Memory Empowerment : Book Reading and Note-Making Techniques

In this article we are going to discuss how making notes make your study easier and increase your grasping power. You will undergo some techniques of reading text books and making notes systematically.

Students, as a rule, do not realize that there is any skill involved in taking notes. Not until examination time arrives, they realize that there must be some system in note-making. A careful examination of note-making shows that there are rules or principles, which, when followed, have much to do with increasing ability in study.

Notes may be used in three ways: as material for directing each day’s study, for cramming, and for permanent, professional use. Thus a note-book may be a thing of far-reaching value. Recognition of this will help you in the preparation of your notes and will determine many times how they should be prepared.

In arranging an outline you will find it wise to adopt some device by which the parts will stand out prominently, and the progression of thought will be indicated with proper subordination of titles. The system here given may serve as a model:

1.
2.
(a)
(b)
(i)
(ii)

A method that has been found helpful is to use a double-page system of note-making, using the left-hand page for the bare outline, with largest divisions, and the right-hand page for the details. This device makes the note-book readily available for hasty review or for more extended study.

Your notes should represent a summary, in your own words, of the author’s discussion, not a duplication of it. Students sometimes acquire the habit of reading single sentences at a time, and then of writing them down, thinking that by making an exact copy of the book, they are playing safe. This is a pernicious practice; it spoils continuity of thought and application.

Furthermore, isolated sentences mean little, and fail grossly to represent the real thought of the author. A better way is to read through an entire paragraph or section, then close the book and reproduce in your own words what you have read. Next, take your summary and compare with the original text to see that you have really grasped the point. This procedure will be beneficial in several ways. It will encourage continuous concentration of attention to an entire argument; it will help you to preserve relative emphasis of parts; it will lead you to regard thought and not words. Lastly, material studied in this way is remembered longer than material read scrappily. In short, such a method of reading makes not only for good memory, but for good mental habits of all kinds.

Ask yourself, when beginning a printed discussion, what am I looking for? What is the author going to talk about? Often this will be indicated in topical headings. Keep it in the background of your mind while reading, and search for the answer. Then, when you have read the necessary portion, close the book and summarize, to see if the author furnished what you sought. In short, always read for a purpose. Formulate problems and seek their solutions. In this way will there be direction in your reading and your thought.

Every book you take up should be opened with some preliminary ceremony. This does not refer to the physical operation of opening a new book, but to the mental operation. In general, take the following steps:

1. Observe the title. See exactly what field the book attempts to cover.

2. Observe the author’s name. If you are to use his book frequently, discover his position in the field. Remember, you are going to accept him as authority, and you should know his status. You may be told this on the title-page, or you may have to consult Who’s Who, or the biographical dictionary.

3. Glance over the preface. Under some circumstances you should read it carefully. If you are going to refer to the book very often, make friends with the author; let him introduce himself to you; this he will do in the preface. Observe the date of publication, also, in order to get an idea as to the decency of the material.

4. Glance over the table of contents. If you are very familiar with the field, and the table of contents is outlined in detail, you might advantageously study it and dispense with reading the book. On the other hand, if you are going to consult the book only briefly, you might find it necessary to study the table of contents in order to see the relation of the part you read to the entire work.