blackboard; if not available yet, you could read an introductory paragraph from a textbook or encyclopaedia (is there anything relevant in your reading list?)

During the lecture...

• Listen for clues to the shape or structure of the lecture to help you to organise your notes, for instance: "Today we shall be looking at…" "I am going to discuss three main aspects…" "Now I want to move on to…" "I do want to emphasise…"  "To sum up…"
• Identify key words - for instance, notice when words or phrases are being repeated. Underline or circle in your notes any words that seem to be really significant. Are there particular words that seem to sum up the overall message? (For instance, 'oppression' or 'conflict' or 'solution'.)
• Be an active listener - not a sponge - try to connect what is being said to what you already know (this is where the preparation bit comes in handy!). Ask yourself, do I agree? How does it fit in with what I already knew? Am I surprised ? If not, why not? How did she get to that conclusion? Making a note of your questions and answers during the lecture can help you build understanding and identify next steps in your study of the subject.

After the lecture...

• Put some time aside soon after the lecture to sit somewhere quiet and consider what you have just learnt. Summarise and write what you think were the main points in a few sentences. Add anything you need or want to find out more about, and any questions it raised in your mind.
• Follow up anything that you think really important - research the answers yourself, discuss it with a friend, make a list of questions to raise if you have a seminar on the topic, ask your lecturer if you're really confused and can't find the answers elsewhere.
• Then file your notes away carefully so you can find them when you need them for assignments or revision.

Online journal articles, eBooks and documents often open as PDFs. You can annotate these directly on-screen, and save your annotated version.

Most current PDF readers will offer the option to highlight text and add comments as 'sticky notes' or directly on top of the PDF image.

For example, if you open a PDF document with the Microsoft Edge browser, you will see the following annotation options in the toolbar: Highlight, Draw, Erase (an annotation), and Add Text. Or, if you select any text with the cursor, the options to Highlight or Add comment will appear in a separate window.

Other software tools offering similar annotation options include Acrobat Reader, and more.

When you have opened the PDF in your browser, click on the 'Download' icon on the top right-hand side of the document, then 'Open with', making sure your PDF reader of choice is selected. When you have finished reading and annotating, choose 'Save as' from the File menu to save it to your home-drive or another location.

Evernote also offers the capacity to annotate PDFs, as well as providing other useful note-making and record-keeping functions.