Effective Note Taking

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International Debate Education Association

• Effective Note Taking

Derek Buescher, University of Puget Sound,
Tacoma, Washington, USA
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Agenda

• Why Take Notes
• How to Take Notesgeneral tips
• Example of a flow
• Exercisedeck of cards

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Why Take Notes

• Essential to debate since it allows you to know
  what arguments were made and how those arguments
  work together
• Organization is crucial to a good debate. Your
  best argument does you little good if the
  adjudicator is uncertain what you are refuting or
  responding to.
• Working together partners help catch something
  the other missed
• Having notes helps you remember what you need to
  argue and reduces possibility of forgetting to
  respond to an argument.
• Good notes serve as records to help prepare for
  future roundsthey provide material for practice.

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How to Take Notes, part 1

• Dont worry about writing down everything the
  other team says. Work for summaries of arguments
  (this will also help with your refutation to
  identify the claim made by your opponent).
• Make sure you get at least the basic structure
• If you missed something you think is important,
  ask.
• Leave room between points to avoid messy papers.
  Leaving room allows you to see where arguments
  fit together and line them up better.
• Make sure to flow yours and your partner's
  answers as well as the other team's.

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How to Take Notes, part 2

• Abbreviate, abbreviate, abbreviate. Then make
  sure you remember what your abbreviations were.
  It is wise to develop symbols that you and your
  partner can read.
• Use different colored pens to distinguish between
  your and your opponents arguments.
• Label any major points with stars or circles to
  make sure you don't miss them when you are
  speaking.
• Always write on only one side of the paper to
  avoid forgetting arguments on the back of the
  page.
• Always use clean paper to flow.

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Example
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Exercise

• Flow a deck of cards