Notes
How to Improve your Note Taking &
Note Making Skills
Aims of the Session
The following slides will help you to understand the
basics of successful note taking & making
At the end of the session you should be able to:
• Understand the difference between note taking and note
making
• Successfully take notes from an audio source
• Understand the concept of mind mapping
• Identify and highlight important parts of a piece of text
Before we start however, there
is no right or wrong way of
taking notes!
Try to keep your notes brief and
succinct
Don’t try and write everything
down. Just focus on the
important bits
Your notes should reflect the
main themes and areas you
have identified as important
You should leave out any bit of
information which is not useful
to your work
Some useful questions are
posed by Stella Cottrell (2003):
• Do you really need this
information? If so, which bits?
• Will you really use it? When,
and how?
• Have you noted similar
information already?
• What questions do you want
to answer with this
information?”
Cottrell S. (2003) The study skills
handbook. 2nd ed. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan
Note Taking and Note Making
Note TAKING and note MAKING
are two different things….
They refer to two different
processes in using notes for study
The next 2 slides will explain the
differences
Note TAKING
This process involves taking
notes from general speech
(lectures, videos, audio
tapes and dictation) and
writing them down as the
person speaks
The note taker has less
control of this process as
you are dependent on being
able to decipher, interpret
and write down what is said
This process is also done at
someone else’s pace – not
at your own!
Note MAKING
This involves reorganising
your thoughts and ideas and
putting them into your own
words
Note making is usually
something you do after the
event eg. after a lecture you
may rewrite the notes you
made in class
It also refers to when you
make notes from another
source eg. when you make
notes from a textbook or a
website
This process allows more
control for the student as
you can do it in your own
time
Reasons for Note Taking & Making
1.
To engage/interact with the material being studied
2.
To assist in writing essays and assignments
3.
To formulate ideas
4.
To remember and make sense of material
5.
For revision purposes
6.
For reviewing and reformulating ideas
7.
Enables you to avoid unintentional plagiarism
Note Styles
There are many
different styles of
note taking and
making that you can
use
It is entirely your personal
preference and you may
use a combination of
more than one type
Some types may suit visual
learners better, whilst some may
suit audio or kinaesthetic learners
So experiment until you find a
type of note taking/making that
works best for you!
We will look at 4 of the best
known types next….
Linear Notes
Taking notes in a linear or sequential fashion is probably the most common way
of laying out your notes. A wide left-hand margin is used so that you can add
material at a later date.
Advantages
• Conventional, as it is similar to other
writings such as essays and reports
• Organises material effectively
• Neat
• Chronological, as it should reflect
logically the argument and points
made in the order they were made
Mind Maps
This method can also be known as concept maps or brain patterns. It is a way of organising
your notes using images, colours, symbols, arrows and capital letters. It helps to convey
meaning by showing the relationship between concepts and highlighting important points.
Using mind maps can help you to think creatively and is especially good for visual learners.
Advantages
• Using images and colour can stimulate
the mind and aid memory
• Limited use of words leads to
conciseness
• New ideas and information can easily
be inserted
• It promotes the free flow of ideas by
being open-ended
• Revision is made easier as their
uniqueness aids recall
Four Quarter Method
This is where you divide your pages into quarters, each quarter representing a 15 minute
slot of an hour lecture. Psychologically and visually this is a satisfying method, since you are
always aware of just how far into the lesson you are. Furthermore, because space is limited,
it encourages you to use abbreviations and key words. Once the notes have been written
they will become a user-friendly and efficient tool for revision as all the information you
want is written on just one side of paper.
Advantages
1st Quarter 15 mins
2nd Quarter 15 mins
3rd Quarter 15 mins
4th Quarter 15 mins
• Encourages interactive note taking
•
Encourages you to be concise and brief
•
Psychologically encouraging as it helps
keep concentration throughout a lecture
The Two Column Method
This method is also known as the Cornell method. You divide the paper into two
columns:
1. The left hand column is smaller and is used to record the main points/keywords
2. The right hand column is larger and is used for taking notes and expanding on
your keywords.
Advantages
•
It can be used as a useful study aid.
Simply cover up the right hand column
and see if you can recall the information
using the keyword prompts
•
It is efficient and encourages you to
think about your subject in more detail
•
Creates effective study sheets
Using Highlighters
You can use highlighters to identify and highlight
key terms and phrases in a piece of text
This allows you to be an active learner. This is
much more effective than simply reading a piece
of text as you then have the danger you will glaze
over and miss the important parts!
Active learning will help you to remember and retain
the information much more successfully
Highlighting
This is what a
highlighted piece of text
COULD look like…
The Psychology of Memory
Memory underpins every thought we have and everything we have learned, from how we walk and
talk, through to recognising our favourite movie stars in a magazine.
Memory is at the heart of cognitive psychology; the branch of psychology that deals with mental
processes and their effects on human behaviour. Most of us take memory for granted until the point
when it fails and we forget something.
Psychologists talk about different kinds of memory: sensory memory, working memory and longterm memory.
Sensory memory is the direct pathway to the mind. It is the impression that new information makes
on the mind and lasts for only a fraction of a second before fading forever. Imagine if you
remembered absolutely everything that you saw or heard?
Every second, millions of stimuli bombard your senses. You would soon be overwhelmed with too
much information. Luckily, we only remember things that grab our attention and get processed in
working memory.
Even then, we are severely limited in terms of the amount of information we can work on and keep
in memory at one time. When we have to remember a new phone number without the help of pen
and paper, we are using our working memory.
When it comes to words, we can only keep fresh as many words as we can say in about two
seconds. People who speak very quickly tend to have a high working memory capacity because
they can pack more words into those two seconds than slow talkers.
Even information in working memory will fade unless it is transferred to the permanent store known
as long-term memory. But once it is there, we cannot always get it out. We have all had trouble
recalling someone’s name or the answer to an easy quiz question.
Psychologists have found that new memories can interfere with old ones, making us believe that
something happened when it never actually did. This finding is of great importance in criminal
prosecutions, when witnesses try to recall events of critical importance.
It also has implications for cases of recovered memories, where adults who previously thought they
had had a normal childhood begin to recall traumatic events such as sexual abuse.
Some Points to Remember
• Choose the type of note
making and taking that suits
you best:
–
–
–
–
Linear
Mind Maps
Four Quarter
Two Column
• Sometimes different types of
note making works better with
different topics
• Also remember when note
taking it is a passive activity –
therefore you cannot expect to
write absolutely everything
down!
• Note making is an active
activity so you have control
over the information you
record. This is your opportunity
to put your notes in a structure
that suits your own study style