#this should be it
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how I take notes on non fiction books
I recently made a post on my study method, and decided to make a whole separate post on my note taking method. The structure of the notes I write doesn't vary too much from my lecture notes to things I might have to read. A couple of useful informations you might want to know before I start actually talking about note writing is that I am mainly focused on studying history (tho I have had other humanities exams in my degrees), and that I study for oral exams in which the material is mainly composed of non fiction books, but sometimes include articles as well as lecture notes. Somehow I have also failed to mention that I am speaking about HANDWRITTEN NOTES. I only do handwritten notes, I don't work well digitally, so keep that in mind. And with this being said brace yourselves for a very long post. The bullet points I will be making are not really in a specific order and I will be including a few pictures too.
The first step when I am working on the materials for an exam is to figure out in which order I will be reading (and writing notes) the books. This hasn't really much to do with the notes themselves, but it's important to know which of your materials is more general and what other things go more in depth, so that you don't struggle too much while studying. Another plan related thing I always do is to write down each chapter of the book I have to study on my bullet journal and how many pages it is so I can plan my studying more comfortably. If the chapters are very long, and divided in subchapters I sometimes also write those down.
The goal of the notes I write is to fully take the place of the book, so they tend to be very detailed and long. I do this because the very act of writing is part of my study method, and working on things I have written down in my own words is just much better for the type of learner I am. So basically I read the book only once, then it goes back on the shelf and I work exclusively on the notes. This means my notes need to be detailed and well organized.
My method is to read a chapter, underlining important stuff as I am reading, and then right after I am done reading I work on the notes for that chapter before moving onto the next. I do this because it makes the note writing more effortless, I am fresh with informations I just read and I basically just need to skim over what I have underlined.
On underlining, since it is so important. I underline everything I will be including in my notes, it might seem much as sometimes it consists of full paragraphs, instead of key words. But this is okay because my notes I don't just copy and paste.
To create useful notes you need to be re-elaborating the informations. You need to read, understand what you read, and be able to write it down using your own words. That way the notes will be easier to review, they will often be composed of shorter sentences, and by doing so you are also actively making writing part of your studying and not just a mindless activity.
Personally I don't work well with full pages summaries, I need the text to be visually broken into sentences/small paragraphs, and I use a lot of symbols as well as abbreviations.
Symbols and abbreviations are in a way part of your very own language when you are writing notes, you tend to develop these with time, but they are so useful. I personally use different types of arrows, all caps words, position of the text in the page, different methods of highlighting and abbreviations (usually for words that come up often like country names, for example Italy becomes ita, France becomes fr, etc.).
Your notes need to be useful for you, they don't have to necessarily be comprehensible for another person (which means you can and will fuck up sentence structure because sometimes skipping a couple of words makes the notes shorter and still understandable), and they do not have to be pretty. They should be as tidy as possible, but again that might change from person to person, I have some very messy looking notes that make total sense to me. With time you'll learn what works best for you.
I have a visual memory so as I mentioned titles, highlighters, all caps, the placement on the page and other similar things are very important in my notes. I cannot fully exapain some of these things because some definitely only make sense to me in the moment (like the words I choose to write in all caps, or the way I highlight things).
I like to have a clear chapter and subchapter break (so that in case I need to refer back to the book it's super effortless). I like to write those with a red pen, usually the chapter title is in all caps and the subchapter in coursive, but it really depends.
I use only two highlighters in each set of notes yellow for dates, and the colour I associate with the book/the subject of the book (I have synesthesia I don't make the rules when it comes to colours). This of course might change depending your preferences and on the element of your notes you want to focus on. I like to have spacific colour for dates and time periods, because of course while studying history that is a fundamental element. If you are focusing on other subjects you might want to have a specific colour for names, or other elements.
I like to leave a big side margin to add either key words (especially in lecture notes since they might be messier and jump around informations more often), or additional information in a second time (sometimes it happens, after you read another book, or attended a particular lecture you have to add a couple of sentences and I rather have a blank space that never gets used rather than no space at all for emergencies).
I honestly mentioned everything that came to mind right away, but since note writing is now basically a mindless skill I have been practicing for years I surely forgot about something. I might end up adding to this post in the future or write another one. My note-writing method has also changed a lot thought the years from high school to university, it's a skill I have been perfecting for the past decade. This to say that depending on what you are working on things might change, and by experimenting with different things you might find out things that work very well for you. If you have any questions on specific things I didn't mention or that wen't clear my inbox is always open and I am more than happy to help.
Since this post is already very very long I am adding the pictures below the cut
Example of a page of notes before and after highlighting
Example of symbols and structure of the notes and the way I highlight things (in which you'll hopefully be able to understand my handwriting, and in which there might be some spelling errors but alas that often happens in my real notes as well so if there are any it's for the sake of accuracy lmao). If I end up adding informations on the margins I always use a pen of a different color so I can tell which informations I got from what source (ex. main notes from lecture, colorful notes from additional article).
Example of messier notes in which the main text in black are the notes I took during lectures and the additional colorful text was added while writing the materials (I rarely do this, it usually happens when the lectures follow a book precisely, which happens when we have to study books or summaries written by the professor). As you can see I often use post it notes to add more writing space, and sometime I even use them to create visually separated sections. If I end up adding some drawings I also usually like to have them on post it notes so they stand out more (and if you are wondering why the hell would an history student need drawings it's usually either because I need a map or a region/state to mark things out, or when studying for archaeology exams I often needed visual references, for example to identify different types of vases or decorations).
