Note making techniques

This exercise will explore the numerous approaches you can take to note making. You will learn the various options for note making in different contexts and explore the advantages and features of each approach.

Select a type of note making below to learn more.

Now that you have gone through all parts of the exercise, you can return to the main Library website by selecting the 'Back to Note making' button below.

Quick reference

The image below is an example of a set of quick reference notes. To proceed with the exercise and explore the features of these notes, select the 'Learn to make these notes' button below.

Learn to make these notes
Quick reference notes handwritten on a notepad.

Quick reference

This section will provide an outline of the features of quick reference notes.

The digital notebook below is currently blank. Select the 'Add note' button to begin building the digital notes and get an explanation of useful elements. You may need to scroll within the notebook to see everything.

As you are viewing this exercise on mobile, once you add notes, you will need to scroll down within the notebook to see the associated features.

Add note

These notes have been made about a journal article.

Add note

The notes summarise the broad points made in the article. These notes don't go into a lot of detail because they are intended to be used as a quick reference point during an exam or jumping off point for research.

Add note

The notes also include some further thoughts about the significance of the article, implications of the findings or questions generated by those findings.​

Add note

Each section is written in a different colour so that they are easy to identify.

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Notebook

Overview

  • Title: Fiction and non-fiction reading and comprehension in preferred books. In: Reading Psychology.
  • Author: Keith J. Topping
  • Year: 2014

Methodology

  • Large scale quiz based.
  • 150,220 children.
  • 967 schools.
  • Participants aged 5-18.
  • AR system.

Key findings

  • Boys pref non-fiction/Girls pref fiction.
  • Fiction = gender of main character v.imp.
  • Both B & G choose difficult texts if they are interested in topic (Boltz, 2010).
  • Boys inclined to select easier texts and skim read.
  • Gender of teacher may influence texts selected for class reading.
  • Women dominate primary teaching.
  • Does not support a govt approved list of books for children in school.
  • Non-fiction not read as thoroughly as fiction – why?

Significance/ implications/ questions

  • Why are boys less inclined to read fiction?
  • How does teacher gender impact on reading in school? Role models?
  • Are boys reading more fiction at older ages?
  • What about re-reading. Are girls or boys doing this? Are there benefits to re-reading?

Case study summary

The image below is an example of a set of case study summary notes. To proceed with the exercise and explore the features of these notes, select the 'Learn to make these notes' button below.

Learn to make these notes
Case study notes handwritten on a notepad.

Case study summary

This section will provide an outline of the features of case study summary notes.

These notes are a summary of a case study about a specific type of tourism in a Spanish region. ​The notes utilise certain features that make them effective in a case study summary.

Select each of the tab indicators below to highlight the corresponding features in the notebook.

As you are viewing this exercise on mobile, once you select each tab, you will need to scroll down within the notebook to see the associated features.

They contain key information about the case study, including facts and figures, which help to explain why this case study is useful or significant. 

The notes are annotated using different colours so that they are easier to understand at a glance during an exam or when writing an essay or report.

The notes also summarise problems and opportunities highlighted by the case study, which could be useful points to analyse and evaluate in an exam.  ​

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Notebook

Tourism and rural development

Case study : olive oil tourism in Andalucía

(Millan Vasquez de la Torre, Arjona Fuentes, and Amador Hidalgo, 2017)

Andalucía and olive oil

  • Andalucía: 59.98% of olive grove areas in Spain = region is rural and agricultural
  • 57% of all sales volume of olive oil in Spain (p.103)
  • Olive farming = main source of income in over 300 towns
  • Economy relies on good olive harvest; bad year = low income (p.105)

Olive oil tourism – what and why?

