Notes from Written Sources:

·         Be selective – only note down the things you need.

·         Skim read the text before you start note-taking.  This allows you to assess how much of it is relevant and where those bits are, cutting down the time it takes to note the useful info.

·         Whenever useful, it’s worth noting down your own thoughts along the way, perhaps indicating how a particular note will be useful later on, or a cross reference with other notes from other sources, or any original ideas that come to mind as a consequence of what you’ve read and which may be useful when you’re writing the essay (etc.).

·         Make sure you indicate what source the notes are taken from, including title, author, publisher, page numbers, etc ready for referencing, bibliographies and being able to find the source again quickly later.

·         Make sure any quotations you note down are similarly referenced for use later on.

·         If you are taking notes from online texts, it is often useful to have a Word (or similar) document open onto which you can copy and paste info.  Be careful, though.  The temptation is to copy and paste whole pages of information with the intention of coming back to it later to read it properly.  Evidence suggests that many students don’t do this.  It’s better to copy and paste very small, key sections from texts, adding explanatory notes of your own as you go so that it is absorbed in the first place and clear when you do come back to it later.  It also saves time, as you don’t end up having to go through swathes of apparently unrelated extracts trying to work out what’s relevant and what’s not.

Notes from Lessons:

• Listen for the main ideas, and make sure you’ve got those down

• DO NOT try to write things down verbatim.  You will fail!

• Avoid noting down a teacher’s digressions from the main point of the lesson (unless you think they’re useful).

• Develop your own set of symbols and abbreviations to make the physical act of noting info down less time consuming (see below for help on this).

• Develop a clear way of ordering your notes, which you consistently apply so that things make sense when you look at them later on (making sure you use clear headings and subheadings).

• Make sure you take notes on file paper and that you keep everything in a well organised folder.  This enables you to add things easily later.

• Ask questions if you’re unsure, but don’t keep asking the teacher to slow down or repeat things if it is only to allow you to note down his/her words verbatim.  You haven’t got time for that, and neither has the rest of your class.

• Avoid getting sidetracked into chats with your neighbour, as you’ll miss important points.

• Leave plenty of space on the page to allow for later additions (very handy if the teacher often comes back to something mentioned earlier in the lesson).

• Make sure you have prepared properly for the lesson.  If you were supposed to do some research or to read something beforehand, not doing so will mean that you will not be able to follow the lesson effectively, so your notes and your learning will be of greatly reduced value!

• Look through your notes later on that day, especially if the lesson was challenging.  It’ll help you understand and to make sure that your notes are clear enough to be useful later.