Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer
Home / What to Take Notes on While Reading

What to Take Notes on While Reading

Post a Comment

Do you ever copy down pages of notes while reading merely withal struggle to recollect what you read? Alternatively, do you read through texts without taking notes and while only half paying attending? Perhaps you lot highlight or underline your texts but feel like peradventure you're not getting the most from your reading. If y'all fall into i of these categories, chances are good that y'all're not getting the virtually out of your reading. This handout discusses the importance of taking good notes while reading and provides several different strategies and formats yous can try.

The importance of skillful notes

Taking good notes while reading is an important part of bookish success in college. Most courses require significant reading, and information technology tin can be difficult to empathise and master the material and do well in class without solid note taking and reading skills.

Good notes from your reading tin can help you:

  • organize your ideas and data from the text
  • keep focused and stay engaged while reading
  • proceed a record of what yous read so y'all can more easily locate it in the future
  • recollect critically nearly what you read while you read
  • draw conclusions and identify chief ideas of the text
  • be prepared for class and build a foundation for lecture
  • have solid materials to use to study for exams or ready for assignments

How to take good notes while reading

Good notes tin take different forms and may vary from person to person—or fifty-fifty from text to text. I of the fundamental ideas of good notation taking is that it is non necessary to copy down loads of data from the text. Copying down information does non engage your encephalon and is not a potent strategy for learning and remembering content. Information technology also takes a lot of time and energy. In contrast, but highlighting loads of information is simpler but does not practice much to actively engage the encephalon. Instead of copying down tons of notes or over-highlighting, endeavor some of the active and effective strategies and formats listed below. These will assistance you lot decrease the amount of time and energy y'all spend on notes and increment your comprehension and retentiveness from reading.

Unlike formats/strategies for notes

There is no 1 right way to take notes while reading. The important thing is that you experiment with a few effective strategies, discover some that work for yous, and use them. You may detect that unlike formats or strategies piece of work amend for dissimilar types of texts, also, and you may want to apply different ones for different classes. Below are some examples to try:

Try taking notes from memory

  • Students oft miss the opportunity to digest the information from their texts because they're too busy worrying nigh taking expert notes—instead of actually comprehending the content, they're thinking more nearly what they should write downwards.
  • Try reading short sections of your reading (likely a paragraph or two or up to a page) and pausing to think about what yous just read—then have notes from your memory of what you but read. This will help you focus on the primary points instead of getting caught upward in details.
  • If you are taking notes digitally or online, try creating a Word or Google Document for each article or textbook affiliate you take read. Write a summary of the key points from each reading without looking back at the text. And then fill up in the details by consulting the reading only later on you outset have recalled everything you tin.
  • It'south okay to not recall 100% of what yous just read; focus on the main points, and so refer back to the text to fill in details as needed.
  • This method may take slightly longer, but many students say it's worth information technology due to the increase in reading comprehension.
  • Check out our Taking Notes While Reading video for more than tips on how to make your notes more than efficient and effective.

    • Mark directly on the text

    • If you have a impress version that allows information technology, simply utilise a pen or pencil. For online texts, some digital programs also permit annotating, highlighting, and commenting.
    • Underline, circumvolve, or highlight key words and phrases—this can exist helpful for students who demand to practise something with their hands to help them stay focused.
    • Annotate margins with symbols, abbreviations, or summaries of the text in your own words. Meet our annotating handout for more than explanation.
    • If y'all have an online text, you can even so tape your thoughts, key words, and summaries in this way. Merely grab a plain sail of newspaper, characterization it with the text and chapter/page number, and jot them downwardly on the paper instead of in the book.

    Cornell style notes

    • Divide a slice of paper into iii sections—approximately two inches blank at the bottom, and the top portion divided into a one-third department on the left and a ii-tertiary section on the right.
    • Take notes on the right ii-thirds of the folio.
    • List central words or questions in the left column.
    • Summarize the entire page in the space at the bottom.
    • Learn more by readinga more detailed explanation of Cornell way notes, or try out of these MS Give-and-take templates.

