Why are you taking notes?

Before beginning, it’s essential to understand why you are taking notes. What will you use these notes for? What are you trying to get out of the source? And how do you best engage with notes?

Notes for reading can be anything from a few key terms you think are important, to a full evaluative write-up of whatever it is you’re taking notes on. A common mistake is trying to write down everything. While this can be tempting, it often results from uncertainty about what you want from the source. Having a clear idea of what these notes are for can help focus your notes on a specific topic or address a particular question.

How do you take notes?

You can handwrite them and store them in hard copy, use a handwritten to digital conversion tool, or use a tablet or computer. You can make prosaic written notes, following a page structure with sentences and bullet points, or visual notes, using diagrams or images which help distil the information. You may also wish to take audio recordings to come back to later. The format you decide to take notes in should enable you to retain information as you go and suit your reason for taking notes.

Rather than being comprehensive, your notes should record key points, questions, quotes, and sources to refer back to later. This is especially true if you are using audio equipment - make sure you note key points or times so that you don’t have to listen to the whole recording again. If your notes will help you prepare for an assessment, then using Post-it notes, flashcards, or different colours and fonts may help memory retention.

It is a good idea to distinguish between notes from your content/source and your ideas as you go. Using visual distinguishers like bold, underlines, or colours, can be helpful.

Some strategies to consider

However you take notes, a good tip is to include the full citation (e.g., bibliographic information of a book or article or the title and date of a talk) as a heading, under which you can write notes and useful quotes with page numbers. This is important to ensure you can later properly cite sources in assessments.

If you are using a digital document tool, then one method could be to set up folders for modules and assignments and have a separate document within them for all classes you attend or for everything you read for an assignment. This can be helpful for keeping help keep things tidy and contained but may make it harder to search for key points.

Another method is to use a single big document for a module or assignment with all relevant notes inside it separated by subheadings or page breaks. This method makes it easier to search for key terms.

Another key tip is to ensure your notetaking system is consistent. This will help you get into your flow when you take notes and will help you find information more quickly when you need it. If you transfer notes from a handwritten medium to digital, then you can use this as an opportunity to structure your notes.

You can also view your notes as a living document. Continually adding material and thoughts is a great way to remember information.

Some pitfalls to avoid

An important pitfall to avoid is writing down everything you read or hear. This will be time-consuming in the moment and will require more work later on to refine your notes into a useful format.

Another pitfall to avoid is forgetting to record the information about where quotes and notes have come from. This can lead to being unable to check things later on or using uncited material in assignments, which can result in accusations of plagiarism. Putting the citation of a book or talk at the top of the page and recording page numbers next to information is an important habit to get into.

Key points

• Make sure your note-taking suits how you work.

• Take notes strategically, so that your notes address a specific purpose.

• Ensure you have recorded page numbers or bibliographic information where needed.

• Consider how you will engage with your notes in the future and use this as a guide to start your practice well from the beginning.