Effective Notetaking

Abbreviations

Use abbreviations to speed up your notetaking. Don't write word for word - use abbreviations or invent your own system:

• You can use mathematical symbols, e.g.:
  

  & for 'and',  + for 'plus',  < for 'less than',   > for 'more than',   and = for 'equals'.

• Also use shortened forms, e.g.:
  

  'discn' for 'discussion',  or 'popn'  for 'population',   'expl ' for 'exponential', or 'v.' for 'very'.

• Make up your own acronyms, e.g.:
  

  'wrt' for 'with respect to', and 'IWB' for Interactive WhiteBoard'.

• Also use other symbols - e.g.:
  

   for 'resulted in',  for 'increased', and  for 'decreased',  for 'incorrect', and  for 'correct'.

Unless you are being given new key terminology, aim to capture the meaning of what has been said, rather than the precise words.

So instead of a whole sentence…

'In the 20th and 21st centuries, the introduction of new digital technologies in classrooms, such as 
interactive whiteboards, and social media such as Twitter, have gradually increased demands on teacher's skills, leading to more stress for teachers.'

20thC intron of new tech, e.g. IWB & Twitter,   teacher skills +  more stress.

Gradually incorporate more abbreviations into your work.  You can find more examples of standard note-taking shortcuts online (e.g. From University of Plymouth), as well as inventing and using your own.

Concept mapping

Alternatively, you can use concept mapping. Concept maps and mind maps allow you to look for links between key subjects and get away from structure, linear notetaking in the lecture:

When making a mind map, don't worry about perfecting the layout and presentation - focus on creating an area for each topic and using arrows or icons to indicate links:

Structured notetaking

Develop a notetaking template that allows you to extract key words, terms or subheadings and gives your notes structure, such as the Cornell method:

Steps for the Cornell Method:

First set out your paper, keeping a margin on the left hand side (this will become your 'Cue' Column for review purposes), and a summary area at the end.
  

Then follow the 5 stages:
Stage 1: Record
Take notes, including any important information and diagrams, and relevant questions or answers.
Stage 2: Reduce
Review your notes as soon as possible, using the Cue Column to condense your notes in the fewest words or questions possible, and then summarise the notes in a couple of bullet points.
Stage 3: Recite
Cover your notes, and use only the Cue Column, see if you can talk through the whole page.
Stage 4: Reflect
Reflect on how well you understand the topic, and how useful your notes and 'cues' are.  Consider whether you need to do further reading.
Stage 5: Review
You can quickly review the cue column and summary before your next lecture, or to prepare for an exam. Repetition improves your familiarity with the concepts.

Using a template or layout like this allows you to:

• Build structure into your lecture notes;
• Create a resource for revise for subsequent lectures;
• Add visual notetaking techniques icons, arrows, colour and highlighters, and piders to break up sections;
• Revise from the cue or key word column to test your memory and understanding at the end of the module 

Assistive technology

It's fine to use notetaking software or a digital recorder to record lectures, but please follow  Hallam's 'Guidelines for students on recording teaching'.
There are several benefits to recording lectures, because you can:

• Concentrate more fully in the lectures because you don't have to worry about missing crucial content.
• Listen again while walking or exercising to help you process and evaluate the content.
• Organise and develop your notes when listening again

• Import slides or other materials in advance, and make notes alongside them,
• Record the audio in chunks, with breaks where there is a pause, to make the audio more manageable,
• Colour code the audio chunks and sections as you listen (e.g. 'important' or 'don't understand'),
• Add in references in an additional box,
• Review and develop your notes after the lecture,
• Export the text into other documents.

Strategy 1: The 4 C's

If you're struggling to make sense of an article, focus on four key overview aspects of any journal publication:

• Context - What is the setting for the study?
• Concepts - What key theories does the article use in the methodology?
• Content - How would you summarise the content of the article?
• Conclusions - What key findings are in the results?

This strategy can help in making sense of the overall structure and key points from an article. For most conventional articles, context will be in the first 1/3 of the article, concepts and content in the middle 1/3, and conclusions and findings in the final 1/3.

Strategy 2: SQ3R

This 5-step process is useful for helping you to keep your brain focused and active whilst you read and can be useful in preparing for exams:

1. Survey
   • This first step helps with prioritising and sorting through reading to decide which articles or chapters will be most useful to read first.
   • Skim through the text, making a quick note of any sections or important keywords. Start with the abstract, introduction, findings and conclusion. If these look relevant, skim the rest. If not, stop and move on to your next text.
2. Question
   • Put the text to one side and write down three questions you want the text to answer. This will help focus your reading and filter out excess information.
   • Your questions might be very basic at this stage, or you might just have a topic or keyword in mind from a lecture or seminar that you need to investigate. You will get better at developing critical and analytical questions the more you use this strategy. 
3. Read
   • Read the text looking for answers to your questions. Highlight the text or make notes. Treat this as a hunt for information to help answer your questions or to find information on your key topics.
4. Recall
   • Put your notes to one side and try to recall the information you have read. Talk through the key points (ideally talk them through aloud, working with someone else) and summarise the text. 
5. Review
   • If you get stuck, look back at your notes make a note of anything you're not sure about. Re-read the text to check your understanding.  Any points you are still uncertain about can be good areas for further reading or to discuss in more detail in seminars or tutorials.

Strategy 3:  Analysis tables

Analysis tables are an effective way of taking systematic notes to allow you to identify trends in the literature and talk about multiple sources at once in your literature review.
Decide on 5-8 categories for taking notes - these can be based on the subheadings for your literature review, the structure of the article, or on ideas you have for evaluating and analysing the articles.
Try to find categories that will work across multiple articles so that you can start comparing your notes right away.

Two typical approaches are a) categories for evaluating experimental evidence from journal articles, and b) categories for analysing themes in journal articles from the social sciences:

For more examples, see Cottrell, S. (2011) Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument, Palgrave Macmillan.

Strategy 4:  Critical questions

Wallace and Wray presented five critical questions which are helpful for maintaining critical questioning whilst you are reading and writing.
Make a template with the following questions, and use these to frame your reading and note-taking:

• Why am I reading this?
• What are the authors trying to achieve in writing this?
• What are the authors claiming that is relevant to my work?
• How convincing are these claims, and why?
• In conclusion, what use can I make of this?

Source: Wallace, M. & Wray, A (2016) Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates. (3rd Ed) London: SAGE 

Assistive Technology for reading and notetaking

Read and Write Gold is software which has features to make online reading and notetaking easier.

• Change the colour of your screen: You can use the screen masking feature to change the colour of your screen, reducing eye-strain and making online reading easier. 
• Highlight and collect:  This tool allows you to highlight multiple sections of online articles and paste these into word documents as editable text:

 
You can watch a video about this highlighting feature.

 
Read and Write Gold is available on campus through Apps Anywhere on all university desktops.

You can also visit the Assistive Technology website to book onto a training session or for online tutorial videos.