Note-taking

Lore & Background

Note-taking is the practice of recording information from diverse sources, allowing the writer to capture the essence of material and offload the burden of total recall. Notes are often taken from transient sources like oral discussions or lectures, where they may serve as the sole record of an event. Traditionally handwritten in notebooks, note-taking has expanded with digital tools such as software and websites. The appearance of notes varies widely, from informal, unstructured scribbles to beautifully organized volumes. Historically, the Ancient Greeks kept personal records called hypomnema. During the Renaissance and early modern period, students in schools and universities produced elaborate handwritten volumes that doubled as reference works. Pre-digital notebooks included commonplace books, accounting waste books, and marginalia. Philosopher John Locke devised a popular indexing system for commonplace books, inspiring numerous published templates across Europe and the Americas. The practice involves complex cognitive processes: filtering incoming sources, restructuring existing knowledge, and writing one’s own explanation, ultimately forming a knowledge representation and memory storage. Studies show handwritten notes often outperform typed ones on exams, likely due to deeper processing through selective rephrasing rather than verbatim transcription. Note-taking enhances learning by allowing selective reorganization of ideas, which can be reworded for easier understanding and later recall. Various systems exist, including linear methods that record information chronologically, and outlining, which uses hierarchical headings and bullets. Because average speech is 120–180 words per minute while handwriting averages only 12–18 words per minute, note takers must work quickly, focusing on the most important information first.

Reader's Guide

Note-taking is a central aspect of a complex human behavior related to information management involving a range of underlying mental processes and their interactions with other cognitive functions. The person taking notes must acquire and filter the incoming sources, organize and restructure existing knowledge structures, comprehend and write down their explanation of the information, and ultimately store and integrate the freshly processed material. Studies comparing the performance of students who took handwritten notes to students who typed their notes found that students who took handwritten notes performed better on examinations, hypothetically due to the deeper processing of learned material through selective rephrasing instead of word-for-word transcription. Note-taking is a good strategy to enhance learning and memory, as it allows the notetaker to be selective and reorganize ideas during a lecture. Many different formats are used to structure information, including linear methods like outlining and the sentence method, and non-linear methods like mapping, charting, and Cornell Notes. SQ3R is a method of taking notes from written material, though it might be better classified as a method of reading and gaining understanding.

Did You Know?

• Philosopher John Locke developed and published a popular indexing system that served as a model for commonplace books and inspired at least ten different published editions of templates in Europe and the Americas.
• Studies found that students who took handwritten notes performed better on examinations than those who typed their notes, hypothetically due to deeper processing through selective rephrasing.