Chapter 10

1. Chapter 10 Taking Effective Notes

2. Successful note taking requires • Preparation • A system • Quick, efficient information gathering • Tying things together

3. Don’t just start taking notes.Get ready to take notes by • Preparing for readings • Preparing for lectures

4. How to be in theright reading mind set • Get to know your textbook • Look over the specific assignment

5. Getting acquainted withyour textbook and its authors • Buy or acquire the book as early as possible • Survey the book from cover to cover

6. Why you shouldsurvey each assignment • Surveying creates a background • Surveying limbers the mind • Surveying overcomes inertia

7. Steps in surveyingan individual assignment • Think about the title • Read the introduction and summary • Look over headings and subheadings • Note any information set apart from the text • Glance at the visuals

8. How to prepare foran upcoming lecture • Look over the syllabus: You’ll get a big picture sense of where the lecture and the course is going. • Review your notes from the previous lecture: The latest lecture often rests on the ideas of the previous one. • Do the assigned reading: Readings can often provide advance organizers that make the lectures more meaningful and memorable

9. Taking notes systematically • The Cornell System for lectures or separate textbook notes • A system for marking your textbook directly

10. The Cornell System • Trusted for almost fifty years • Used throughout the U.S. and the world • Based on a simple principle: wide margins

11. The cue column is the 2 ½ left-hand margin. • The summary area is the 2-inch row at the bottom.

12. Both areas should remain blankuntil after you’ve finished taking notes • The cue column will be home for clarifying questions • The summary area will be used to distill a full page down to a sentence or two • The largest area is where your note-taking occurs. And it is flexible enough to accommodate most note-taking formats

13. Some possiblenote-taking formats • Sentences: Express important ideas in your own words, telegraphically. • Paragraphs: Group related ideas into a block of text • Definitions: Follow the term/explanation format. • Lists: A heading or label followed by a group of items beneath it • Drawings: Use illustrations or diagrams to more readily convey relationships • Combination: Most notes will use a mixture of note-taking formats

14. Marking your textbooks • With textbook assignments, notes can be taken directly on the textbook page • The textbook’s outside margin becomes the cue column. The bottom of the page, the summary area.

15. But what aboutthe note-taking area? • You can’t really take notes in your textbook… • But you can mark it

16. The advantagesof textbook marking • You can mark important words, phrases, or sentences instead of writing them out. • Your markings and your textbook travel together as a unit • The source of your markings and jottings is right there in case you need clarification

17. The disadvantagesof textbook marking • Overmarking can be difficult to undo and can make your markings less valuable. • Any code or abbreviations you use may be difficult to decipher later. • Textbook marking doesn’t require the same level of concentration as taking notes.

18. Using reciting to encourage active textbook marking • Don’t just mark as you read • Read a paragraph at a time • Recite the main idea of the paragraph in your own words

19. Marking electronic texts • Webpages: Change your Page Setup margins and print the pages out. • PDF files: Set your paper size to B5(JIS) and print out on regular paper • Presentation slides: Choose the software’s notation setting and print out or annotate the slides onscreen • Word processor documents: Reset the margins and print out or place text in a table and then add a new column for your jottings

20. How to gather informationfor your notes or markings • Be inquisitive • Follow the signs • Record efficiently • Deal with exceptions and special cases

21. Being inquisitivemeans asking questions • Ask questions to unlock meanings:Asking questions promotes concentration • Ask questions silently and out loud in a lecture: Ask yourself; ask the instructor • Ask questions as you read: Turn headings into questions.

22. Following the signsleads to comprehension • Pay attention to intonation: Spoken or written, intonation provides clues. • Recognize organizational patterns: Knowing the pattern makes things easier to follow

23. Intonation can have adramatic effect on meaning

24. Intonation in lectures • Volume: Change in volume often signals important ideas. • Pauses: Pauses serve to set certain ideas apart • Cadence: A speaker’s cadence can tip you off to things like lists

25. Intonation in textbooks • Boldface: Often signals a heading, subheading, or other important word or term • Italics: Places emphasis on a word or phrase • Underlining: Works like boldface or italics • Bullets: Set off items in lists

26. Organizational patterns aid you in navigating through a lecture or reading • Movement patterns • Importance patterns • Causal patterns • Comparison patterns • Logical patterns

27. How to recordyour notes efficiently • Use the modified printing style: More legible than cursive, faster than printing • Take notes telegraphically: Leave off unessential words • Take notes selectively: Only jot down or mark the most important information.

28. How to deal with special cases • When you can’t attend a lecture: Have a friend record it for you. • When the lecture speaks too quickly: Use the two-page system • When an assigned book is supplemental: Survey it efficiently

29. How to pull everything together • Overview your reading assignment after you’ve finished it, rereading some of its key elements • Pay extra close attention to the last few minutes of a lecture. And when you leave, take a moment to visualize the lecture and replay its main ideas.