Category Archives: note-taking

one key thing about making notes

There’s a lot of advice out there for doctoral researchers about how to take notes. Templates. Questions to ask. Visual queues. Mnemonics. It’s great to look at all of these and see what works for you.  But regardless of whether … Continue reading

Posted in field notes, note-taking, notebook | Tagged , | 1 Comment

should you highlight the paper you’re reading? 

The short answer to the question is… maybe, it depends. Not a yes or a no. That’s because should you highlight is not a simple question. Unless you are a marker addict of course, in which case the answer is … Continue reading

Posted in highlighting, note-taking, reading | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

everyday annotation

Last week I stumbled across the book Annotation, written by Remi Kalir and Antero Garcia. As the title suggests, the book is all about the history and practices of annotating texts. And probably because the book is from the MIT … Continue reading

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getting to grips with new literatures

Over time all researchers build a knowledge base about their key interests. A large part of this knowledge is a core set of literatures. They/we do need to keep up to date, but they/we can rely on – and use … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, Endnote, literature mapping, literature review, literature reviews, note-taking | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

summer reading – or – not all reading is the same

Academics often look forward to doing their own work in summer  – the work they can’t get to during term time. We write bids, papers and books during our <break>. And one of the ways we get ourselves into the … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, Endnote, note-taking, reading, reading routine, scan-reading | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

a lit review thinking tool – christmas present two

Working with literatures is a complex task. It is one of the places where doctoral and early career researchers come unstuck. One of the very many reasons that it’s problematic is, in my view, because there is not sufficient discussion … Continue reading

Posted in literature mapping, literature review, literature themes, note-taking, scholarly primitives, thinking tool, writing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

mapping the literatures – noting. #acwrimo work in progress

I have been asked many times to talk about my own noting practices. So now seems like as good a time as any. What do my notes look like for this literatures work? The caveat I must make here is … Continue reading

Posted in blogging, blogging taxonomy, literature mapping, literature review, literature themes, note-taking | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

how to read and note an academic book – part two – slicing and dicing

So you’ve now picked out the book that you want to read in some detail. As I’ve suggested, you don’t want to read every book in the same way. There are some that can immediately be skimmed, others engaged with … Continue reading

Posted in academic book, argument, backward mapping, note-taking, reading, structure | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

beginning the literature review – taking notes

The purpose of the literature review shapes the way that noting is done. And the purpose is to situate your study in the field – that is, to establish a space for the work you are going to do – … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, literature review, note-taking, reading | Tagged , , , | 23 Comments