How to Write Better Essays

material, like ‘for example’ and ‘for instance’, indicate that you need

not take close and detailed notes from what’s to come. A word, a brief

phrase or sentence, should be enough to remind you of the example

when you want it.

Consolidating your notes

All of this means you’re better able to take out a clear structure from

what you read. But, if structure is one of the main features of good

note-taking, then, as we’ve said a number of times already, flexibility

is the other.

There are few things worse during revision than finding your notes

on a particular topic are spread throughout your file in different places,

because each time you’ve taken notes your organisation hasn’t allowed

you to change or to add to those you already have. As a result you have

different packets of notes on the same subject spread throughout your

file, none of them related, and all of them taking a slightly different

approach to the subject.

Few things can be more confusing and frustrating. At just that

moment when you want to get down to some organised revision

for the exam, you realise you’ve got to re-organise your notes. You

have to take notes on all the notes you have, so that you end up with

the one integrated package of notes you should have had in the first

place.

It’s worth reminding yourself that notes are only the raw material,

they’re not fixed in stone as soon as they’re written. You add to them,

adapt and reshape them, as your ideas change, and as you read and

see more. They must be able to adapt continually to the changes in

your understanding of the subject. You must, then, have a note-taking

strategy that is flexible enough to record these changes, while leaving

you with one coherent set of notes.

To create this flexibility in your note-taking use a loose-leaf file, so

you can slip into your notes at the appropriate place new notes that

expand or adapt what you already have. Use an index-card system,

broken up into the topics on your course, to record isolated quotations,

statistics and examples (see below, Chapter 16). Spread your notes out

on the page, leaving enough space between each section, so you can

add new material as it arises. And, for the same reason, write just on

one side of the paper, so you always have a blank sheet opposite your

notes on which you can enter new information.

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