Note-taking

Note-taking (sometimes written as notetaking or note taking) is the practice of recording information from different sources and platforms.

By taking notes, the writer records the essence of the information, freeing their mind from having to recall everything.

In the Renaissance and early modern period, students learned to take notes in schools, academies and universities, often producing beautiful volumes that served as reference works after they finished their studies.

[7] 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.

[8] 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.

[9] Note-taking is a good strategy to enhance learning and memory,[10] as it allows the notetaker to be selective and reorganize ideas during a lecture.

One common format for such notes is shorthand, which can allow large amounts of information to be put on paper very quickly.

Historically, note-taking was an analog process, written in notebooks, or other paper methods like Post-It notes.

The note taker usually has to work fast, and different note-taking styles and techniques try to make the best use of time.

[25] The charting method of note taking,[26][27] which includes the drawing of tables sometimes called study frames,[28] is useful for subject matter that can be broken into categories, such as similarities, differences, date, event, impact, etc.

Research shows that students who use the SQ3R strategy retain more information and achieve higher test scores.

Research suggests that guided notes improve student recording of critical points in lecture, as well as quiz scores on related content.

[citation needed] Online note-taking has created problems for teachers who must balance educational freedom with copyright and intellectual property concerns regarding course content.

A study done by Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles showed that students who take notes digitally retain less information than students who take notes on paper, and the digital note-takers have more difficulty remembering what they've written.

[43] Electronic note-taking has created computer-aided distractions in class as multitasking on laptops is very easy to accomplish.

They most frequently work in colleges and universities, but are also used in workplace meetings, appointments, conferences, and training sessions.