InfoTrack :: Making reading notes

Which of the following are useful for reading notes? (check all that apply)

The title of the document and the author’s name

True. To easily identify a document from its reading note or use it in your bibliography, you need to have the full reference for this document (year, publisher, etc.).

A citation from a text and the page it is on

True. An advantage of reading notes is being able to easily find excerpts from texts and use them as citations in academic assignments. Writing down the page number of the citation helps you find it quickly, which saves you time when writing your paper.

Keywords

True. Adding keywords to your notes helps you quickly remember the subject of the document, without having to re-read it.

A synthesis of the document’s important information

True. The primary function of reading notes is to give quick and easy access to a document’s key points without having to re-read the whole document. It’s a real timesaver when you’re writing a paper.

Which of the following are true? (check all that apply)

Reading your notes saves you from having to re-read the document when you’re ready to write your paper

True, if the note is done correctly and it synthesizes the document’s essential information.

You create reading notes when you read the original document

True.

The format for reading notes is invariable, regardless of the type of reading you are doing

False. The structure of reading notes and the type of information they contain can change to suit new requirements and the research purposes. For example, the publishing context of a document can be useful for historical research.

Reading notes must contain as much information as possible to be truly efficient

False. To be truly efficient, reading notes must be synthetic. It’s quality, not quantity, that’s important.

In which cases would it be useful to have a logbook as well as reading notes? (select only one)

When you are preparing a 30-minute presentation for next week

False. Short deadlines probably don’t justify the effort of a logbook.

When you are writing a paper that requires reading a large number of documents over a semester

True. In this case having a logbook can help to have a better overview of your entire research project.

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