Module: Reading academic literature

Critical reading				Reading with a purpose
Referencing basics	Learn to search	Assessing the quality and relevance of a source	What is scientific article?	Reading techniques	Taking notes

Taking notes is an effective way to digest and understand the academic literature. A good set of notes can be extremely useful for you to summarize information and place it in the context of a written assignment, and to revisit information at a later date. There are several techniques that can be helpful to use when taking notes. We describe a few of these below.

Note-taking techniques

Underlining: Underlining (or highlighting) important terms or sentences, while writing small comments in the margins of a document, is the simplest form of note-taking. It requires minimal effort, and should ideally be supplemented with other techniques.

Summary notes: These are short notes, written in your own words, that provide a brief summary of a text’s main message. Try to summarize a section of an article (e.g. a paragraph) in one sentence, and do so for each section as you progress with your reading. In the end, you will have taken brief notes summarizing the most important messages throughout the article, which you can easily refer to later.

Reflective notes: You can also use the margins to write down your reactions. For example, do you agree with what you have just read? Why, or why not? How relevant is the information to the topic or research question you are currently addressing? Writing reflective notes provides you with a stronger foundation from which you can begin to draft your written assignment.

Mind-map: This is a more complex form of note-taking with which you can structure, organize, and summarize various sources of information, as well as your own ideas. A mind-map can help you develop a better overview of a topic, from minor details to the bigger picture. The advantage of making a mind-map is that it is flexible and can be revised as you progress with your assignment. It can also be helpful to connect different ideas in your mind-map, or supplement it with drawings, if you are more of a visual learner.

Note-taking tips

The best notes are those that you have written in your own words, since this will make them easier for you to understand and use when you start writing. You should therefore avoid taking notes that are too similar to what you have read, as this will make it more difficult for you to digest the material and use it strategically in your assignment. Good notes are also closely linked to the theme of your assignment, such that they are immediately relevant. It can therefore be helpful to have a research question to begin with, before you start reading the literature. That way, you will have a goal in mind while reading.

Once you have made progress with your reading and note-taking, and have begun to formulate what you will write about, it can be useful to write an outline of your assignment. You can, for instance, write topic sentences for each section of your assignment, and place any relevant notes and references under each topic sentence. A good outline contains all the information you will need for your assignment, and will make the writing process a lot easier and more fluid.