Do You Have a Useful Technique for Taking Notes?

Note taking

Do you have a useful technique for taking notes?

Good notes should have:

key points and minor points
source material for references–author, title, publisher, date of publication and page numbers
highlighting such as underlining and colour for main points
abbreviations to save time
line spaces to add more information later.

You could try one of these.

Organise your notes in some way to draw attention to important points. You could use colour, highlighting, size, font or indentation.

1Columns

To take notes using the Cornell system:

make two columns
write key words on the left, details on the right
use point form.

For example, the following is an extract from a passage on the Cultural Revolution. The key words are highlighted.

The Cultural Revolution

Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949. He began a program of industrialisation and reform known as ‘The Great Leap Forward’. It was a harsh program of economic reforms that was mismanaged. When extreme weather conditions created drought in some parts of the country and flood in others, there was wide-spread famine. About 20 million people were said to have died. ‘The Great Leap Forward’ was a bold scheme that failed to modernise the country in the way it was intended.

The Cultural Revolution (1966–76) was Mao’s attempt to change the nature of Chinese society.Thousands of intellectuals were killed or imprisoned if they refused to adopt Mao’s Communist ideas. The Red Guards presided over a period of oppression to deny and destroy the past. The anti-intellectual movement saw schools and universities closed and academics and writers tortured or sent to work at menial jobs in distant and remote areas.

People’s Republic of China 1949
The Great Leap Forward
Communist ideas / Mao Zedong 1949
Program of industrialisation, famine, failed
Red Guards, oppression, persecutions, denial of the past, schools and unis closed

Create tables to link ideas

Main heading
subpoints / Link to Belonging
subpoints / Reference in text
Examples

Example:

Main heading
subpoints / Link to Belonging
subpoints / Reference in text
Examples
The Cultural Revolution
Program of industrialisation (The Great Leap Forward) failed.
Mao started Cultural Rev (1966–76)
- Red Guards and oppression
-anti-intellectual
- schools and unis closed
- torture of academics &writers
- denial & destruction of the past
-After Mao, Deng Xiaoping + widespread corruption, led to student rev & widespread unrest / Politics and culture has family significance
- Leah’s family divided by death and culture
-Leah’s father died
- Joan searching (coin)
Ke’s Family divided too
-Ke’s father killed by Red Guards for his poetry
-Students demonstrate
-Also symbolises conflict of age versus youth
Young do not feel part of China, want to change it / China Coin p 42 Leah in cemetery thinks about family in the context of death. Chinese & Aust views of death
CC p 119
Ke talks about his father and the changes to China
CC p22
Democracy lives
CC p144
‘Why can’t the old men see?’

2Outlining

Topic sentence or main idea

1Major point giving information about the topic

Subpoint that describes the major topic

2Major point giving information about the topic

Subpoint that describes the major topic

Example:

Cultural Revolution

Politics and culture has a family significance

Mao Zedong (1966–76)

Anti-intellectual, oppression, torture, death of Ke’s father

Conflict of age versus youth

Youth want to belong toa democratic China

Student rebellions, confusion

Leah caught up in protests

Ke argues with Li-Nan

Older Chinese are critical of youth

3Shortcuts

Don’t use small words (is, as, was,were). Leave out pronouns (his, her, their).

Use symbols or shorthand and some abbreviations.

+ / and / → / leads to, produces, results in
x / times / ← / comes from, caused by
= / equals / ∴ / therefore
≠ / not equal to /  / finished/done
greater, more, larger (than) / w/ / with
less, smaller, fewer (than) / w/o / without
~ / about, approximately / w/in / within
+ve / positive / ↑ / increase
-ve / negative / ↓ / decrease
cf / compare / nb / note well
eg / for example / ie / that is
gen / generally / etc / etcetera
v / very / esp / especially
p / page / pp / pages
re / about/concerning / et al / and others

4Mindmapping

Look at these samples of mindmapping that might be useful for you to use.

Belonging: Note taking