TIPS: Study Skills and Strategies
How to Set up a Notebook
Reading Notes
Set aside a portion of the notebook for your comments on the texts. This should include
questions for the professor, specialized vocabulary words and definitions, and relating
an idea in this text to something the professor mentioned in class or to another text
you have read.
For texts that will be used as sources for a paper, you first need to choose any quotes
that seem important to you (ex., Marx says that man needs to "look at his image in
a world he has created" and if he cannot relate to the work he produces, he loses
his "species-life" pp.10–11). Then you will want to stop after you have read the article,
the chapter, or the assignment for the next class, and write out 1–2 sentences that
sum up the author's thesis (ex., Marx suggests that labour cannot define a worker's
"essence" or identity. An identity must include nature and other people, but labour
severs this connection —pp 7–11).
A more visual way of keeping quotes and comments together is to use a t-chart. On the left side, write in the author's ideas, staying with quotes rather than paraphrase as much as you can. (This will help you write papers or essay exams later, because you will have the author's voice in mind). On the right side, write in what you believe this means; for ex.:
| "an animal is immediately one with his vital activity"(p. 10) |
because he and it are the same!!! unlike workers… |
Notes from a Discussion Class
Notes from a Lecture Class
Many professors who teach lecture classes have additional notes on the web; some professors
place entire lectures on Web CT. When this happens, your notes from class become a
series of questions or remarks to yourself (ex., "names of three microtubules that
form mitotic spindle?" or "will be on exam" or emphatic points: "replication of genomes
and segregation of genomes to daughter cells are at the heart of what we define as
life"). After class, you find the posted notes and copy them, adding in notes of your
own.
If the lecture is not placed on the web, then you need to prepare for class by reading
the texts as assigned and taking notes on the readings (as above). When you get to
class, sit up front, have a spare pen or pencil, and stay alert. Write down the main
points and fill in details later, right after class (ex., "the narrow band of wavelengths
visible to the human eye extends from the shorter waves of blue-violet to the longer
waves of red light" —text also p. 38). (You added in where this is in the text—because
that way, you know where there is more information, and you know that something that
is considered both in the text and the notes is likely to come up on tests and quizzes).