Making notes
The simplest model to follow is that of the basic inquiry questions: what? who? where? when? how? and why? You will soon get to know the hierarchy of significance - which events, developments, facts, etc. are important and those which are less so, or merely trivial, from your lectures and your reading. Your private study is mainly a matter of focusing on the significant problems, as defined in the lectures, and then to build up a set of notes which equip you to answer specific questions about those problems. Using the following rules will help you become an effective note-taker:
- Use a loose-leaf ring binder - so that you can insert extra pages as the
need arises. Write on one side of the page only - so you can add comments
or further details opposite.
- Make it a habit to begin your notes with the full bibliographical entry
for the book or article: author, title, city/publisher/year of publication;
or journal, volume (year), pages.
- Also make it a habit to jot down in the margin of your notes the page-number
of the passage you are taking notes from; it only takes a second, but will
save much time if you want to refer to the passage in a footnote.
- Do not copy verbatim, unless the sentence is exceptionally well put and
you can foresee using it as a direct (and footnote-acknowledged) quotation.
The essence of note-making is to summarise and précis in an orderly
way. This involves critical thinking - grasping the meaning of a paragraph,
and then stating it in your own words in a much briefer form.
- Be methodical about the "lay-out" of your notes; they must be clear enough
to be revised easily before the exam. Use headings and numbers, and leave
plenty of blank spaces, for ease of reading and insertion of new material.
But remember: such tabulation and sub-division is for notes only. Never tabulate
in a finished essay, because that is a piece of formal academic writing.
- Above all, think as you make notes: get your questions clear at the start,
and keep your notes strictly relevant to the task in hand.