NOTE-TAKING TECHNIQUES

Writing a paper is a process. First and foremost you need to consider seriously your note-taking. Developing a method for your own note-taking is crucial for your life as a writer. Developing a method essentially provides structure from the start and a structure relieves you of the burden of carrying all your ideas and questions in your head.

Sönke Ahrens, who has thought a lot about how scholars take “smart notes”, identifies four basic principles for successful academic writing:

1 WRITING IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS

Both student and professor exist not to pass knowledge from one to the other, but to seek the truth. And the truth is a public matter, which means you need to communicate it. Your writing is a public claim to truth. This is exactly what is meant by PUBLISHING it. But writing is only the product of research (i.e. studying). Attending lectures, listening to podcasts, and above all reading are integral elements of research. But if you approach ALL research with the purpose of making your thoughts public by writing, you will change the way you approach research, especially reading. You will isolate the relevant ideas. You will seek to capture the main ideas of a document and work to make sure you can reproduce them in your own words. You will elaborate on meaning and make new associations with other texts you’ve read. By doing all of this, with a clear purpose, argues Ahrens, you will begin to work DELIBERATELY. “If you change your mind about the importance of writing, you will also change your mind about everything else.”

2 SIMPLICITY IS PARAMOUNT

If you end up working like many students and academic writers, most of whom simply annotate in texts, underline passages, and jot down  ideas haphazardly into notebooks, you will end up with lots of notes scattered across different places. Your writing, therefore, is beholden to your ability to remember where and when your notes were written. For your Honors History Project you want to develop a collection of ‘project notes’, i.e. those which are only relevant to one particular writing project. But just collecting a mass of unprocessed fleeting notes inevitably leads to chaos. Covering your desk with piles of notes undermines the structured process you are trying to achieve. Project-related notes, which could be anything from hastily written information to snippets of drafts and collections of ideas from documents, should be kept in a single folder. You should be able to clear your desk each night and set the project aside.

3 NOBODY STARTS FROM SCRATCH

Too often  young scholars are taught to ‘narrow your focus’ and ‘articulate a question’ that your research will address. Some will even be told to ‘come up with a thesis’ AND THEN do the research. But the research-writing process is not that linear. For example, in order to develop the questions in the first place, one must have already read quite a bit, and read on many different topics beyond the narrowly defined topic. “Every intellectual endeavor,” emphasizes Ahrens, “starts from an already existing preconception, which then can be transformed during further inquiries and can serve as a starting point for following endeavors.” (48)  What seems to be pragmatic advice, that you decide what to write about before you begin writing, is misleading. Before you have immersed yourself into the topic, which itself involves writing, you will not be in a position to decide on a plan about what you will write. We have to first read, and read with pen in hand, develop our ideas on paper, and talk through our developing ideas before we ever sit down and contemplate what the narrowed topic of our writing project will be.

4 LET THE WORK CARRY YOU FORWARD

If we consciously work from a structured method, once we get into a good work flow, the constantly refreshing dynamic of ‘reading→ writing → thinking→ talking → reading’ will generate its own energy. Such a positive workflow not only propels your writing project but helps us get better at thinking. It tends to prevent getting stuck, staves off procrastination, and generally keeps us more interested in our work. The work itself becomes rewarding because it has meaning. Like serious physical conditioning, if you make the process itself meaningful and satisfying, rather than trying to goad yourself forward with little tricks or rewards (‘I’ll play a video game after I complete 5 pages.’). Engaging the entire feedback loop, which you should have noticed demands thinking and talking after the reading and writing, will ultimately make you a much better researcher and writer.

Nothing motivates us better than the prospect of getting better at what we do. Engaging in this method of producing and seeking feedback is perhaps one of the most important factors for success (and happiness) in the long run. (53)

[find out more about Ahrens’ SMART NOTES here.]