How to Take Notes of Readings
This Resource Page will help you:
- Understand the benefits of notetaking when reading materials
- Learn four effective note-taking methods
- Maximize the usefulness of notes for classes and assignments.
Introduction
Absorbing the content of academic texts, like book chapters or journal articles, can be challenging. Taking notes while engaging in academic reading can help you navigate through dense material, making your reading more efficient and effective. This Resource Page illustrates four methods for taking notes on academic readings, along with a concrete example to show you how to apply each method in practice.
To learn more about reading strategies, check How to Read Academic Articles.
Why Should You Take Notes?
Below are some benefits of notetaking when engaging in academic materials:
- Improved comprehension: Notetaking helps in breaking down complex information, making it easier to understand and retain the material.
- Enhanced focus: Actively taking notes keeps you engaged with the reading material, reducing distractions and promoting better concentration.
- Better organization: Notes allow you to organize key points, arguments, and evidence in a structured manner, which is useful for study and review.
- Effective review: Well-organized notes provide a quick reference for future study sessions, making it easier to review and recall important information.
- Critical thinking: The process of summarizing and paraphrasing information in your own words encourages deeper analysis and critical thinking about the content.
Note-taking Strategies
In the following sections, we'll use an academic article as an example to demonstrate how you can organize text content using various note-taking methods.
Below is the example we will use:
Tatira, B. (2022). Remote Online Education in Undergraduate Mathematics: Students’ Perspectives. E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (EHASS), 15(1).
Method 1: Cornell Notes System
The Cornell Notes system divides your notes into 3 sections: Notes, Cue Column, and Summary.
- The Notes section is on the right side of the page, where you jot down important information about readings.
- The Cue Column is on the left side and is for keywords, questions, or concepts that relate to the notes.
- At the bottom of the page, the Summary section allows for a concise recap of the main ideas from the Notes section.
Example:
This sample shows a student’s notes of an academic article using the Cornell system.
You can find more information about the Cornell method and practice notetaking with it here:
Method 2: Outlining
The Outline method organizes information by using headings and indentations. In general, it looks as follows:
Heading: identify the important topic and organize the key ideas
Sub-heading: break down to subordinate ideas
Point: capture the key information using bullet points
Sub-point: capture more specific ideas related to Point above
Sub-point:
Example:
This sample shows a student’s notes of an academic article using the outline method.
Method 3: Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is a visual note-taking strategy that organizes information around a central concept, using branches to connect ideas and themes. To organize your map, you can use:
- Different colors
- Symbols
- Arrows/Connectors
Below is an example of using the mind mapping method to summarize the impact of technology on student mathematics learning based on the sample reading.
For users with accessibility needs: this sample shows a student’s notes of an academic article using the mindmap method.
Method 4: Charting
Charting is a visual tool to organize ideas within a table. It is particularly useful for comparing multiple concepts within a structure.
Below is an example of converting the impact of technology on students’ mathematics learning information into a chart based on the sample reading:
Impact of Technology on Students' Mathematics Learning Experiences
| Positive Impact | Negative Impact |
|---|---|
Enhanced Accessibility
Flexible Learning
Improved Assessment
Increased Engagement
| Technical Issues
Assessment Challenges
Learning Difficulties
Limited Resources
|
Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Notetaking Strategies
Advantages
Organized structure: The Cornell system provides a clear layout with sections for notes, cues, and summaries, making it easy to find and review key information..
Enhanced retention and review: The structure active engagement and helps reinforce learning through summaries and cue columns.
Clear hierarchical structure: It organizes information in a logical, hierarchical format, making it easy to see the relationships between main topics, subtopics, and details.
Efficient review: It simplifies the review process by breaking down complex information into manageable sections, aiding quick recall of key points.
Visual organization: It visualizes information in an easily understandable format, which is of great benefit for visual learners.
Systematic connection and relationships: It allows for systematic connections, relationships, and comparisons among information and ideas.
Clear comparison: Charts allow for easy comparison of different pieces of information, making it straightforward to see contrasts and similarities.
Efficient data presentation: Information is presented in a structured and concise format, which can enhance understanding and retention, especially for numerical or categorical data.
Disadvantages
Time-consuming: It requires extra time to set up the format and write summaries, which can be impractical during fast-paced lectures.
Initial learning curve: It may be challenging to adapt to initially, potentially reducing note-taking efficiency until familiar with the system.
Oversimplification: There is a risk of over-simplifying complex topics and it’s easy to omit connections between ideas.
Rigid structure: The method’s structured format may not be suitable for all types of content, particularly if the information is non-linear or less structured.
Complexity: Can become cluttered and difficult to read if too many details are added, reducing its effectiveness.
Time-consuming: Requires more time to create compared to linear notetaking methods, which may be impractical during fast-paced lectures or discussions.
Limited detail: Charts can oversimplify complex information, leaving out important details that may be necessary for a deeper understanding.
Requires prior knowledge: Creating effective charts often requires a good understanding of the content beforehand, which can be challenging if you are learning the material for the first time during a lecture or reading.
Our Tips
- Take notes based on the prompts or questions provided by instructors, as this ensures you focus on the most important and relevant information for your class or assignments.
- When taking notes, paraphrase the content instead of copying it. This enhances your understanding and retention of the material.
- Ask for help when you need it. For example, you can ask your classmates to share their notes to fill gaps in missed content; you can also consult peer mentors or learning strategists about enhancing notetaking strategies.