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Chapter 10. Taking Effective Notes. Successful note taking requires. Preparation A system Quick, efficient information gathering Tying things together. Don’t just start taking notes. Get ready to take notes by. Preparing for readings Preparing for lectures. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Chapter 10
Taking Effective Notes
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Successful note taking requires
• Preparation
• A system
• Quick, efficient information gathering
• Tying things together
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Don’t just start taking notes.Get ready to take notes by
• Preparing for readings
• Preparing for lectures
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How to be in theright reading mind set
• Get to know your textbook
• Look over the specific assignment
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Getting acquainted withyour textbook and its authors
• Buy or acquire the book as early as possible
• Survey the book from cover to cover
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Why you shouldsurvey each assignment
• Surveying creates a background
• Surveying limbers the mind
• Surveying overcomes inertia
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Steps in surveyingan individual assignment
• Think about the title
• Read the introduction and summary
• Look over headings and subheadings
• Note any information set apart from the text
• Glance at the visuals
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How to prepare foran upcoming lecture
• Look over the syllabus: You’ll get a big picture sense of where the lecture and the course is going.
• Review your notes from the previous lecture: The latest lecture often rests on the ideas of the previous one.
• Do the assigned reading: Readings can often provide advance organizers that make the lectures more meaningful and memorable
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Taking notes systematically
• The Cornell System for lectures or separate textbook notes
• A system for marking your textbook directly
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The Cornell System
• Trusted for almost fifty years
• Used throughout the U.S. and the world
• Based on a simple principle: wide margins
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• The cue column is the 2 ½ left-hand margin.
• The summary area is the 2-inch row at the bottom.
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Both areas should remain blankuntil after you’ve finished taking
notes
• The cue column will be home for clarifying questions
• The summary area will be used to distill a full page down to a sentence or two
• The largest area is where your note-taking occurs. And it is flexible enough to accommodate most note-taking formats
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Some possiblenote-taking formats
• Sentences: Express important ideas in your own words, telegraphically.
• Paragraphs: Group related ideas into a block of text• Definitions: Follow the term/explanation format.• Lists: A heading or label followed by a group of items
beneath it• Drawings: Use illustrations or diagrams to more readily
convey relationships• Combination: Most notes will use a mixture of note-
taking formats
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Marking your textbooks
• With textbook assignments, notes can be taken directly on the textbook page
• The textbook’s outside margin becomes the cue column. The bottom of the page, the summary area.
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But what aboutthe note-taking area?
• You can’t really take notes in your textbook…
• But you can mark it
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The advantagesof textbook marking
• You can mark important words, phrases, or sentences instead of writing them out.
• Your markings and your textbook travel together as a unit
• The source of your markings and jottings is right there in case you need clarification
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The disadvantagesof textbook marking
• Overmarking can be difficult to undo and can make your markings less valuable.
• Any code or abbreviations you use may be difficult to decipher later.
• Textbook marking doesn’t require the same level of concentration as taking notes.
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Using reciting to encourage active textbook marking
• Don’t just mark as you read
• Read a paragraph at a time
• Recite the main idea of the paragraph in your own words
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Marking electronic texts
• Webpages: Change your Page Setup margins and print the pages out.
• PDF files: Set your paper size to B5(JIS) and print out on regular paper
• Presentation slides: Choose the software’s notation setting and print out or annotate the slides onscreen
• Word processor documents: Reset the margins and print out or place text in a table and then add a new column for your jottings
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How to gather informationfor your notes or markings
• Be inquisitive
• Follow the signs
• Record efficiently
• Deal with exceptions and special cases
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Being inquisitivemeans asking questions
• Ask questions to unlock meanings:Asking questions promotes concentration
• Ask questions silently and out loud in a lecture: Ask yourself; ask the instructor
• Ask questions as you read: Turn headings into questions.
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Following the signsleads to comprehension
• Pay attention to intonation: Spoken or written, intonation provides clues.
• Recognize organizational patterns: Knowing the pattern makes things easier to follow
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Intonation can have adramatic effect on meaning
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Intonation in lectures
• Volume: Change in volume often signals important ideas.
• Pauses: Pauses serve to set certain ideas apart
• Cadence: A speaker’s cadence can tip you off to things like lists
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Intonation in textbooks
• Boldface: Often signals a heading, subheading, or other important word or term
• Italics: Places emphasis on a word or phrase
• Underlining: Works like boldface or italics
• Bullets: Set off items in lists
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Organizational patterns aid you in navigating through a lecture or reading
• Movement patterns
• Importance patterns
• Causal patterns
• Comparison patterns
• Logical patterns
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How to recordyour notes efficiently
• Use the modified printing style: More legible than cursive, faster than printing
• Take notes telegraphically: Leave off unessential words
• Take notes selectively: Only jot down or mark the most important information.
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How to deal with special cases
• When you can’t attend a lecture: Have a friend record it for you.
• When the lecture speaks too quickly: Use the two-page system
• When an assigned book is supplemental: Survey it efficiently
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How to pull everything together
• Overview your reading assignment after you’ve finished it, rereading some of its key elements
• Pay extra close attention to the last few minutes of a lecture. And when you leave, take a moment to visualize the lecture and replay its main ideas.
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