A little bit about note taking

. . . when you’re reading a book

Disclaimer:

Experience has taught me that you should really read a book at least TWICE if you’re writing a paper on it.

. . . having said that we’ll move on.

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

Your assignment

Take notes as your read Haddon’s book to determine whether it “works” for you as a reader based on the criteria you created last week.

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

Be active Be proactive Be reactive

Be active Take notes

Don’t read so that you forget that you’re reading for a purpose

Think about your goal as you read

Give yourself time to reread critically

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?

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 book’s merit?

Look at the difference

Passive note taking:

PLOT:Page 1: detail about Wellington dying

Christopher is in neighbor’s yard

Active note taking

Criterion 1: PLOT Page 1: Wellington’s death (right into

action)--interesting (murder mystery) but very straightforward

1st person seems to add personality

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

Examples: @ for at & for and for causes, yields, makes, or

produces

WHAT ELSE?

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?

Cornell notes

Episodic

Hierarchical pyramid

Idea cards

Note cards (color coded) that you’ll eventually sort as you begin to write

Inference

Cluster

Spreadsheet

Chars Dial. Plot ? ? ?

Example

Analysis

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?

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

What new ideas about note taking do you have today?

Remember that your notes matter.

Go back and revisit the notes you’ve taken in an attempt to interact with them

Don’t just let them “be”

What we’re going to do today is to try to be active readers of notes you’ve taken so far.

We’ll divide into groups of three The group members will think about

ways to share, add on to, refute, agree with notes we’ve taken

Then we’ll see where we end up and create some class notes for ourselves

Coming next week: What to do with your notes once

you’ve got them all

BRACE YOURSELF FOR

EXCITING PART II of

Notetaking: The Powerpoint

Note Taking Part II

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

So what do you usually do now?

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.

What’s the separator at this stage?

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

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.

Three differences Kennedy noticed:#1: 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.

#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.

#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.

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.

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 they’re 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.

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

Pre-writing Writing

So, we’ll 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.

We’ll reread and mark up our notes. We’ll figure out what we think BEFORE we put

other’s words with our words. We’ll incorporate source examples and

quotations into our notes.