About Notetaking
The purpose of providing notetaking support services to students with disabilities is to assist in mitigating the impact of the students’ functional limitations. Notetakers are a vital link in providing access to curricular material for students with disabilities. Notetakers are students enrolled in the same course as students registered with OAE. Notetakers provide registered OAE students with copies of their notes at the end of each class session.
Notetaking Methods
There are a number of different ways to take notes, and it is best that you use the method you feel most at ease with. However, there are four general ideas that could help you to improve your note taking:
- Use white space to separate major ideas.
- Try to limit your notes to one concept or section per page.
- Use abbreviations and/or symbols where possible to avoid long sentences.
- Write down the information in your own words.
Cornell Method
The Cornell method provides a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes. The student divides the paper into two columns: the note-taking column (usually on the right) is twice the size of the questions/key word column (on the left). The student should leave five to seven lines, or about two in (5 cm), at the bottom of the page.
Sentence Method
Every new thought is written as a new line. Speed is the most desirable attribute of this method, because not much thought about formatting is needed to form the layout and create enough space for more notes. When taking these notes, you can number them or bullet them. This method can allow the reader to tell where a new thought ends and begins. This strategy is short and helpful, especially when a professor or teacher may need to read the notes.
Charting Method
Charting is effectively a table of rows and columns. The top row normally classifies the concept with descriptions or keywords listed in the row below.
Outlining Method
This method involves writing a series of topics and sub-topics, and identifying them by indenting the text, numbering the lines, or using a dash or bullet point.
A typical structure would be:
- I. First main topic
- A. Subtopic
- 1. Detail
- 2. Detail
- B. Subtopic
- A. Subtopic
- II. Second main topic
- A. Subtopic