Currently very low amount of olive oil tourism in this region

What

  • Visits to mills and groves – key focus for economic development as income directly to farmers
  • Festivals and folk traditions
  • Food tours and cooking experiences
  • Visits to related industries (Soap, woodwork, cosmetics etc)

Why [no clear single reason for tourist visits; potential to attract wide audience]

  • History, tradition, heritage
  • Health benefits
  • Interest in cuisine – cultural exchange
  • Cosmetic use
  • Sustainability
  • Support local economy

Problems and opportunities

  • Lack of funding – can’t reform mills into visitor attractions less demand
  • Olive oil companies are small and have few workers can’t run tours etc
  • Mills not open to the public; tourists won’t travel far if can’t see much
  • Tourism demand is seasonal – most popular during harvest (busy work time)
  • Tourism currently local not international – could encourage more international visits (sustainability and culture are big international tourism draws)
  • More funding, more open mills, more advertising more tourism
  • More tourism more economic diversification more stability
  • Need to join with other olive producers and other industries (cheese, wine etc) to make tourism easier and more profitable

Essay

The image below is an example of a set of essay notes. To proceed with the exercise and explore the features of these notes, select the 'Learn to make these notes' button below.

Learn to make these notes
Essay notes handwritten on a notepad.

Essay

This section will provide an outline of the features of essay notes.

The digital notebook below is currently blank. Select the 'Add note' button to begin building the digital notes and get an explanation of useful elements. You may need to scroll within the notebook to see everything.

As you are viewing this exercise on mobile, once you add notes, you will need to scroll down within the notebook to see the associated features.

These notes summarise a key topic from a history book, which could be used as an example to illustrate a point being made in an essay-style exam answer.  ​

Add note

The notes include key facts about the people and events mentioned in the book. 

Add note

The main points are organised into themes, which could help with exam questions that focus on a specific aspect of the topic. 

Add note

The notes include colour-coded annotations which add other important ideas that might come up in an exam or for developing an argument. They also include page numbers to point out where the book contains more details about key events. 

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Notebook

The reign of the Reyes Católicos

Isabel 1 de Castile: Reign: 1474-1504 Fernando II de Aragón: Reign: 1479-1516
Married: 1469
(Barton, 2004) A History of Spain

Empire building

  • Peace with Portugal (Afonso V) 1479
    • Treaty of Alcaçovas: Isabel’s right to the throne of Castile; Portugal’s control of the Atlantic
  • Christopher Columbus – 4 voyages 1492-1504 West Indies and S. America
    • Pope decreed Spanish (Castile) authority over all lands discovered west of certain line (p.98)
  • Gained power through children’s marriages
    • Isabella & Prince Afonso of Portugal
    • Joanna & Philip the Handsome – Holy Roman Empire grandson Charles Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, Lord of Netherlands [Catholic links]
    • John & Margaret of Austria (Habsburg) [powerful dynasty, rulers of H.R.E]
    • María & Manuel I of Portgual
    • Catherine & Arthur then & Henry VIII of England
  • Conquest of Navarre 1512-24

Religious authorities

  • Inquisition 1478 – antisemitic and anti-Islamic persecution (p.100)
  • Expulsion of the Jews 1492 “convert or leave”
  • Reconquista – removing Muslim influence from Spain (p.94) [empire expansion]
    • Alhama 1481, Ronda 1485, Málaga 1487, Almería 1489, Granada 1491-2
      [all annexed to Castile]
    • 200,000 Muslims left to North Africa

Legacies

  • Unification of Castile and Aragón
  • Beginning of global empire & spread of Catholicism across world (and spread of antisemitism/ anti-Islam)
  • Judicial reform and overhaul of administrative system
    (pp.91-94)

Flowchart

This section will provide an outline of the features of flowchart notes.

The digital notebook below contains a flowchart that shows the decision-making process for applying a specific piece of legislation about company resolutions. ​Select the '+' markers to learn more.

Once you have explored all markers, select the 'View next steps' button following the notebook content.

Company resolutions (Ellis, 2010)

Flowchart showing various yes/no pathways leading to different citations within an article. See long description below for details.

The flowchart has annotations showing the key documents you should refer to in order to help you make a decision. ​

Close

The flowchart clearly sets out the key questions you should ask and the order you should ask them in.

Close
Image long description

Q1: Does a provision of the Companies Acts (p.33 for definition) specify a special resolution is required?

  • If yes, see Outcome 1.
  • If no, see Q2.

Q2: Does the company’s constitution make specific provisions for or have specific rules about resolutions?

  • If yes, see Q3.
  • If no, see Outcome 2.

Q3: Does the constitution require a majority more than 50%+1?

  • If yes, see Outcome 4.
  • If no, see Outcome 3.

