A little bit about note taking

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A little bit about note taking

• . . . when youre reading a book

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Disclaimer

• Experience has taught me that you should really
  read a book at least TWICE if youre writing a
  paper on it.
• . . . having said that well move on.

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So, what are you supposed to do as you read?
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Your assignment

• Take notes as your read Haddons book to
  determine whether it works for you as a reader
  based on the criteria you created last week.

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Your active stance will make all the difference
in notes you generate.

• Be active
• Be proactive
• Be reactive

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Be active

• Take notes
• Dont read so that you forget that youre reading
  for a purpose
• Think about your goal as you read
• Give yourself time to reread critically

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Be proactive

• If you know you get to write something, take care
  of business as you read.
• Jot down page numbers
• Use post-it notes
• Mark the pages
• Think about your angle before you even begin
• What is your purpose for reading?
• How does your product change your purpose?

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Be reactive

• You are having a conversation with three
  audiences as you read this way
• Yourself what am I seeing in this passage? How
  does this change my impression? What rule does
  this break?
• Your reader what do I need to tell the reader
  in an attempt for them to understand my reaction
  to this book? What particular examples should I
  pull out so that they know what I mean?
• Your author why did he write like this? Is he
  trying to do something more complicated than I
  can see? Why would he say his book has merit?
  What comments would he have for me as someone who
  is trying to determine the books merit?

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Look at the difference

• Passive note taking
• PLOT
• Page 1 detail about Wellington dying
• Christopher is in neighbors yard

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• Active note taking
• Criterion 1 PLOT
• Page 1 Wellingtons death (right into action)
• --interesting (murder mystery) but very
  straightforward
• 1st person seems to add personality

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Do you have shorthand you use in notes you take
for other purposes?

• Examples
• _at_ for at
• for and
• ? for causes, yields, makes, or produces
• WHAT ELSE?

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Figure out what kinds of notes work well given
your task.

• Do they help you be active?
• Are you doing more than simply recording page
  numbers and events?
• Do they allow you to analyze and reflect?
• Are they helpful for this assignment?
• Will they allow you to go back and do close
  readings of a part of the text you pinpointed as
  exemplary?

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Cornell notes
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Episodic
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Hierarchical pyramid
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Idea cards

• Note cards (color coded) that youll eventually
  sort as you begin to write

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Inference
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Cluster
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Spreadsheet
Chars Dial. Plot ? ? ?
Example
Analysis
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Use notes that match your goals for a particular
assignment.

• Flow charts
• Question/answer/
• example
• Color coded thoughts
• Read pause react read notes
• Group notes
• Flash drafts after reading

• Other ideas?

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• Which notes will work best for you given your
  assignment as a reader and writer?

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What new ideas about note taking do you have
today?
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Remember that your notes matter.

• Go back and revisit the notes youve taken in an
  attempt to interact with them
• Dont just let them be

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What were going to do today is to try to be
active readers of notes youve taken so far.

• Well divide into groups of three
• The group members will think about ways to share,
  add on to, refute, agree with notes weve taken
• Then well see where we end up and create some
  class notes for ourselves

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Coming next week

• What to do with your notes once youve got them
  all
• BRACE YOURSELF
• FOR
• EXCITING PART II
• of
• Notetaking The Powerpoint

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Note Taking Part II

• With information from The Composing Processes of
  College Students Writing from Sources by Ithaca
  College Professor Mary Lynch Kennedy

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So what do you usually do now?
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What you do now will make all the difference in
your final product.

• According to Mary Lynch Kennedy, the differences
  in the post-reading/pre-writing strategies
  students employ are significant between fluent
  and not-fluent readers and writers.

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Whats the separator at this stage?

• Among other differences, the truly fluent were
  more active and assertive readers than the not so
  fluent ones.

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When do fluent readers use their notes?

• Fluent readers do much more source manipulation
  during the Post-reading / Pre-writing phase than
  at the writing phase.
• Not-so-fluent readers do little rereading of
  their notes and sources until the writing phase,
  and at that point they reread the sources chiefly
  to incorporate direct quotations into their
  essays.

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Three differences Kennedy noticed1 Starting
draft

• The subjects did not approach the "writing from
  sources" in the same way.
• The non-fluent student started to write
  continuous prose immediately after reading.

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2 Referring to Sources

• All subjects referred to the reading sources as
  they composed, but they consulted them at
  different points and in different ways during the
  process.

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3 Planning
Overall the truly fluent readers engaged in
more planning than the not-so-fluent readers,
especially during the post-reading / pre-writing
phase.
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The period between the reading and writing
should be a productive reading and writing
session.

• A fluent reader engages in two processes
  (reading sources and writing the essay), but
  between them in a period of post-reading /
• pre-writing she generated notes, reread parts of
  the sources, incorporated direct quotations into
  her notes, read her notes, and revised them.

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So, what can we learn from and do with all of
this information?

• Fluent, successful writers transfer thoughts into
  notes and then transfer their notes into writing.
• They interact with the discourse.
• They spend time digging into the sources theyre
  using to see how they can work to support points
  the writer is making or could make in their
  writing.
• In many ways
• they use THEMSELVES as a source.

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• Your pre-writing creations notes, links, text
  references, and more-- should become something
  you incorporate into your writing.
• Pre-writing? Writing

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So, well add a new step to your writing
process today!

• We will NOT write a first draft sentence by
  sentence.
• We will instead spend some time thinking about
  and planning our thoughts about our reading of
  this book.
• Well reread and mark up our notes.
• Well figure out what we think BEFORE we put
  others words with our words.
• Well incorporate source examples and quotations
  into our notes.