Reading and Note-Taking: Tutorial

Experiential Education

Objectives

What you will learn:

Effective reading techniques and strategies to save time
The purpose and value of taking notes

Introduction

Reading is an activity that you will undertake throughout your life, whether that is through University content and task, or in the workplace. Alongside reading, we are often expected to take notes of what we are reading, or listening to, and transpose those notes into something else – such as an assessment task, work report or email.

Reading for a purpose is a skill, and so is purposeful note-taking. We are not often taught on how to undertake such a common activity, so here are a few strategies and techniques to get you started.

Broad versus Narrow Reading

To begin, when it comes to reading for learning and assessment tasks, there is broad reading and narrow reading.

Broad reading is reading for the purpose of general understanding of an issue.

Before you drill down into the specifics of the topic, it is useful to have an overarching understanding or view of it. Many people use sites like Wikipedia to provide this broad understanding, however, beware that the information on these sites is not necessarily scholarly or accurate.

The Internet is awash with information that can provide you with broad reading on topics, but be sure to question:
Who wrote it and for what purpose? When was it written? For whom was it written? And is it credible, reliable, and relevant?

Narrow reading involves delving deeper into a topic.

The broad reading may have raised some specific questions and curiosities, which the narrow reading will begin to answer. Narrow reading entails finding the answers to the questions raised, and drilling down into the topics.

As a basic example, before you rush out to buy a smartphone you might reading broadly to identify the brands and models that fall within your price range and desired capabilities. After establishing this, you would begin reading information more narrowly on each product to identify which one is the perfect fit.

There is a lot of reading that can be asked of you at University and in the workplace, and having strategies in place for managing the quantity of reading will be valuable. These strategies are listed below.

1. Find quality text

It can be overwhelming to locate information, not because it’s hard to find, but because there’s so much information out there. One skill that can help you save time, is developing your information literacy gives us the skills to locate, critically evaluate and effectively use information for the purpose we need (Association of College and Research Libraries 2020).

This process involves five steps:

What are suitable texts for University Assessment task?
Journals – especially if you want really up-to-date material and thoughts. Many journals are accessible online – check through the University library website Books – try the UTAS library – the public library – online books Websites (preferably .org, .gov, .edu)

Remember to access eBooks, journals, government sites, etc. through the UTAS library site when possible – you will have greater access to many sites that way. This includes the Bureau of Statistics. It also means that the university has checked matters of copyright (see below).

If you click on the University of Tasmania links below they will take you directly to a number of resources provided by the Library and specifically designed to assist students.

Library Resources - UTAS Library for Students

Library Resources - UTAS Library homepage

Librarian

Do not forget – if you need help with the UTAS library website – ask a librarian. If you click on the link below it will take you directly to the Library Contact Us site.

Library Contact Us

2. Reading with Purpose

Another strategy to help you read efficiently is to approach reading with a clear purpose. We read different texts differently, depending on why we are reading them, or what we hope to achieve – for example, a novel, or a letter from a solicitor, a television program, and so on.

When we approach reading with a clear understanding of what we are reading (e.g. journal article, news report), and why we are reading it then we are activating our brain to read purposefully and actively.

For example, if we have identified that we are reading a certain article to find out background on a topic, then we will be more focused, engaged, and selective in our reading of it, making our reading time more efficient.

Prior to reading the document, ask yourself:
Why am I reading the particular text? What answers do I hope to gain for my assessment task, or discipline knowledge, or ….? Is this text credible? reliable?

3. Skim and Scan

Now you have identified quality information and the purpose for reading it, how do you read it quickly and comprehensively?

The three strategies below will help (hover or tap on the tiles to view):

Preview

Get an overall sense of the document format, style and purpose. Does it meet your needs? Read the abstract, if there's one. Read the parts that jump out.

Skim

Now that you've identified it's worth more time, rapidly move (or skim) your eyes over the text to pick up main ideas or general overview. When you skim, you are paying attention to headings, bold words, bulleting and numbered lists.

Scan

Scanning is more selective in that you know what you are looking for, and are more selective about locating that specific item in the text. You are running your eye over the text for that specific 'answer'

Note-Taking

Note-taking is a skill and one that we are not necessarily taught. It is an important skill too because it helps consolidate your understanding of the material, helps move it into longer term memory, and is invaluable when it comes to writing up that assessment response and referencing.

Try the true/false quiz below:

How did you do? Here are some explanations for the answers above. The reason you need to include page numbers, author’s details, URL and the date you accessed the text is because you will need to note this in the reference list. Visit the referencing module for more on this. And while direct quotes should be used on a limited basis in academic writing, it is still acceptable to use.

A few last tips on note-taking whether those notes are for University or in the workplace:
Decide best strategy for taking notes, whether that written or digital Keep your notes short and legible (if written) Create a shorthand system, particularly for words you use often (like @ or w/ for ‘with’ Keep your notes well-formatted and organised Use tools such as highlighters and different colours to bring attention to key aspects Use visual or stylistic elements to capture main ideas (like an exclamation mark) Jot down questions prompted by note-taking

A few last tips on note-taking whether those notes are for University or in the workplace:

Decide best strategy for taking notes, whether that written or digital
Keep your notes short and legible (if written)
Create a shorthand system, particularly for words you use often (like @ or w/ for ‘with’
Keep your notes well-formatted and organised
Use tools such as highlighters and different colours to bring attention to key aspects
Use visual or stylistic elements to capture main ideas (like an exclamation mark)
Jot down questions prompted by note-taking

A Format for Note-Taking

There are many different formats you can use to take notes, such as the Cornell Method of Notetaking. The video below explains the system of taking notes this way:

How to Use Cornell Notes | 4:04 (Learning Strategies Center Cornell 2019)

The most important thing is finding the format that works best for you as a learner.

Here is an example of notes taken for a unit on leadership. You might like to use this format, or come up with your own.

LEADERSHIP		COLLINS
Collins, J 2006, Good to great and the social sectors: a monograph, Random, UK
Page/s	Notes and Quotes	Thoughts and/or Comments
13	'True leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to'.	Their italics
13	Says to 'get the right people on the bus'	Does this link up with idea of being in the right job for one's talents? See Morrison
23=24	'That strong organization then delivers better results, which attracts greater resources and commitment, which // builds a stronger organization, which enables even better results'.	American text so remember if direct-quoting that 'organization' has Z not S - don't let spellcheck change it to S

References

Association of College & Research Libraries 2020, Information Literacy Glossary, accessed on 24 March 2020, <http://www.ala.org/acrl/issues/infolit/overview/glossary>.