A little bit about note taking... when you’re reading a book.
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Transcript of 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.
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?
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?
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
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.