Note-Taking: Interacting with Text Effectively
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Estimated time to complete: 10-15 minutes Supported Objectives:
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ESL 118 requires you to read as you have never read before. You will be reading many pages of academic, scholarly writing, and you will be expected to evaluate what you have read, eventually writing papers that make arguments which are supported by your readings. Any notes should be taken with that ultimate goal in mind.
Below are examples of ways to take notes on sources you are reading. Look over the examples carefully. What are the benefits of each type? What are the disadvantages?
1. Underlining or highlighting
Nearly every reader does this, at least occasionally. Highlighting allows different colors to be used to highlight different viewpoints or different types of information.
| A doctor in the United Kingdom has come out with a bold and extraordinary statement regarding the problem of childhood obesity. Dr Matthew Capehorn said that parents who had obese children under the age of 12 should be charged with parental neglect, meaning that they could have their kids taken away from them. Dr Capehorn said that in a case where children were seriously under-nourished and had not been fed properly the police and local authorities were allowed to take away the children into care and the same should apply to children who are obese. Dr Capehorn will be rallying other doctors for support for his proposals at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual conference later in June. Dr Capehorn argues that a child who is clinically obese is at serious risk of health problems which are just as serious as for a child who is malnourished. He said that parents should be educated on how they need to feed their children and given advice about nutrition but if they fail to take this advice the social services should step in and protect the children from their own obesity. The doctor also argued that if parents were made aware that their children could be taken away into care unless they made a serious commitment to their health they might sit up and listen more to nutritionists and people giving dietary advice. |
2. Margin notes
Adding comments to the right and left of the text, and at the top and bottom of the page, helps you remember why you highlighted or underlined a passage or read the article. Margin notes can include comments on the relationship of the highlighted passage to the question posed in the assignment, references to other articles that discuss the same issue(s), and personal reactions to the author’s ideas or the reliability of the supporting evidence, just to mention a few examples.
3. Mind maps
For a certain type of learner, and for certain types of note-taking or assignments, a more visual style of note-taking may be more effective. Mind-mapping is one type of note-taking that sometimes works for these learners/assignments.
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Here is an image of a mind map on creativity: |
And here is an example of a student's in class note-taking: |
4. Double entry notes
Based on our experience with thousands of writing students, ESL 118 teachers feel strongly that the ability to take good double-entry notes is linked to overall success in ESL 118. To take double entry notes, you divide your paper in two, from top to bottom, leaving some space on the left to record page and paragraph numbers. In the left-hand column, you summarize and paraphrase (not copy) ideas from the reading that seem important in answering your research question. You do NOT need to write one note for each paragraph, or anything so systematic as that. Instead, you should evaluate the importance of the ideas and evidence in the article, in light of the question you are trying to answer in your paper. In the right-hand column, you make notes to yourself: reactions, connections to other readings, questions you have about the ideas or the evidence or the way the idea fits in with other things the author has said or other evidence you have seen.
| Left Side | Right Side |
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Research has shown this method to be one of the best ways of engaging a text. The paraphrasing of and reacting to the material deepen understanding and generate critical thinking. Good notes like these also mean one almost never needs to reexamine a source.
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From critical reading to note-taking: double-entry notes
In order to understand how to take effective notes that will be useful to you (and not a waste of time), it’s important to understand first what critical reading is and how notes can promote it. Talk through the tasks below with other students.
- Summarize what critical reading is and how to do it. (Re-) read this page if necessary: Critical Reading Skills
- Discuss the various methods there are for taking notes.
- Describe how you usually take notes. What method(s) have you used? What works best for you in which situations?
- Determine which note-taking method you think will best promote critical reading. Why?
Why are we making you take double-entry notes?
Double-entry notes promote critical reading because they …
- remind you that reading comprehension is created in a transaction between the text and the reader, by designating a place for each;
- allow you to make questions, connections, and reactions to the text explicit, giving you a voice in that transaction;
- help you avoid accidentally plagiarizing your sources by paraphrasing too closely and;
- create a place to review and to revise your reading of the text later.
How do you take double entry notes?
You can create a quick double-entry note-taking system on any sheet of paper either writing by hand or typing. First, record what you are reading across the top of the page. Include the author, title, journal or publisher, date of publication, and page numbers. The best way to do that, for our class, is to make it in APA format This may seem like an unnecessary step now, but it really helps later when you want to refer to a source when discussing the articles in class or when writing a paper.
Next, draw a line down the center of the page to create two columns (or use a table if using word processing software). The left column is for the text, and the right column is for you. So, in the left-hand column, take notes that try to capture what the author is saying. On this side of the page, you may have an outline, short summaries or paraphrases. Use paragraph numbers and/or page numbers to keep track of where the information comes from – this will save you time later. In your own column (right side), take notes that capture your thinking as you read. On this side of the page, you may have questions, reactions, connections with other reading or with course material, personal examples, even arguments. This is the side of the page that allows your voice to join the conversation.
Sometimes it is more effective to use another note-taking method (e.g. highlighting and margin notes) the first time you read the article and then create double-entry notes when reading a second time. It is difficult to read critically if you are struggling with vocabulary or concepts. By reading the article one time through before writing double-entry notes, you often gain enough understanding to make your double-entry notes more effective for what you will use them for – class discussions and writing a paper.
Adapted from an exercise by Kristin Dalby.
Double entry notes example