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WRTG 105A & 105E Language as a Window into the Mind (Gegg-Harrison)

Taking Notes is Personal & Purposeful

Not everyone's notetaking strategies look the same, and one person can take notes differently in different situations:

Two young women sitting at a table in conversation. One says "When I take notes in CHEM lecture, I write down almost every word the instructor says." and the other responds "That’s wild, I write down a few key words and phrases during lecture to flesh out into an outline later". Below is a caption, "This first date is not going well"     A young person writing by hand while looking at her computer. She is thinking "I take notes differently in my lectures than when I’m secretary of this club. Am I taking notes wrong in class? Do I secretly not care?" The image is labeled "All nighter thought spiral"

Take a moment to reflect on each:

  • In lecture, one goal for my notetaking is...
  • To meet that goal, I...
  • When reading/doing research, one goal for notetaking is...
  • To meet that goal, I...
  • One thing I know that doesn't work for me when taking notes is...

Try BEAM for Note-taking

Remember: This is not meant to replace what works for you- rather, we want to provide a new strategy to try out that you may see again in some classes. 

 

More on Note-taking

Strategies When Taking Notes

Summarize

Read the article, put it aside and write a few sentences about what you remember.

Interrogate

Read the article and, any time an idea or question pops into your head, write it down near the quote that sparked the idea. See example below:

 

BEAM

Read the article and, as you read, classify each phrase or paragraph according to BEAM. Is it background information? Write B besides the phrase. See example below:

 

 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Justina Elmore, University of Rochester.  Adapted from Kristin M. Woodward & Kate Ganski's "What Could A Writer Do With This Source?" {{cc-by-4.0}}

Diagram of a Scholarly Journal Article

Scan & Skim First

 

​Ask Yourself

  • What terms and keywords are being used by the author?
  • Do I need to do further research to understand these concepts (e.g., look it up in DiscoverUR or Wikipedia)?
  • What is the paper's main topic?
  • What are the paper's subtopics or subsections?
  • Is the author successful in making their argument and/or is there further room for study?