Note taking
Definition
Note taking (or notetaking is the practice of writing pieces of information.
Note taking methods
The Cornell method
The "Cornell method" has been designed for classroom note taking and it includes post-processing.
According to the TNTT Wiki (retrieved, 17:17, 15 September 2006 (MEST))
The Cornell method is probably the most useful method for students at university. It was devised 40 years ago by Walter Pauk, a lecturer at Cornell University in the United States, for his students. This method is used by dividing the paper in two columns. The first column is used to enter key or cue words while the second is the notes column (for recording ideas and facts). There are six steps to Cornell note-taking:
- Record During the lecture, record as many facts and ideas as possible in the notes column.
- Reduce After the lecture, read through the notes taken and reduce to key words and phrases, or questions. The key words and phrases are used as cues to help recall the ideas and facts. The questions are to add clarity to the facts and ideas.
- Recite Using only the key words, phrases and questions in the cue word column recite the ideas and facts in the notes column. It is important that you are not just mechanically repeating, but using your own words.
- Reflect Based on the facts and ideas learnt, reflect upon how this fits in with what you already know, and how this knowledge can be applied.
- Review On a frequent basis, review your past notes by reciting and reflecting upon them.
- Recapitulate After you have reduced, recited and reflected upon your note, you should recapitulate each main idea using complete sentences at the bottom of the key word column.
Concept maps and mind maps
The idea is to map out concepts as they are found or received.
- Mind maps (i.e. hierarchiecal trees) can even be used to take lecture notes.
See concept maps
Charting
- On creates a tale with rows and columns
- This teachnique can be used to chart out concepts found in the literature in order to prepare a literature review.
- Put concepts on a row
- Each line represents an article and each cell can contain pointers and comments to a definition of concept
- Since normal paper is not wide enough, DSchneider thinks that one should use either a huge sheet of page (flip chart size) or use a wordprocessor or spreadsheet.
SQ3R
Links
Software
See also writing tools for an overview on different genres of writing tools.
- The Note Taking tool (TNTT): The Note Taking Tool (TNTT), which started life as a University project, has now grown up and become open source! TNTT is a note-taking application tailored for use by students in academic environments. It helps students maximise the potential of their note-taking by guiding them through the Cornell method.
- The Literary machine “is a dynamic archive and an idea management tool aimed at creative thinking - built especially with the writer in mind. It is packed with indexing and display techniques so general and potent that you will use it as an intelligence center.” (There is a freeware version)
- EverNote
- Text Block Writer “is a virtual index card program for writers. It can be used to organize research papers, articles, fiction, non-fiction, books and whatever related to writing. It is intended for people like me who use paper index cards to write all the notes and pieces of an essay, and then arrange the pieces and then use that to type them into the computer.”
General links
- Note taking skills - from lectures and readings, Department of Lifelong Learning: Study Skills Series, University of Exeter