Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

Introduction
In this section we will look at the importance of taking
notes and examine some strategies for effective note
taking.

Objectives
By the time you have completed this section you
should be able to:
• Articulate the reasons for taking good notes
• Employ different note taking strategies Man & sticky notes - Shutterstock

Why should I take notes?

Notes should be an active and creative part of the learning process. Note taking
strategies will help you to engage with the materials rather than merely recording
information.

Why should you take notes?

• They can summarise information
• They can clarify ideas
• They can help you remember (for some people the act of making notes helps
them remember, they do not always have to go back to the notes again)
• They can be a record of what you have learned
• They tell you where information comes from (very important)
• They can help keep you organised and focused
• They can help with exam revision and preparation for assessments

You do not make notes just for the sake of it - you make notes to help you study.
You do not make notes in order to put off doing assessments – you make notes in
order to help with assessments.
Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

How to take notes

There are many
different ways of
taking notes. Some
methods of note
taking are more suited
to particular learning
styles.
Vary your
technique
Different techniques
can be useful for
different situations.
For example, you
could use a mind map
to record the main
points of a ‘Taking notes’ by Jacob Bøtter from Flickr, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-
lecture; make NoDerivatives 2.0 Generic license.

pencil notes
in the margins of your course books to refer back to; make linear notes to plan
essays; and make chart notes to take notes from a library book.

You can find out more about these different techniques in the rest of this section.

Linear notes
How to take linear notes:
• Write the title topic or question at the top of the
page
• Divide your notes into headings representing
each topic or subtopic. Number each section
and subsection
• Leave a space between each section so that
you can add more notes later; when you are
revising, for example
• Leave a left-hand margin so you can put in
notes and key words for each section
• Use colour to separate different parts of your
notes e.g. write your own thoughts in one
colour, quotes in another and facts in a third
• Link up related points by drawing coloured
boxes round them, or link sentences with
coloured arrows or dotted lines
Linear notes example

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Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

Mind maps
Mind maps, also known as
pattern notes represent the
relations between ideas visually
in a map or diagram. The main
idea sits at the centre with other
ideas branching off like the
branches of a tree. Words and
images are used to label the
branches and subbranches.
Mind maps are useful for
remembering lots of pieces of
related information; because
your brain works by association,
if you connect the branches,
you will understand and
remember a lot better. This
method of note taking is often
preferred by students who have
a visual learning style (You can
find out your learning style in
the Understanding your learning
style section)

How to create a mind map:

• Use a blank sheet of
paper and draw a picture
in the centre of the page
that represents your
Mind map
main topic.
• Draw some thick, curved,
connecting lines coming away from the central image
• From each of these lines, draw other connecting lines, spreading out like the
branches of a tree
• Label each branch; use one key word per line - single words give your mind
more flexibility and are better at sparking off new ideas than phrases.
• Add colours and images to your branches - colour is exciting for the brain
• Represent connections between the different branches of your mind map
using arrows or dotted lines

Free mind mapping software

Free mind mapping software is available from xmind.

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Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

Nuclear notes
Nuclear notes are a hybrid of pattern and linear notes. Topics are listed in boxes
radiating out from a central theme. Colours and arrows can be used to highlight and
connect different ideas.

How to make nuclear notes:

As the picture opposite suggests, nuclear notes begin by dividing a central topic into
sub-topics; from there each point under a sub-topic is separated out by letters,
number, or shapes. As concepts and points in different sub-topics may be related, in
nuclear notes you use lines and arrows to connect ideas. Finally, consider using
colours - again to keep things distinct but also as a way of showing connections that
aren't immediately obvious.