Outcome 1: Special resolution (p.130).

Outcome 2: Ordinary resolution (p.129).

Outcome 3: Ordinary resolution (p.129).

Outcome 4: Requirements in company’s constitution apply.

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Mindmap

This section will provide an outline of the features of mindmap notes. The image below displays a mindmap with a hierarchy of ideas expanding from a central point.

Explore the mindmap and then scroll to see an outline of the key features used.

Mindmap showing a gradual expansion of ideas from a central subject point, in this case, Gentrification. See long description below for details.

As you're viewing this exercise on mobile, you may wish to download the image to zoom and view the details more easily. You can download the image by selecting the 'Download image' button below.

Download image
Image long description

Shifting Baseline Syndrome

School Education

Primary

Opportunities
Forest Schools
  • Bebbington (2005)
Curriculum
Teacher training
  • Leather and Quick (2010)

Secondary

A-Level
Opportunities for field work
Risk Assessments
  • Local sponsorship
    • Leather and Quick (2010)

General Public

Fauna recognition

Access to open space
economy = diverse spaces

Bio Diversity in urban spaces

GP knowledge
GP included in developer planning
  • Schwartz (2014)

University Education

Courses

Related careers

Biology UG

Natural history teaching
impact GP knowledge
  • Tewsksbury (2014)

Diverse Curriculum

GP knowledge
Leather and Quick (2010)

Wellbeing

Open space

GP knowledge
Dallimer (2012)
Urban wellbeing
mental health

These notes summarise the concept of Shifting Baseline Syndrome using a mindmap. They have some key features:

This mindmap has been created by collecting ideas from several sources to organise ideas and consider relationships between them. 

The mindmap starts with the central topic and breaks that down into sub-topics. 

By focussing on key ideas written down in your own words, and then looking for branches out and connections between the ideas, you are mapping knowledge in a manner which will help you understand and remember new information.

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Thematic table

The image below is an example of a set of thematic table notes. To proceed with the exercise and explore the features of these notes, select the 'Learn to make these notes' button below.

Learn to make these notes
Thematic table notes handwritten on a notepad.

Thematic table

This section will provide an outline of the features of thematic table notes. This thematic table contains several important references, grouped according to their main themes. The table can be used in the open book exam as a quick reference point for the key literature for each of the different themes.

Shifting Baseline Syndrome thematic reference notes

SBS - key texts Knowledge of the natural environment Consequences of SBS Restoration of the natural environment
  • Soba and Gaston (2018)
  • Paully (1995)
  • Bonebrake et al. (2010)
  • Kahn (2002)
  • Lotze and Worm (2009)
  • Corlotte et al. (2013)
  • Bebbington (2005)
  • Leather and Quicke (2010)
  • Pilgrim et al. (2008)
  • Tewksbury et al. (2014)
  • Dallimer et al. (2012)
  • Shwartz et al. (2014)
  • Lozano- Montes et al. (2008)
  • Kahn (2002)
  • Ostergren et al. (2008)
  • Bonebrake et al. (2010)
  • Lotze and Worm (2009)
  • Gatti et al. (2015)
  • Christensen et al. (2014)
  • Matsuzaki and Kadoya (2015)
  • Sutherland and Wordley (2017)
  • Toomey et al. (2017)

Knowledge of the natural environment

The following table accompanies the thematic table (above). It contains a short summary of each of the main texts identified in the thematic reference table (column 2: Knowledge of the natural environment).

The colour coding identifies distinct themes in each text and could help identify where there are similarities in approach or argument.​ The table shows a thematic analysis of six sources which identify the common themes you could also use this method to identify disagreements and debates within the literature.

Utilise the key below to select or deselect different themes to see how these are grouped in the table. For keyboard navigation, use the spacebar to select/ deselect the checkboxes.

