How to take notes- in history specifically?

[historygeek]

I've looked at the topic on the Officially Grads forum and did the search on this forum, but I was wondering: how do you take in-class notes for history? 

I have two courses next semester (Theory & Methods and Medieval Europe) and, since I want to focus on medieval Europe (and theory/methods is important), I want to ensure that I take good notes. During undergrad, I brought my laptop to class and did an outline style, but looking back, these notes are missing quite a bit of context and I didn't pay attention in the classes because my computer was a distraction. In grad school, I'm planning to go strictly pen and paper. 

[dr. t]

I don't. There's no point to them. There aren't any exams except quals, and those are their own separate thing (for these, I did 500-1000 word precis of each item), and in-class notes have no utility for any papers. I did have a notebook I'd write in for class, but that's because it's a way I think through a problem, not for later reference.

[urbanhistorynerd]

If it is lecture based, I typically bring a notebook and pen and put down some scribbles. For discussions and seminar style classes, I bring a notebook but I don't take notes. I just jot down any ideas, books, people, etc, that I find important.

Most likely the theory and methods course, much like my "Writing History" course in the upcoming semester, will be a series of discussions about the reading material assigned that day. In that case, I typically take detailed notes, usually one or two sentences per page, and then a chapter summary. Of course, all of this depends on the amount assigned. I'll write better notes if it is only one book compared to three.

[Sigaba]

AMPAD computation notebook really grips the pen. (But beware if you use a pencil with a soft lead...)

If you're going to take serious notes, try to get everything. There's a chance that you're hearing lectures that were written ages ago and you won't realize it until down the line and you do very deep background research on the professor offering the class.

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by Sigaba

[Tigla]

I don't take notes in seminar discussions. Instead, I mark up the given articles or books that we are discussing. I'd assume this can be done by printing them out and using a pencil, but it'll be slower and not searchable. I found having digital copies available with my annotations helped me more in seminar discussions than good old fashion paper and pencil.

[AfricanusCrowther]

Not really an answer to the OP's question, but you'll definitely want to take notes on all your seminar readings for your exams.

[psstein]

6 hours ago, telkanuru said:

I don't. There's no point to them. There aren't any exams except quals, and those are their own separate thing (for these, I did 500-1000 word precis of each item), and in-class notes have no utility for any papers. I did have a notebook I'd write in for class, but that's because it's a way I think through a problem, not for later reference.

Yeah, this was my approach as well. I rarely take notes during a class, unless it's some particularly insightful point someone made or I want to say something down the road.

@historygeek, I'd recommend reading with a heuristic tool called IPSO. It stands for Issue, Position, Support, and Outcome. I stole it from my friend, who uses it for reading/teaching. It's very useful for teaching undergrads how to break down a piece of dense writing into its constituent parts. It works like this?

Issue: What is the research question? What is the author examining?

Position: What is his/her argument or thesis statement?

Support: What evidence does the author use to support the thesis? This includes not only data points, but secondary source scaffolding.

Outcome: So what? If we accept the author's argument, what are the other avenues for research?

I do realize that this framework seems a bit reductive and simplistic, but trust me, it's really helpful when you're reading scholarship that submerges the ideas. In my own field, it's helped me demystify Latour and Simon Schaffer.

[TMP]

I didn't really take notes during any of my classes since they were primarily discussions and working through problems at hand. If I liked someone's point, then I jotted down in notes from my readings.

What I did wish I did do from get-go was to set up my notes for each reading in a standard format intended to prepare for my general exams.  It took me 3 semesters to really figure out what I should have done (yeah, i was dense and too arrogant to think to ask other grad students what they did ). I figured out in my 4th semester mainly because I was taking a prospectus-writing class that revealed how one went about proposing a project and carrying it through. Below ended up being my template:

Primary Research Question

Primary Argument

Secondary Arguments

Historiographical Interventions

Methods/Sources

Table of Contents

 

These points will eventually make their way into the seminar discussions. ALSO, make sure you do a quick bio for each scholar you read.

[historygeek]

Thank you for the advice, everyone! I really appreciate it! 