A. Arrange all your sub topics around B. Use letters, numbers and bullet
a central heading points to record separate points
1. This divides your central topic into smaller, under each sub-topic
manageable categories
1. This can be useful for exam revision
2. Visually separating the categories can help
to aid memory

C. Use arrows to connect Nuclear

ideas
notes D. Colours can help to
1. Use solid arrows to branch make notes more
out from your central topic
memorable
2. Dotted arrows can be used
to connect sub-topics

Nuclear notes

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Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

Chart notes
Chart notes use a chart or table structure to organise notes into thematic columns.
Chart notes are useful in situations like lectures when you know in advance which
topics will be covered. Chart notes are also easy to review and make a good revision
tool.

How to make chart notes:

• Write your topic at the top of the page
• Divide your page into columns to represent each subtopic
• Write theme headings at the beginning of each row
• Fill in the boxes

Lecture on renewable energy

Solar Wind Hydro
Description Conversion of Use of wind turbines Production of
sunlight into or windmills to make electrical power
electricity, usually electrical power through the use of
using photovoltaic the gravitational
panels force of falling or
flowing water
Positives Cheap to install High efficiency Very high efficiency
Low running cost Low running cost Reliable
Negatives Low efficiency High installation High installation
Unreliable (because cost cost
of reliance on Unattractive High running cost
weather) Risk to wildlife Unattractive
Applications Domestic and Domestic and Commercial/
commercial/ commercial/ industrial only
industrial industrial

Practising taking notes

Activity: Practising taking notes
Choose one of the note-taking strategies outlined in this section and try it out on this
piece of text. Click below for sample answers.
“(…) (F)eminism is divided into three broad phases. First Wave
feminism, from about 1848 to 1918, focused on getting women
rights in public spheres, especially the vote, education and entry to
middle-class jobs such as medicine. The views of these feminists, at
least as they expressed them in public, were puritan about sex,
alcohol, dress and behaviour. The Second Wave, from 1918 to
1968, was concerned with social reform (such as free school meals
for poor children, and health care for poor women) and ‘revolution’ in

5
Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

the private sphere: the right to contraception, the end of the sexual
double standard and so on. Third Wave feminism from 1968 to the
present has been concerned with public issues again (equal pay, an
end to sex discrimination in employment, pensions, mortgages etc.)
and with making formerly private issues (such as rape and domestic
violence) matters of public concern and reform.” (Delamont 2003: 2)

Reveal 1: Sample linear notes

Reveal 2: Sample chart notes

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Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

Sample 3: Sample mind map

Sample 4: Nuclear notes

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Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

Taking good notes

Good notes feature at least 4 things (see if you can think of some other qualities of
good notes):

Organised
1. Organise notes under headings, numbers or keywords.
2. Colour code your notes by, for example, writing quotes in one colour, your
own thoughts in another and key words or phrases in a third.
3. Leave space in the margin to add more notes later, such as when you are
revising or preparing for an assignment.
Brief
1. Avoid copying long sentences.
2. Use abbreviations and write in phrases rather than full sentences.
3. Focus on writing down only key points.
Memorable and personal
1. Write things in your own words as this make it more likely that you’ll
remember and understand what you’ve written.
2. Link up related points by using arrows and lines, numbering them or putting
them in boxes.

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Essential Student Skills: Taking notes

3. Use colour and illustrations to bring your notes to life.

4. Find a note taking method that works for you, or adapt one, or make up your
own.
Used as the basis for further study
1. Revisit your notes as soon as you can so that you don’t forget things.
2. Take some time to reflect upon them, order them, identify any gaps in your
understanding and any questions or reading you need to follow up.
3. Enhance your notes by using colour-coding to link pieces of information,
highlighting or underlining key ideas and drawing round sections of your notes
to make them stand out.

Conclusion
This section has highlighted the importance of note taking and introduced you to the
main note taking strategies. Good note taking skills are a valuable asset; they can
make you a more effective student and save you time in the long run. It is worth
trying to develop these skills straight away. Even if you are supplied with handouts in
the early stages of your course, do take the time to write your own notes and you will
find that your knowledge and understanding develops more quickly.

References
Delamont, S. (2003) Feminist Sociology. London: SAGE Publication