    App-based notes (EverNote and OneNote)

    • EverNote is a pop notetaking app that can sync notes on all your devices. You can organize notes into individual "notebooks" relevant to different classes or topics. Its fans find it useful for general note-taking and class notes as well as for daily tasks and organization.
    • OneNote is an app that comes with Microsoft Office, which is free for UNC students! If you have non downloaded it yet, you can download OneNote here. Much like EverNote, OneNote allows you lot to sync your notes and access them on any device. You tin can comment notes, clip and save multimedia content, and tape audio notes.

    Create a graphic organizer or concept map

    • This method is expert for texts that have a lot of college level concepts that require explanations or texts that have remember-level facts, dates, terms, etc.
    • Organize information visually.
    • Differentiate main ideas from back up in an appropriate format: concept map, table, catamenia nautical chart, hierarchy, timeline, or Venn diagram.
    • Good for texts that accept a lot of visuals, timelines, etc. like scientific discipline or history.
    • Generate Your Own Q&A or Study Guide.
    • Formulate questions from headings and keywords before you begin. Then seek answers equally you read
    • Are you studying for test a that volition require a lot of visual identification? Consider creating your ain Pinterest lath to organize epitome-based notes.

    Helpful tips

    • Write notes in your own words instead of copying down information from the book.
    • Avoid over-highlighting. Highlighting doesn't practice much to actively appoint the brain, and so information technology'due south not the most useful strategy. As well, highlighting as well much can keep yous from focusing on the master ideas. For tips on highlighting more than thoughtfully, see the strategies on our highlighting handout.
    • Await until the terminate of a page to accept notes so that you can better focus on what yous are reading and so that y'all can effort to summarize in your own words rather than copy.
    • You don't need to write pages of notes—continue them brief and focused.
    • Preview the chapter before you kickoff reading by looking at the text features to gain clues about the master ideas of the chapter.
    • Focus on the master ideas and concepts.

    Other resources

    While taking expert notes when reading is important and volition go a long way, it's likewise helpful to use other UNC resources—not merely for notation taking and reading, but as well for any academic surface area. Bank check out some of these resource to provide supplemental back up:

    Academic Coaching: Make an appointment with an academic coach to talk one-on-i about notation-taking—and whatever other academic concern.
    Role Hours: Make an appointment with your professor or TA to talk near note-taking for his/her specific course/text.
    Related Learning Center handouts: Many of our handouts go into farther detail nigh reading. Cheque out some of these for additional strategies:

    • Annotating Texts
    • Increasing Reading Comprehension
    • Skimming
    • Reading Textbooks

    Works consulted

    "Concept Mapping." Cornell Academy. Retrieved from http://lsc.cornell.edu/concept-maps/.

    "The Cornell Annotation-taking System." Cornell University. Retrieved from http://lsc.cornell.edu/notes.html.

    "Effective Reading and Note Taking." MIT. Retrieved from http://uaap.mit.edu/tutoring-support/study-tips/tooling-and-studying/tooling-and-studying-constructive-reading-and-note-taking.

    "Reading a Textbook for Truthful Understanding." Cornell College. Retrieved from https://world wide web.cornellcollege.edu/academic-support-and-advising/study-tips/reading-textbooks.shtml

    "Reading Annotation Taking Strategies." UNSW Sydney. Retrieved from https://student.unsw.edu.au/notemaking-written-text

    Creative Commons License This piece of work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.
    You may reproduce it for non-commercial utilise if you use the entire handout and aspect the source: The Learning Center, Academy of Northward Carolina at Chapel Hill

    If y'all savor using our handouts, we appreciate contributions of acknowledgement.

    Make a Souvenir

    ashleysomed1941.blogspot.com

    Source: https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/taking-notes-while-reading/

    Post a Comment for "What to Take Notes on While Reading"