A Note on Notes

With eyes sticky and head spinning from reading like a machine tonight, there is one compensation. Although note-taking is usually the part of literature review that inspires me least, I have found a technique that is extremely manageable, clear, memorable and easy to reference… and looks great on paper. My current cranial fodder is Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (Richards, J. and T. Rodgers, 2001. Cambridge: CUP), which covers the different takes on language teaching that have evolved over time. Somehow, unlike most of the hefty texts, this makes for light reading (to use the term very loosely). Perhaps because it is chronological, it reads somewhat like a story. The nature of language and learning is, after all, a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie. This is one text I could almost refer to as a page-turner, at least for the reader who want to solve this mystery.

Rather than make outline-style notes as I usually do, I simply synthesized and jotted down the authors’ two sets of descriptors in one column and- Bob’s your uncle!- started filled in the specs of each approach in the following columns. This really gave a focus to my reading and put every subsequent method in perspective. It wasn’t even painful.

Note to self: Experiment with different note-taking styles relevant to what you are working on. Occasionally, it pays off.