Why Take Notes When Reading?
Reading for pleasure or as a way to relax, such as reading a novel, newspaper or magazine, is usually a ‘passive’ exercise. When you are studying, reading should be seen as an ‘active’ exercise.
In other words, you engage with your reading to maximise your learning.
One of the most effective ways of actively engaging with your reading is to make notes as you go along. However, how much you take in seems to depend on how you take notes. Research shows that students who took notes by hand, using pen and paper, tended to retain significantly more information than those who used computers. It was suggested that this was because those writing by hand tended to summarise the points more, whereas those with computers tended to type verbatim and therefore engage less with the content.
Paraphrasing and summarising what you read in your own words is far more effective in helping you to retain information.
This seems likely to apply whether you are using a computer or a pen and paper. By writing notes, in your own words, you will be forced to think about the ideas that are presented in the text and how you can explain them coherently. The process of note-taking will, therefore, help you retain, analyse and ultimately remember and learn what you have read.
What NOT To Do
It is important to understand that effective note-taking requires you to write notes on what you have read in your own words. Copying what others have said is not note-taking and is only appropriate when you want to directly quote an author. It can be tempting, especially if your reading material is online, to copy and paste straight into a document. If you do this, then you are unlikely to learn or reflect on what you have read, as copying is not engaging with the text.