Note-taking

• Are you trying to identify key ideas in a lecture?  
• Do you need to summarise key ideas from academic sources for an assignment? 
• Do you need to take notes during a group meeting for the project you’re working on together?

Decide what kind of note-taking approach might work best for your purpose.

• A hand-drawn or digital concept map could help visualise key ideas and make connections between them for your essay. 
• A document with headings, sub-headings and dot points could help you record and organise your notes during a lecture.
• A table or matrix helps you organise key points from various academic readings, making it easier to identify common themes and important differences for your assignment.
• A meeting agenda and minutes template can help you keep track of discussions and decisions at meetings with your classmates. 
• A voice recorder (there might be one on your phone or digital device) can be useful right after class to quickly summarise your reflections, key points you remember, and list any follow-up questions. 

Always note where you got your information, facts, and ideas. Use academic references and include page numbers for all direct quotes. 

Clearly mark which parts are: 

• Your own thoughts and questions
• Paraphrased ideas (putting others' ideas into your own words)
• Direct quotes (exact words from a source) 

Use visual cues to help differentiate these, like: 

• Your name or initials for your own ideas
• P for paraphrased content 

Refer to Referencing & citing for more information about quoting, paraphrasing, summarising and referencing. 

Decide what you really need to make notes about. You don’t need to write down everything you hear and read. Try to be as succinct as possible, capturing only the key points relevant to your purpose (think about step 1 again as the purpose will guide your note-taking).

Include your own critical evaluation of and questions about the lecture materials and academic readings. Note-taking is an active process that includes critical thinking and evaluation. Determine the main point or argument of the lecture, academic reading, or research. Think about why this information is important. Ask yourself questions like those below and add your thoughts to your notes. 

1. Do I agree with what I’m reading/hearing? Why/why not? 
2. How does this material contribute to my understanding of the topic/my ideas?  
3. What are the practical applications and implications of what I’m learning? 
4. Does this material challenge existing theories or practices?  
5. Is it similar or different to other sources I’ve read? (This will be very helpful for my assignments!) 

These notes will be important for assignments as well as deepening your understanding of the topic and sharpening your critical thinking skills. 

Cornell notes is a structured system of note-taking on a piece of paper or online document. As illustrated below, it involves dividing your page into 3 sections: 

1. Note-taking section: during the lecture or while you’re reading, this is where you write down key points, words, and details.
2. Recall section: After the lecture/reading, this is where you identify key questions, themes, definitions and connections that will help you organise what you’ve learnt.
3. Summary section: After the lecture/reading, in only a few sentences summarise the main point/s of the material. This will help you consolidate what you’ve learnt and is very useful when revising your notes for assignments and exams. 

This note-taking method may be familiar to you already. In a notebook or digital document, note down key information as you are reading it or hearing it. If you have a copy of the lecture slides in advance, you can use this to create headings and sub-headings in your notes document to help you organise your notes under key themes and concepts. 

A concept map is a visual tool that helps you organise and understand information by showing the relationships between different ideas. 

To build a concept map you summarise what you know about a topic on a single page in a visual diagram. Draw lines or arrows to connect the concepts to the main topic and to each other. You can note down simple sentences that explain how the concepts are related.