How to Write Better Essays

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14 Remembering your notes

In this chapter you will learn:

• the techniques for producing clear notes that you can recall
  accurately;


• how to avoid the most common problems in note-taking;


• how to organise and consolidate your notes.

The key to good note-taking is to make the structure clear. The mind

remembers structures, not lists nor paragraphs of continuous prose.

So, keep it free and uncluttered. Don’t convince yourself that unless

you include this one fact you’ll never remember it. You will. The struc-

ture will act as a net bringing to the surface of your mind more than

you ever thought you could remember. But it has to be a good net –

well constructed, with clear logical connections and free of all unnec-

essary material.

Creating a clear structure

Here are a number of things you can do to make sure your structure

works:

1 Keywords Choose sharp, memorable words to key off the points

in your structure. In the notes on the Rise of Nazism the three main

points are not difficult to remember, particularly with keywords, like

‘Humiliation’, ‘Ruins’ and the alliteration of ‘Weakness of Weimar ’.

But you need other words to key off the subsections, although you

don’t need them for every step and every subsection in the notes.

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