How to Take Good Notes While Reading

Published on October 25, 2009 by ThomasWest3 in College Life
How to Take Good Notes While Reading

If you’re a high school or college student, a member of a reading group, or just someone who wants to get more out of what you read, try taking notes. Although it can take a while to get used to doing it consistently, you’ll find it is very rewarding and will make your reading experience much richer.

  1. With highlighter or pen in hand, underline or highlight anything that strikes your attention as significant or important.  This will help you to identify key concepts and moments when you go back through the text.
  2. Write in the margin if you find something that intrigues you or something you want to think more about later.  Notes can be anything from little question marks of checks, to phrases and even sentences (depending on how detailed you want to be.)  This will help you to absorb the information better, while also allowing you to interact with the text in a way not possible without notes.
  3. Mark your pages by either dog-earing the pages or, if you don’t like to mangle your books, use Post-It page markers.  While the smaller ones are useful for just marking pages that you want to return to later, full-sized notes enable you to write down more in-depth notes if something particularly interests you. 
  4. After each chapter (or smaller section, depending on how the book is broken up,) take some time to write down on a separate sheet of paper the important points that you noted either in the margins or on the notes.  Take this time to write down some questions you have about what you’re reading.  You can access these later, either in class or in reading club discussion.  (I recommend writing all of these in a spiral notebook, but you can also write them down on loose leaf paper.)
  5. Mark any places that you might want to reference for a possible paper (if you are required to do a paper on that particular book.)  If you wish, you can also take some notes on your little Post-Its.  You could, for example, briefly discuss any potential topics/ideas that you want to further develop in your future paper.
  6. When you have finished the book, compile your notes and write down any observations or questions that you did not write down during your earlier note-taking.  If you’ve taken notes on separate sheets of paper, compile them in a spiral notebook for easy access later.  Keep these handy when you start to partake in class discussion; you will be able to sustain your input by referencing the text.
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2 Comments

Jane Benitez, posted this comment on Oct 25th, 2009

I am a big note taker – therefore, I found your article very useful and thanks for sharing your views.

pattiann, posted this comment on Oct 26th, 2009

Thanks for a great article! It was also well written besides being informative!

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