Specific content collection tips#

Two important skills to use during the locate step are note taking and highlighting. Often people have trouble with these skills, so let’s look at some specific tips on how to do these well. In addition, you should organize what you collect to make it easier to use in the next steps of the process.

Intelligent note taking#

Intelligent note taking may range from writing comments in textbooks or review notes after lessons, right through to heavy-duty note taking during fast-paced lectures. Here are a few points on how to take intelligent notes:

Don’t write everything down. Listen for the main points and summarize where possible. While listening to a lecturer, listen for changes in tone, inflection and other cues to decide what’s important. This can also suggest when the topic changes. If you are learning with an instructor or with a smaller group of people, ask the instructor or lecturer to outline the lesson first. This helps your context during the lesson.
Leave white space. Leave space to fill in more notes later, especially in the margin. One note taking system (Cornell) involves writing summary points in the margin for each paragraph of notes. This is a good way to organize and review your notes.
Scribble in your own books. Write, mark and highlight key points in your own textbooks and references. Some people feel you should not write in or mark printed books. If you are one of these people, I suggest you buy a cheap book and scribble all over and through it. Do what you need to do to break this limiting belief. If writing or highlighting sections in a book makes it easier to learn, go right ahead!
Use alternative formats. Alternative formats include Mind Maps and diagrams. I cover mind maps in more detail in the next section. Use diagrams if you can draw them quickly enough.

Intelligent highlighting and marking#

Many people mistake highlighting for learning. Some study guides recommend you don’t do it all, because so many people do it poorly and it can give a false sense of accomplishment.

I believe highlighting is an important and useful skill. Treat it as a content collection technique though. Collect the key points, ideas and definitions for use in the next steps—exploring and learning what you’ve collected.

Here are some specific tips for intelligent highlighting:

Only mark the key points. You can usually find these at the start or end of a paragraph, but not always. Even when marking a key point, only mark at maximum three or four words within that point (if possible).
Highlight after you read. Make sure you read the entire paragraph, or even page, before you go back and highlight the key points.
Only highlight the defined word, not the whole sentence. Use a normal pen and put brackets around the word’s definition if you would like to separate them.
Mark unusual, uncommon or questionable items. Perhaps use a different color. Make a point somewhere to come back to it if needed.
Try different colors. Try using different color highlighters for different points. This may work for some people and not others. Don’t go too far though. Use a maximum of three colors! If you plan to photocopy or scan notes later, only use a light-colored highlighter. Yellow appears the best. Other colors can come out black!
Still write notes. When you are highlighting, keep a normal pen handy as well. For example, write some notes in the margins on why you’ve highlighted particular points.
Transfer to other notes or a mind map. If a point is important, don’t just highlight it. Transfer it to your main notes or to a mind map (described soon) for your topic. One of my study techniques involves highlighting while I read the material, then transferring the main points to a mind map afterwards.

Use highlighting sparingly otherwise the unmarked text may stand out more. Take care that you don’t finish with a book full of colored paper! I know of one flight instructor who hands out a summary of her lessons on bright yellow paper. This saves those with questionable highlighting skills the trouble of creating the notes themselves.

Just to reiterate. Highlighting is a content collection exercise. Don’t mistake highlighting for learning.

Organizing content#

I believe it’s better to have more information available than the minimum you need to complete your course. To make this work, you need to organize your content well.

While you locate and collect information, keep a summary or index of the material you find, where you found it, and when. Also, rate the quality and relevance of the content. Use the A, B, and C categories from above if this helps. This extra information helps you when you explore the topics in the next step.

Occasionally check your summary against an overall training plan, and look for areas where you have weaknesses or gaps. If you find yourself chasing some curious reference that probably won’t add much value to your training, take a step back. It’s better to have all topics covered to a good level, rather than spending significant amounts of time looking for too much detail in one particular topic.