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Dr Clare Brown stated in a piece published in that “we tend to lose 40% of new information within the first 24 hours of reading or hearing it. If we take effective notes, however, we can retain and retrieve almost 100% of the information we receive”.

Note taking is an opportunity to capture and summarise key information you have come across in books, journals, as well as lectures and seminars. It’s really important to capture this information in a way that’s easy for you to understand, refer back to, and then use in an assessment, appropriately referenced.

Top tips for note taking

Here are some tips for note taking:

Be organised

Find a system that works effectively for you (this could be using online tools such as OneNote, or a physical notebook or binder) to collect all of your notes and keep them in one space. It’s great to use dividers or separate tabs/folders for different subjects or modules too. Consider adopting writing styles that incorporate symbols or abbreviations to write notes faster, or using visual styles such as mind maps. There’s no right or wrong way, so long as it works for you.  

Stay engaged

As you jot down notes from various sources, deepen your knowledge further to enhance your understanding even more. Ask your lecturer questions, look for similar information through other sources, and speak with your peers. In your teaching sessions, look out for any cues your lecturer might give – this could be verbal (eg emphasising a particular point) or visual (eg a video or image-based source). Add notes that reflect your reaction to coming across such information, for example, do you agree or disagree with it? What do you think of it?  

Consider how effective note taking might differ in your degree specialism

For example, what you should focus on for a science-based degree may differ to what notes you make in a humanities degree. Some will place a greater onus on results collected from experiments and formulae, whilst others will be based on ideas, themes and arguments presented in your teaching sessions or further reading.  

Identify questions

Identify the questions you need answers to before you read and take notes to ensure your notes are meaningful. If what you are reading doesn’t answer the questions you have, consider moving it to one side for now 

Don’t just copy and paste

Sometimes when we are in a rush, it can seem like the easiest thing to just copy and paste blocks of useful text we might come across into a document. However, if you don’t add the sources in correctly it can either make it difficult to find again or pose a risk to you referencing it correctly in your final piece of work. Make sure to capture your notes in a way that’s easy for you to review and understand at a later point, otherwise you could be accused of mosaic plagarism.

Always note the source

By keeping a record of the source of your notes, you’ll easily be able to find where you obtained the information from and can easily cite it in your writing. This helps to save time, particularly if you come to it at a later point, so you’re not trying to remember where you originally found the information.