Do You Take Notes When You Read?

[Aje]

I'm not even focusing on just those currently enrolled in school, just individuals, in general, what are your reading techniques?

I find I don't retain much - rather, not as much as I'd prefer - after a first read. A friend suggested I should take notes while I read.

I wanted to inquire what, if any, techniques do y'all employ when reading.

 

[Mr Uncle Leroy]

Yeah, I heard some take notes, then review the notes, then re-read the book.

 

[Roaden Polynice]

When it comes to reading everyday news articles, there can be a lot so I open them up in tabs and for each I read the first 2 paragraphs and then the last 2 paragraphs then the first sentence of each paragraph just to get a grasp on whatever the issue is.

If something piqued my interest I'll read the entire article.

For articles that are really long, not so much news articles but longer stories and informative pieces I have a word document just entitled notes that I jot down the title of the article and some salient pieces and thoughts about it that I can go back to if need be.

Another thing that helps immensely in this world of information overload is Readability. It's an app for Chrome (firefox as well maybe) which stores every article that you want to read or have read in a nice list so you can refer back to it.

As for books, I'll re-read them twice if I feel like I missed things, or I'll read a chapter, let it settle then read it again. Sometimes I'll underline things.

 

[Bud Bundy]

no i might start now though

 

[Vandelay]

Intermittantly. Its something i want to do more of because i dont retain much from reading books.

 

[OsO]

absolutely.

if you take really good notes in the margins its much easier to re-read just the useful parts when you go back through it, which leads to a much more efficient absorption of the information, which is the ultimate aim for any good read.

edit: and use [ brackets ] to surround text you want to remember, instead of using a highlighter or underlining it... it will save you a TON of time

 

[Type Username Here]

Only for Academic purposes.

 

[same damn lo sweater]

yeah, to me reading isn't so much about 'retaining'. its a starting point for your own ideas.

 

[profound]

when i started buying books i used a highlighter. not anymore though.