5: Toward A Summary-Response Essay -- Rosie Banks

Chapter 1: On Note-Taking

ote-taking is essential to the process of reading for understanding.

I've forgotten who it was that said creation is memory. My own experiences and the various things I have read remain in my memory and become the basis upon which I create something new. I couldn't do it out of nothing. For this reason, since the time I was a young man I have always kept a notebook handy when I read a book. I write down my reactions and what particularly moves me. I have stacks and stacks of these college notebooks, and when I go off to write a script, these are what I read. Somewhere they always provide me with a point of breakthrough. Even for single lines of dialogue I have taken hints from these notebooks. So what I want to say is, don’t read books while lying down in bed. (Akira Kurosawa, Something Like an Autobiography)

Annotation/Notation

From the Online Etymology Dictionary

Notation: the process of taking notes; "Meaning "to set down in writing, make a memorandum of" is from early 14c." (Note. v.)

Annotation: the process of adding notes to a text; "a note added by way of comment or explanation" (Annotation)

About the 10-step Note-Taking Process

Steps 1-3: Identifying the Text

The first three steps of the process entail  identifying the source of the text. Where did it come from? Who wrote it? What’s it  called? Who was the intended audience?

For this class, future classes  in the composition sequence,  and most other college classes, you  will be expected to share where you  got the information you are communicating  in your papers or in oral presentations. So, you will need to know the title and the author at  least. You should also include the date and where the reading is published or posted if you want  to have the most complete sourcing information.

For #3, sometimes, it’s important to note  whether the text is academic or popular.  For research classes, you may be instructed to  only use academic sources. You can tell often  by publication information (Was it published by a  university printing press?), by the style in which the text is written (Does it have references?),  by what the author includes in the foreword (Does it have a foreword? Does the author tell you in  their introduction?).

Steps 4-6: Connecting to the Text

Steps 4-6 are where you start  do your due diligence to build your understanding of the reading.

I would encourage you to do two readings of  any assigned reading. In the first reading, just try to read straight through. Put a dot or  otherwise make note of where you see vocabulary words that you don’t know or words that you  like or sentences you like or dislike or any  section you know you would like or need to reread  more carefully.

At the end of the first reading, check in with yourself and ask: Was that  an easy or a hard read? Do I feel like I basically understand what the author is saying?  If not, where did I stop understanding? What do I need to know or what would I like to know  to get a deeper understanding of this reading.

In the second reading, read through again but  much more slowly. Stop and actually take notes on the vocabulary words you marked. Look up the  definitions and write them down. I recommend using Merriam-Webster for basic definitions and Online  Etymology Dictionary if you want to go deeper into the meaning of a word.

Look at where you placed dots: If they were  areas where you felt like you could relate to the author, write that down. For instance, the  author might share something that reminds you of  what a family member or a former teacher  said.

Perhaps you understood just fine;  you just didn’t like HOW the author communicated  their ideas. Write that down and, to the best of  your ability, write down why you didn’t like  how they communicated their ideas or why you  enjoyed reading their ideas. Review all of  your dots and write notes about what made  you mark that section — maybe you want to ask  the teacher a question about what was there.

This is at the core of what they say  about reading to learn. You have to enter into a conversation with the  author if you mean to learn from them.

Steps 7-10: Making Sense of the Text

These last four steps are essential  to the process of writing a summary,  which is one of the key assignments of  the CRT in English 96 and to writing an annotated bibliography or a literature review  in a research paper class like English 102.

I always recommend that students answer these  questions with the actual sentences from the text. Write the sentence or sentences down  word for word and put it in quotation marks  (That’s a direct quotation.). Only  after you do that should you try to  rewrite the sentence in your own words or  paraphrase it. Do not try to paraphrase and take notes at the same time. That is how  people end up being accused of plagiarism.Again, first, write out the direct quote. Then, paraphrase it so that you better  understand what is being said.