Key

Bebbington (2005)
  • Primary school level children have little opportunity to develop knowledge of the natural environment
  • Declining opportunities for A-level fieldwork
  • Vital that children develop a knowledge of common organisms
  • Improvement of training for teachers needed
Leather and Quicke (2010)
  • Disappearance of natural history in school curriculum problematic
  • Public's ability to recognize different vertebrates has not changed since the 1980s despite availability and affordability of field guides
  • Decline in the of biology undergraduates in average level of “average level” zoological and biological knowledge
Pilgrim et al. (2008)
  • Loss of common knowledge of the natural environment
  • Inverse correlation between the income level and ecological knowledge (examples of India, Indonesia and UK) with most rapid rates of decline in more industrialised regions
  • To understand the declining capacity for communities to manage their natural resources one must first measure ecological knowledge loss in the light of patterns of economic growth
  • Knowledge decline is a threat to global efforts for conservation and social repercussions not yet understood
Tewksbury et al. (2014)
  • Traditional approaches to support and understand natural history in developed economies is declining
  • Decline in exposure to natural history for undergraduate and postgraduate biological sciences students
  • Urbanisation and lack of exposure to nature impacts on public awareness of natural history
  • A need to focus on new technological advances to support new understanding of the natural environment
Dallimer et al. (2012)
  • 50% of population encounter biodiversity only in urban greenspaces
  • General public have poor biodiversity identification skills
  • Green space users notice a significant effect of the space on their wellbeing and people who perceive their space to be greener than others generally have better mental health and wellbeing
  • No commonality exists between people’s perception of biodiverse richness and actual biodiversity
Shwartz et al. (2014)
  • Positive correlation between urban dwellers interaction with nature and their sense of well-being
  • Once activities designed to increase urban dwellers’ interaction with nature they fail to have any long term change on their use of greenspace
  • Relatively few studies on adults and the impact of activities designed to increase their engagement with nature
  • Local communities need to be involved in development of affordable green spaces to ensure impact

This table could help inform an argument in an essay-style open book exam question, because it can show the development of the discourse. The table would also help you to synthesise sources to include in your writing.

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Visual diagram

This section will provide an outline of the features of a visual diagram. The image below displays a visual diagram with collection of ideas organised based on their relationship to each other.

Explore the visual diagram and then scroll to see an outline of the key features used.

Visual diagram notes showing a collection of ideas organised into topics and sub-topics. See long description below for details.

As you're viewing this exercise on mobile, you may wish to download the image to zoom and view the details more easily. You can download the image by selecting the 'Download image' button below.

Download image
Image long description

Gentrification

Definition: the production of space for inhabitants of increasing affluence

1. Debates over definition and parameters

  • Orig. Glass 1964, North London
  • Lees 2008 ‘supergentrification’
  • Vigdor 2010 ‘urban revitalization’
  • Delgado and Swanson 2019 ‘Gentefication’

2. Broad historical context

  • Mid twentieth century deindustrialization, (white) flight to suburbs, freeway construction (US), slum clearances (UK). Barrow 2015, Bates 2012, Sugrue 2005
  • 1970s-90s disinvestment in inner city, ‘vacancy’, falling rent, crime (war on drugs). Marcuse 1985, Hinton 2016, Wacquant 2004
  • Narrative of urban crisis, broken windows theory policing, right to the city movements, artists in former industrial buildings (debatable first wave of gentrification). Mitchell 2003, Smith 1996
  • 1990s onwards capital returning to the now ‘edgy’ inner city, counter culture commodified, rent values rise, loft-living/industrial chic, eviction and gentrification. Slater 2009, Moskowitz 2017

3. Explanations (Slater [2006] says opposition between economic and cultural is overblown)

3a. Economic explanations (Marxist approaches):

  • David Harvey (1982) > ground rent > monopoly rent
  • Neil Smith > Urban Frontier (1996, 2002), Rent Gap (1979)

3b. Cultural explanations (Taste):

  • Butler 2003 (London)
  • Hamnett 1991, 2003 (London)
  • Ley 1986, 1996 (Canada)
  • Caulfield 1989 ‘escape from the suburbs’ idea
  • Florida 2003, 2012 Creative Class Thesis > critiqued by Peck 2005

These notes summarise a key concept in Human Geography, using a visual diagram. They have some key features:

Different theoretical approaches are compared, and important debates in the field are listed. 

The notes include the names and works of key academics and useful case studies to draw upon in the exam. 

This visual diagram gives a broad overview of the existing scholarship on this topic and could help to identify where you would focus your answer to a question.

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