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HAVE YOU REALLY CREATED AN APPROPRIATE RANGE OF NOTES ?

• THE LECTURE

Formal lectures can have some value. They can be a practical way to enable a concise concentrated package presentation to a group as a whole. They can also show up certain key historical concerns such as analysis, comparison, explanation and so forth. They should be organised through a series of themes - each point being further ilustrated with relevant examples, exceptions, comparisons and evaluation about it. However, to write (or rather vainly try to write) down everything is rather counterproductive. Indeed you would be better employed using a tape recorder to achieve this exhaustive goal. You need some time to 'think' about the lecture material as it comes at you. 'Understanding' the themes of the lecture is the key.

Active and selective notemaking by you is a crucial element for achieving this understanding by you, a note making which avoids the dangers of passive slavishness to merely writing everything down in the dependency-generating 'dictated notes syndrome' style. Such active selective note making can generally take two forms: the visual and the written.

The visual form, are akin to mind maps, diagrametic representations of the emerging lecture often called spider-webs or curley-wurleys. Some people particularly like this sort of arrangement of material because they can also be visually more graphic and thus more memorableare. They are also generally particularly effective (through the stroke of a line) at showing links between one thing and another. However, a disadvantage of this form is that you do not know its shape in advance, with a topic initially put in one bit of the diagram then needing to be placed elsewhere. However this disadvantage can then become a greater advantage since diagrammatic mind-maps, by being more fiddly or fluid and often needing redoing, force you to engage more directly and actively in sorting out the causal and relationship links (lines) going to make up your emerging picture. Such concerns are very much at the heart of history

The written form is more traditional and familiar for many, but again needs to be 'selective'. To do this you should in effect follow 'thematic paragraphing' techniques, noting down the main themes as they emerge, with key examples of each theme noted alongside or underneath. On a practical note the main themes can be put in BOLD, BOXED, UNDERLINED, COLOUR HIGHLIGHTED, NUMBERED, etc. to make them stand out from the subordinate related details, which themselves can be INDENTED, NUMBERED/LETTERED to make them more distinct. Again you need to be selectively active as too many of these features can make your notes look fragmented, whilst too few can make it look over-dense and stodgy.

Whichever way you make notes, you should remember that they are there not to serve as an encyclopedia of straight narrative decriptive chronology, but rather to act as a conceptual or system or analytical trigger, for you to then be able to use its framework to slot factual descriptive chronological details encountered in your ongoing reading around in the subject.

You will encounter a 'variety' of teaching approaches in class encounters. Notice that this is not being called 'lecture encounter'. This is because the formal lecture (i.e. tutor verbal exposition in a straight uninterrupted block) and associated lecture note making, is but one method of educating/learning, forming only one strand of the various classroom activities.

• HANDOUTS (Explanatory/Source materials) (& see texts advice)
• ... inc. Comments & elaboration by tutor on such handouts

Handout material is often the result of lengthy deliberate tutor thought & effort, and are not mere bits of paper to be filed away and forgotten. These handouts can enable you to think & respond, rather than just mechanically writing something down ('brains v dictaphones'). Handout material should always though be actively used by you, i.e. READ and reinforced through being selectively ANNOTATED and/or UNDERLINED and/or FLUORESCENTLY HIGHLIGHTED, etc.

• DIAGRAMS
• ... inc. Comments & elaboration by tutor on such diagrams

• TELEVISION
• ... inc. Comments & elaboration by tutor on such programmes

Conclusion: All these tutor-inputs, should foster wide ranging, substantive thoughtful, informed note-making by YOU. This depends on YOUR active and selectively responding to any ongoing tutor comments, elaboration and explanations concerning these varied modes of tutor inputs. Be particularly alert to tutor comments on patterns, implications, causality, consequence, comparison, etc. These are usually the most importent issues at stake and should be reflected in your notes. Chronological descriptive straight details are not in themselves actually the most important issue at play. Encyclopaedias and textbooks will give you more than enough description, but assessment questions go further, as should your notes.

• OTHER STUDENTS - comments in class/seminar settings, to be noted for possible use

• READING

A most important and crucial activity for you as a student in Higher Education, taking up the highest proportion of your study time, e.g at least 75%. Lectures, and even the fuller range of class activities, still need YOUR 'reading around', directed and undirected, with further active selective notes generated from such reading, amidst your reflection.

• PREVIOUS NOTES - Synthesise/update/regularly review your notes - often overlooked

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