Underlining and annotating the text
Once you’re ready to read a text fully, make sure that you annotate your text. This is perhaps the most important step in active reading, as it prevents you from ‘reading’ a page and realising that you haven’t absorbed a single word. Underline any important keywords, the thesis statement, or other important passages.
It’s hard to define what an “important passage” is – but there are some good criteria you can use. Ask yourself the following questions: If I were writing a report on this topic, what would I want to use as a quote? And, what information is new, surprising, and/or interesting? Or, is there anything contentious or missing?
You’ll also want to jot down any ideas, questions, or comments that you have as you read. Ideally you want to take notes in the margin of an item, but remember to save these marks for your own texts, not ones loaned to you by the library or a friend.
Here's an example of an article with marginal comments
Post-reading note-taking
After you've read a document, consider the following questions:
- Why did the author(s) write this?
- What was their thesis/argument/hypothesis and was it supported?
- What evidence was used?
- Are there any gaps in their logic?
- Do I have any remaining questions about the topic?
While you won't need to take notes on each of these things, it may be useful to jot down some quick reminders so that you know the topic/purpose/evidence when you return to the item.
Some notes on notes
Notes serve a very specific purpose - to help with recall. Studies have found that people remember their notes best when they're handwritten, not typed. There are also studies which show that highlighters are not helpful for note-taking. That said, if you have a clear system for highlighting (yellow = quote, pink = don't understand, blue = thesis/key arguments, etc), then this may be very helpful. However, the trend to highlight information all in one colour as you go through a document doesn't help you retain the information, nor does it help remind you why you highlighted it when you return to the item later.
These kinds of studies can be useful as they make you think about why you're taking notes and consider more carefully how to do so. It's a good idea to play around with a few styles, and figure out what works best for you. For instance, handwriting your notes may help you remember things better, but having a written outline of a text with useful quotes in a Word document or note-taking app may help you more when you go to write your assignment.
Or you may prefer the abilities typed notes can give you, including adding information later, restructuring your document, or searching your notes for a specific word or phrase. If you won't actually do any of those things, then it may be a better idea to write things out by hand.
Where to take digital notes
There are lots of note-taking programmes and apps out there. Two of the highest rated are Evernote and OneNote. Evernote is free to use for the basic services, although they have paid plans for their Premium and Business versions.
Through Office365, we all have access to OneNote which is an excellent tool for managing and organising your notes. Here's a guide to using OneNote Online, and here are some quick start guides for:
OneNote Quick Start Guide for Mac
OneNote Quick Start Guide on Windows (Windows)
OneNote Quick Start Guide for Smartphones (Mobile devices)