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.
A quick and easy way to be active when reading is to highlight and/or underline parts of the text. Although the process of highlighting is not ‘note-taking’, it is often an important first step. Many people also recommend making brief notes in the margin. Of course, this is not a good idea if the book or journal does not belong to you! In such cases, make notes on a photocopy or use sticky ‘post it’ notes or similar.
Highlighting key words or phrases in text will help you:
Focus your attention on what you are reading – and make it easy to see key points when re-reading.
Think more carefully about the key concepts and ideas in the text, the bits that are worth highlighting.
See immediately whether you have already read pages or sections of text.
When you come across words or phrases that you are not familiar with it may be useful to add them to a personal glossary of terms. Make a glossary on a separate sheet (or document) of notes, so you can easily refer and update it as necessary. Write descriptions of the terms in your own words to further encourage learning.
Although highlighting is a quick way of emphasising key points, it is no substitute for taking proper notes.
Remember your main purpose in taking notes is to learn, and probably to prepare for some form of writing. When you first start to take notes, you may find that you take too many, or not enough, or that when you revisit them they are unclear, or you do not know which is your opinion and which is the opinion of the author. You will need to work on these areas - like all life skills, taking effective notes improves with practice.
There are two main elements that you need to include in your notes:
The content of your reading, usually through brief summaries or paraphrasing, plus a few well-chosen quotes (with page numbers); and
Your reaction to the content, which may include an emotional reaction and also questions that you feel it raises.
Your notes may also take various forms and style, for example:
Linear, or moving from one section to the next on the page in a logical way, using headings and sub-headings;
Diagrammatic, using boxes and flowcharts to help you move around the page; and
Patterns, such as mind maps, which allow a large amount of information to be included in a single page, but rely on you to remember the underlying information.
The style that you use is very personal: some people prefer a more linear approach, and others like the visual elements of mind-mapping or diagrams. It is worth trying a number of approaches to see which one(s) work best for you, and under which circumstances.