#this should be it#i was hoping on a more structured post but it was harder than i expected to write#both because so much of note writing is now a brainless activity for me and also bc it's really not easy to exaplain certain aspects#like the symbols i use#i really did my best and hope it will be useful#then again if y'all have questions the inbox is open and i will try my best to answer whatever your heart desires#studyblr#studyinspo#studying#study tips#study advice#note taking#hadwritten notes#my note taking method#how to take notes#non fiction books#academia#uniblr#university#booklr#study method#mine#the---hermit
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gonna inflict my mommy issues on my classmates next monday lol
#journal#need to process. more. again.#my dad told her I said i鈥檓 not playing this game and she said 鈥渨hat game?#that鈥檚 just been#echoing in my head all day#I keep telling myself to stop having hope#to just completely give up on her because it鈥檒l save me so much heartache#but I just want to believe that the mom I鈥檝e always needed is in her somewhere#I guess I did that to survive#because if I didn鈥檛 have faith in either of my parents idk what I would鈥檝e done#but christ I remember the exact moment I realized that she isn鈥檛 who I thought she was. and that I wasn鈥檛 her priority#it was so utterly lonely because I just realized. she鈥檚 not on my side.#idk man#it hurt#it still hurts#and I don鈥檛 think i鈥檒l ever stop being mad that she failed me so completely#ugh#now i鈥檓 just processing this all again and i鈥檓 ngl im really fucking sick of it#but i鈥檓 not giving her another chance#this should be it#it should be over#I just keep thinking about how i鈥檒l likely never see my dog again#that鈥檚 what keeps hurting. that because i鈥檝e cut out my mom i鈥檝e also cut out so many things attached to her#the other day I just imagined existing amicably with her. and her saying my name in a way that doesn鈥檛 sound forced#her seeing me as me#her listening#and I just got so deeply sad mourning this idea that has never existed#it feels dumb#like why do I miss this thing I never had
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This is the best idea in the history of film.
#also Taika should direct it#Aubrey plaza#patti lupone#muppets#miss piggy#Pedro pascal#agatha all along#jennifer coolidge#threads#meta
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i made this exactly one year ago and i still think the idea for it is good
it can happen to you every moment PSA please dont rotate 2d creatures
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filtering down ao3 results from 14000 to 6 based on a single tag is foul. im sorry none of you are as enlightened as me ig.
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I understand that tall men are our POV characters, but surely being like a foot taller than everyone around them would have some occasional consequences
#youd think thisd happen at least a little bit#I love stuff in fantasy where they'll occasionally talk about how weird humans are. it comes up a few times in the story but honestly I do#love it a lot. especially that troll stuff I thought that was pretty cool#laios touden#falin touden#marcille donato#dungeon meshi#delicious in dungeon#chilchuck tims#arts#GODAMN IT I SPELT HIS NAME WRONG I KNEW I SHOULD HAVNT HAVE RUSHED THE DIALOUGE
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just saw a fanfic on ao3 have a dedication for chatgpt... that section is meant for your horny perverted mutual who proofread your work, you violated sacred law and you will be torn apart and laid bare btw
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The lake town
#woooooo I'm done 鈥硷笍鈥硷笍鈥硷笍鈥硷笍#this was really fun maybe i should draw more aerial view art#drawing to scale is a bit of a struggle still but I'll work on it 馃憤#I'm happy w how this came out :)#art
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#tax the rich#eat the rich#politics#us politics#government#massachusetts#the left#progressive#current events#news#billionaires should not exist#good news
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crazy how 4 hours of work will literally take up my entire 15+ hour day. who allowed this
#text#i have Things to Do tomorrow but i also have Work and it feels impossible to do both#even though mathematically i should be literally fine
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saw some debate over the english title translation of dungeon meshi and I am here to offer you this alternative
#dungeon meshi#delicious in dungeon#laios touden#or should I say... LAIOS FIERI#this is so dumb I stayed up to draw this
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in the hour or so it took me to draw this op turned reblogs off
EDIT: reblogs are STAYING OFF. op was right and correct and i have never regretted making a post as much as this one. if you want to reblog my art you can reblog something else from my blog. or commission me, lord knows i deserve financial compensation for the nightmare this post has put me through
#art#i had to block multiple people because of this post and i easily could have blocked more#do you guys have any idea how exhausting it is to hear 400 people make the exact same unfunny joke each thinking they're being original#or worry that another person might get harassed over a post i made because of the way people are talking about them#or be harassed/insulted YOURSELF because some people don't know how to fucking behave#you guys don't get reblogs back. you should be grateful i'm leaving the post up at all.
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a bottom-tier autistic experience is being told throughout your entire childhood that you are just an overthinker when it comes to social situations and later finding out that your friends did, in fact, hate being around you and tried to communicate that through weird little hints
#my worst fears have been realized#i should trust my instincts sometimes#autism#asd#autistic#autistic community#actually autistic#autistic adult#autistic things#neurodivergent#neurodiversity
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why yes I AM making boop gifs from screen recording
#they're transparent and i'll post them when I am finished.#I won't even tag them because everyone should have them#boop#text
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i feel like a lot of the 'i hate kids' crowd would be more tolerant if they understood that due to a kid's limited experience of the world that 4 hour flight might just be the longest they've ever had to sit still for or that trapped finger might literally be the most pain they've ever felt in their short life or they might not have ever seen a person with pink hair ever so of course they want to touch it or nobody's told them yet that they can't run around the museum and they only just learned cheetahs are the fastest animals so of course they want to put that to the test. how were they supposed to know etc etc.
#like majority of the time kids are not just 'being naughty'. they have big feelings inside little bodies it's a lot#also like.#it should be illegal to dye your hair fun colours if you aren't prepared for kids in public to ask if youre related to a my little pony#EDIT: the notes on this post are an absolute cesspool. i don't care about your reasons for hating kids you sound like a disney villain
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