WRITING GUIDE

The essential element in note taking is READING.

Your notes should only serve to remind you of what you have read or learnt.

Process: 

1.    SCAN the whole text. Take a quick look at the cover, Table of Contents chapter headings, Intro, etc; 

2.    SKIM - read parts of the text that your scanning has shown to be important; when reading a chapter, skim the introduction, the first and last sentence of each paragraph, and the conclusion; 

3.    SELECT – select which parts you think will be useful information by jotting down page numbers and/or using ‘Post it’ stickers to mark sections that are relevant to your questions.

4.    HIGHLIGHT AND ANNOTATE -  go back to the information you found that will be useful to your assessment task and

• Highlight relevant text
• Make side notes as you go (annotate)
• Record connections, themes, ideas as you are reading

5.    SUMMARISE - Make notes from highlights and annotations

• Dot points, not full sentences
• Your own words
• Diagrams
• Remember that you are doing this so you do not have to read over the text again – what you have written in your notes should be enough to jog your memory.

HINT: Keep a careful record of all your resources, with full citations.