chapter 10 taking effective notes. copyright © houghton mifflin company. all rights reserved.10 | 2...

Chapter 10

Taking Effective Notes

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 10 | 2

Successful note taking requires

• Preparation

• A system

• Quick, efficient information gathering

• Tying things together


Don’t just start taking notes.Get ready to take notes by

• Preparing for readings

• Preparing for lectures


How to be in theright reading mind set

• Get to know your textbook

• Look over the specific assignment


Getting acquainted withyour textbook and its authors

• Buy or acquire the book as early as possible

• Survey the book from cover to cover


Why you shouldsurvey each assignment

• Surveying creates a background

• Surveying limbers the mind

• Surveying overcomes inertia


Steps in surveyingan individual assignment

• Think about the title

• Read the introduction and summary

• Look over headings and subheadings

• Note any information set apart from the text

• Glance at the visuals


How to prepare foran upcoming lecture

• Look over the syllabus: You’ll get a big picture sense of where the lecture and the course is going.

• Review your notes from the previous lecture: The latest lecture often rests on the ideas of the previous one.

• Do the assigned reading: Readings can often provide advance organizers that make the lectures more meaningful and memorable


Taking notes systematically

• The Cornell System for lectures or separate textbook notes

• A system for marking your textbook directly


The Cornell System

• Trusted for almost fifty years

• Used throughout the U.S. and the world

• Based on a simple principle: wide margins


• The cue column is the 2 ½ left-hand margin.

• The summary area is the 2-inch row at the bottom.


Both areas should remain blankuntil after you’ve finished taking

notes

• The cue column will be home for clarifying questions

• The summary area will be used to distill a full page down to a sentence or two

• The largest area is where your note-taking occurs. And it is flexible enough to accommodate most note-taking formats


Some possiblenote-taking formats

• Sentences: Express important ideas in your own words, telegraphically.

• Paragraphs: Group related ideas into a block of text• Definitions: Follow the term/explanation format.• Lists: A heading or label followed by a group of items

beneath it• Drawings: Use illustrations or diagrams to more readily

convey relationships• Combination: Most notes will use a mixture of note-

taking formats


Marking your textbooks

• With textbook assignments, notes can be taken directly on the textbook page

• The textbook’s outside margin becomes the cue column. The bottom of the page, the summary area.


But what aboutthe note-taking area?

• You can’t really take notes in your textbook…

• But you can mark it


The advantagesof textbook marking

• You can mark important words, phrases, or sentences instead of writing them out.

• Your markings and your textbook travel together as a unit

• The source of your markings and jottings is right there in case you need clarification


The disadvantagesof textbook marking

• Overmarking can be difficult to undo and can make your markings less valuable.

• Any code or abbreviations you use may be difficult to decipher later.

• Textbook marking doesn’t require the same level of concentration as taking notes.


Using reciting to encourage active textbook marking

• Don’t just mark as you read

• Read a paragraph at a time

• Recite the main idea of the paragraph in your own words


Marking electronic texts

• Webpages: Change your Page Setup margins and print the pages out.

• PDF files: Set your paper size to B5(JIS) and print out on regular paper

• Presentation slides: Choose the software’s notation setting and print out or annotate the slides onscreen

• Word processor documents: Reset the margins and print out or place text in a table and then add a new column for your jottings


How to gather informationfor your notes or markings

• Be inquisitive

• Follow the signs

• Record efficiently

• Deal with exceptions and special cases


Being inquisitivemeans asking questions

• Ask questions to unlock meanings:Asking questions promotes concentration

• Ask questions silently and out loud in a lecture: Ask yourself; ask the instructor

• Ask questions as you read: Turn headings into questions.


Following the signsleads to comprehension

• Pay attention to intonation: Spoken or written, intonation provides clues.

• Recognize organizational patterns: Knowing the pattern makes things easier to follow


Intonation can have adramatic effect on meaning


Intonation in lectures

• Volume: Change in volume often signals important ideas.

• Pauses: Pauses serve to set certain ideas apart

• Cadence: A speaker’s cadence can tip you off to things like lists


Intonation in textbooks

• Boldface: Often signals a heading, subheading, or other important word or term

• Italics: Places emphasis on a word or phrase

• Underlining: Works like boldface or italics

• Bullets: Set off items in lists


Organizational patterns aid you in navigating through a lecture or reading

• Movement patterns

• Importance patterns

• Causal patterns

• Comparison patterns

• Logical patterns


How to recordyour notes efficiently

• Use the modified printing style: More legible than cursive, faster than printing

• Take notes telegraphically: Leave off unessential words

• Take notes selectively: Only jot down or mark the most important information.


How to deal with special cases

• When you can’t attend a lecture: Have a friend record it for you.

• When the lecture speaks too quickly: Use the two-page system

• When an assigned book is supplemental: Survey it efficiently


How to pull everything together

• Overview your reading assignment after you’ve finished it, rereading some of its key elements

• Pay extra close attention to the last few minutes of a lecture. And when you leave, take a moment to visualize the lecture and replay its main ideas.

chapter 10 taking effective notes. copyright © houghton mifflin company. all rights reserved.10 | 2...

Documents

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questionsthe summary

successful note

mixture of note

previous lecture

textbook pagethe textbooks

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notesthe cue column