As an undergraduate, I handwrote all of my notes for every single class I ever took. I remembered things better, I was able to jot down extra notes in the margins, draw arrows where needed to make things more organized, and list things properly. (Not to mention, it's quite nice to just doodle when the lecture gets boring.)
Now that I am well into my second year of graduate school, I have come to realize that handwriting my notes has become not only a bit of a waste of time, but also a waste of paper. For one thing, my classes consist of discussion, not lecture.* As a result, I have my notebook out, but I rarely write anything down at all. We're discussing the book, not taking notes so we have things to memorize for the midterms and finals that we do not take.
Another factor against handwriting my notes is my paper organization. My Atlantic History professor, Dr. M, suggested to me to gather notes pertaining to my paper topic from each book we read into a word document so I can easily access them later in the semester when the time comes to get writing. He said this is the easiest way to do it and so far, I'm pretty sold on this method.
This leads me to my next question: Are pen and paper dead or dying? I find that question to be somewhat discomforting and I'm afraid that the answer will frighten me. It's scary enough that the Amazon Kindle could very well replace books at some point in the near future. Should I contribute to the death of pen and paper and jump onto the technology bandwagon? Should I just say "Screw technology!" and continue with notebooks as always? Or should I start typing things and think of it as a noble effort to save trees and stop wasting all the untouched paper in my notebook? Please tell me your thoughts!
* Except for the classes I TA. Those are lecture-based courses so I take notes like an undergrad.
I still hand write like a fiend in my second year as a grad student. Brainstorming, taking notes of info for research, etc. all goes on paper...sometimes multiple times if my frantic scribbles are too disorganized to easily follow again. I find that the unidirectional space of a word processed document is much less convenient than having a blank page I can take notes on in any direction or alignment. Overall it seems that I retain information better actually physically writing it out, even if it's not something I necessarily need to study. :)
ReplyDeletepen and paper! pen and paper! pen and paper! it's a throw back to the good ol' days.
ReplyDeleteI tend to go back and forth. I always use pen and paper during classes... but as you said, with discussion based classes, there's not a whole lot of notetaking to be done. I take a lot of notes in the margins of what I'm reading if I own it. If that's not an option, I do like to use a word processor if it's available.
ReplyDeleteI might add that I recently purchased a Kindle and now wish that all my books were available in kindle editions. I find the highlighting and note taking features very convenient - not to mention the ability to search within texts and no longer be subject to the sometime inadequacies of traditional indexes.
ReplyDeleteChasingClio, good to know about the Kindle! I can see that being really convenient for textbooks and other books for school.
ReplyDeleteI used to be an advocate of writing my notes in class until I became familiar with Microsoft Office OneNote. It is by the best note-taking software ever. All your notes are organized by tabs, similar to tangible notebooks. It also has this amazing feature that allows you to search by keyword. I transfered all of my hand written notes on to my computer and now I have 4 years of history notes at the touch of a button. This comes in really handy during class discussions when I want to reference something from a previous class. Also, it allows you to tape record lectures. I must say though, when I am researching I stick to the pen and paper method and then later transfer everything OneNote.
ReplyDeleteRebekah, thank for the information about OneNote! I think you've mentioned it to me before - it sounds amazing/
ReplyDelete