Notes Writing Tips: 9 Tips that you should follow

Are you looking for notes writing tips and want to take and make better notes?

If Yes, then you’re in the right place where I will teach you how to take notes (better than ever) and for this, I have 9 tips that you should keep in mind while writing notes. And If you apply these 9 tips (that I’m going to talk about), then you’ll have pretty and productive notes.

But before we get going, let me first tell you the importance of notes.

Benefits of making study notes:

There are many benefits of notes taking and notes writing that could be beyond your thinking. So I am listing some benefits here.

• Easy to learn and revise
• Easy to understand in own language
• Improve your writing habits
• Increase attention span
• You use more amount of your brain when you prepare study notes
• Improve your memory and not forget easily
• Notes are fun to writing and fun to studying with it
• Separate key points from supporting materials
• Very helpful for your exam preparation

Any benefits I missed here? Let me know in the comment, I’d love to add to this list.

Now let’s dive straight into the tips that you should keep in mind to make pretty and productive notes.

9 Notes writing tips to make better notes:

1: Understand the chapter deeply

Before start writing notes about any chapter or topic, first, understand the chapter or topic deeply. Make note only when your professor has already taught that chapter in class.

I have seen many students who don’t study and understand any topic well and take notes first. And they believe I can learn better by my notes after making it.

But it’s not a good way of making notes. Let me explain to you why…

When you make notes without understanding, then you keep your mind aside while writing. You don’t use any percent of your brain, your just hand works while writing but not mind.

In result:

• You don’t write in your own language (Copy content from books and others)
• It doesn’t improve your memory and creativity
• It wastes your time on only writing

So take notes only when you have learned the chapter from your professor and you have understood it well.

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2: Chapter name and its overview

Now I hope you have understood the chapter deeply. So it’s time to write productive and pretty notes. And we will start with the chapter name [Headline] and its overview or purpose.

While making notes, every student writes the chapter name or headline at the top of the notebook page, but few of them write also what this chapter is all about, i.e. Overview of the chapter.

And it’s very important to write the purpose of the chapter at the beginning. Even in some books, you have found this at the beginning.

Writing at least 50-words about what the chapter says and what the purpose of studying that in your own language really improves your learning. Even it’d be also effective if you read the chapter after a long gap.

So when you take notes, first understand and write the overview at the beginning.

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3: Don’t copy all content from books

As I made you understand, if you have studied any chapter deeply, then I don’t think you need to copy content from the book or any other notes.

I am not saying you should not take notes from the books. I mean, the maximum part of the notes should be written in your own language. Don’t write book language too much otherwise, its readability will feel like a book.

So write maximum part in your own language and also take notes from your class lectures. And must add all important points in your notes that are not mentioned in your textbooks but your professor told in lectures.

One more thing, don’t take notes from many books for one chapter. Your class notes (lectures) and one most preferred book would be enough for your learning.

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4: Good writing in short paragraphs

Writing notes is easy, but to make it pretty and readable your handwriting should be good and everyone (especially you), can read and understand it easily. If your handwriting is not professional it’s okay but it should be clear to read.

Instead of writing in long paragraphs, use short paragraphs (1-2 line sentences) to improve the readability of your notes, it will also look more effective. Don’t make your notes like this one with no paragraphs.

Even If you’d notice I am writing in only short paragraphs and somewhere that’s why you are enjoying this article while reading. (Write a comment at the end about this article)

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5: Use different colors

Using different colors in your notes (i.e. Color-coded notes) not only makes your notes good and pretty, but it will also improve your learning and memory.

A study has shown that color can improve a person’s memory performance, and the study found that warm colors (red and yellow) “can create a learning environment that is positive and motivating that can help learners not only to have a positive perception toward the content but also to engage and interact more with the learning materials.” It also reported that warmer colors “increase attention and elicit excitement and information.”

So must use some colors in your notes but don’t too color your notes. Use Red for key points and use Yellow to highlight something important.

Remember, you don’t need to design your notes; you need to make them clear and useful.

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6: Use headings, sub-headings, and bullet points

As you write the chapter name at the top of the notes, similarly using heading and sub-heading are very effective to start any new topic and bullet points to collect important points or describe something.

And when we read notes later, then our most attention goes on headings and bullet points and we can remember easily them. So don’t write just paragraphs only otherwise your notes will look like a story, must use these 2 things while note-taking.

Even If you’d have noticed, In this article, I also used both things- Bullet points at the beginning and heading / sub-heading for tips that are good for reading and understanding.

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7: Add Images, Visuals, and Graphs

Images, visuals (like infographics), and graphs are very important and you should not miss to adding in your notes. You might find it hard to believe, but most times images, visuals, and graphs can explain you better.

Use images and all where you find them useful and they can explain your something.

Images and graphs you can copy from your books and class lectures but I must suggest you create visuals like infographics by yourself. It will be so much fun to make infographics and it will be good for your creativity.

I have also created an infographic for this long post that you may have got it above.

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8: Use mind mapping systems

Mind mapping is one of the best note-taking systems that helps to learn and relate things. They are particularly useful for brainstorming and note-taking. They are a study tool as they engage students in whole-brain thinking.

To use a mind mapping system, we often use arrows or bullets, or numbers to connect ideas to a central point. It makes it easy to show relationships and points that can be covered over to test your memory. Look at the below image that will explain you better.

There are many benefits of using a mind mapping system while note-taking. Some benefits I am listing here…

• It makes so easy to organize ideas and concepts
• It improves your memory, and you can recall the information easily
• It helps you to connect things and makes it easy to learn and understand
• Having fun while making and learning through it

So must use mind mapping while writing notes, you must find it interesting.

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9: Make a summary (conclusion)

Now after following all the above tips, you’ll have great notes on any topic. So now let’s finish the notes by making a summary at the end.

Making a summary is very important (equal to the second tip), where you explain what you learn in this chapter and how this chapter is useful in daily life. These two questions improve your learning, and a student should never ignore this.

So if you have the answers to these questions then must write in your language.

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Conclusion:

Note-taking and note-making are two different things, and after adding these two things we write perfect notes. And In this article, I have given you 9 notes writing tips that you should keep in mind while making notes.

Now I want to hear from you:

How you found my tips and will you keep them in mind while making notes?

Let me know in the comment, I’m curious.