I have a OneNote notebook set up for my readings, but I'll likely transition to a Google Doc, just in case something happens with my computer. The note strategies you all describe are great and I'll definitely work them into my reading notes. I'll probably invest in a couple of notebooks for my seminars, in case something comes up in our discussions or there is a particular point I would like to make. 

[AP]

I always take notes on OneNote. Courses notes (ie discussions on books) later became good starting points for exams. 

[gsc]

IME, in some classes it's actually useful to take notes, and in others, it's pointless. I always took notes regardless, or at least had some paper out to jot points down, but the usefulness of the notes was pretty dependent on the class (and the professor- some professors are good about guiding discussions and helping them stay on track, other professors will let students lead the class down rather irrelevant rabbit holes)

For readings, I didn't hit on a good way to take notes on readings until after I finished comps, oops. I took bullet-point notes while I read to keep me on track, but I knew that these wouldn't be robust enough to refer back to, so I experimented with a lot of different methods of summarizing what I had read- a 1 page précis, a 3 page outline, or for comps, a 10 page outline of a set of books. Most of these failed (or at least, I never stuck to them consistently) because once I'd slogged through reading the book, I mostly just wanted to be finished with it. Now I'm slavishly devoted to the Cornell notes method, which solves my problem by front-loading all the summarizing work and giving me a set of notes I can use straight out of the box- https://thesiswhisperer.com/2012/12/12/turn-your-notes-into-writing-using-the-cornell-method/  

Edited May 30, 2019 by gsc

[Sigaba]

9 hours ago, gsc said:

For readings, I didn't hit on a good way to take notes on readings until after I finished comps, oops. 

FWIW, my thought is that for each student, there's a sweet spot between taking effective notes for class (if not for each class) and preparing for qualifying exams.

And by preparing, I mean writing coherently while thinking deeply. (And if one is going to write one's exams by hand rather than using a computer, writing quickly and legibly.)

If you're already good to very good at taking notes, I recommend doing all you can to avoid reaching the conclusion that taking notes is of limited to no value in graduate school. With no disrespect to @telkanuru,

• You may find yourself working for a professor as a teaching assistant in class where most of the grading is based upon tests that draw almost exclusively from the lectures.
• You may find yourself taking graduate classes in the history department or in your outside field that do have written, in class exams.
• You may find yourself in an archive where you cannot bring anything but paper and pencil.
• You may find yourself attending lectures or job talks where a lot of information is being shared but you don't realize until much later how useful the information is.
• You may find yourself working in the private sector and the ability to take notes like a historian adds value to project work.

If you find yourself in any of these situations and a very perishable skill has deteriorated due to lack of use or indifference,  you can have FML moments that are avoidable. (Or so I've heard.)

Also,  if you ever study under professors who are phenomenal lecturers and you get to see their notes, it may very well be that they're using notes they  took when they were graduate students themselves.

Penultimately,  I've come to the conclusion that some very accomplished senior historians have, through the course of their careers, published articles that are informed by their graduate course work. How would such work be possible without good notes?

Finally, I think that every aspiring academic historian should assume that one is going to do work vital to her field and, some day, will bequeath one's papers, notes, and letters to a research library.  So taking good notes is an opportunity to serve the profession.

#$0.02.

[NotAlice]

I'm a habitual note taker, so I take notes in all my classes. The discussion classes have fewer notes, but I jot down interesting thoughts and perspectives of others. Some of the lecture courses I've taken involved exams where you needed notes to study. I use A5 sized grid notebooks because they're easier to tote around. I just finished the first  year of my master's and so far, I've tweaked my note taking style to involve writing down teaching strategies, sort of watching how the professors handle the classroom dynamics. I also annotate books or articles while reading and then while discussing. The class I TA for is outside of my area of focus, so I take copious notes to ensure I'm grading effectively. 

[ashiepoo72]

I'm old school and still take notes by hand. Basically I buy legal pads and black pilot g2 .5 pens in bulk on amazon (I'm particular about writing implements) and clearly label date/class/lecture topic/professor so I know from where the ideas came. Usually I'll write down any book titles/historiographical arguments discussed and stuff that sounds interesting or challenges my perspective on the topic. If I think of questions during discussion, I'll write those down so I don't forget them for when I have a chance to speak. I don't think I've ever taken more than a page of notes in lecture, though.