Learning Techniques

OBJECTIVE:

Get to know how to take notes and how to plan out an essay

Elaborating Notes

1. The Purpose of Notes

The fundamental purpose of notes is to help the memory.  The points chosen to be included in the notes should be enough to permit the reconstruction of the rest of the material.  Taking notes is one of the most important parts of reorganizing material.  One purpose of taking notes is that it helps concentration and effort, more than reading alone.  Active methods of learning, reading out loud and writing alike, promote learning and maintain concentration, much more than passive methods like reading and thinking.

2. The Characteristics of Good Notes

The notes should be clear and concise.  Once finished, they are the principal outlet for information.  They should be notes that can be understood from the beginning.  The fundamental characteristics are:

·         Brief

·         Clear

·         Comprehensible to their writer

3.  Elaborating Notes on Books

Notes/summaries should not be written on a book until its important parts have been read using the IQ3R method.  If the ideas cannot be re-exposed clearly, then it has not been fully understood.  The notes should register conclusions, results, etc.  For each chapter, in this way, the outline could look something like this:

·         Chapter headings

·         Important points in the chapter

·         Illustrations and arguments to defend positions

·         Results and conclusions from the chapter

4. Conference Notes

Taking notes on conferences or lectures requires more skill than taking notes on books.  Using a book, you can always go back over a specific point.  You should go over your notes as soon as possible so you can still correct them while the conference or lecture is still fresh in your memory.

5. Correcting Notes

The sangría system is a visual depiction in which you can find the information.  A large heading as wide as the page presents a new section.  A heading in the margin presents a new topic.  Following sangrías present subdivisions of the topic.  It is sometimes convenient to number the different divisions.

6. Organizing the Notes

One of the best outlines is to file individual pages.  To get the most advantage out of using single pages, you should write on only one side of the page and start new topics on new pages.