How to Make Notes and Write

Generally, the steps in the process of making information into knowledge are:

1. Highlight a text, take notes on a lecture, video, or other source, or record ideas as they come to you;


2. Summarize and paraphrase (and only rarely quote) this information into a Source Note;


3. Engage with the idea and comment or elaborate on it in a Point Note.

the best way to discover and refine what we think is to write about it.

An important element of this is critical thinking. Try not to passively accept what you’re told or what you read. Ask questions, look for evidence that might corroborate or challenge claims, and compare what you’re reading or hearing with things you’ve heard before, things you’ve read, things you believe. And write your thoughts down, because, agai

writing about something you have read or researched should serve at least three purposes: to explore the material; to describe your reactions to it; and to communicate with your reader.

Writing notes is really pretty easy, once you get the hang of it. And it’s a way of proving to yourself (and eventually, to others) that you’ve understood the text. Our notes can also provide us some clues into what in a text actually interested us. Where a source’s ideas really excite us, notes will cluster. Even so, we should try to write a separ