add meaning to your notes by indenting less important
TRANSCRIPT
Add Meaning to Your Notes by Indenting Less Important Information.
Indenting less important information allows the main points of a lecture to stand alone near your margin, making them clear and easy to read. These main points in your notes are also noted as headings.
The following series of exercises will help you develop your outlining/indenting skills. Remember the basic outline pattern:
I. Main idea/Heading
A. Supporting Idea / Sub-Heading
1. Detail (example, fact)
2. Detail
B. Supporting Idea / Sub-heading
1. Detail
2. Detail
II. Main idea
… and so on
It’s not always critical to include ALL of the Roman numerals, numbers, and letters in your notes, but if they help your notes stay organized, use them.
Here is a short video clip to add to your understanding of outlining: Go to the TAKING LECTURE NOTES/LISTENING LIST or Google search Outline Method Manchester Community College or www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhSCPRY-k3g
Try Adding Your Own Headings
Directions: Your skill at creating headings and subheadings and using outlining in your notes can be strengthened by doing the following exercises. Below is a list of words that will serve as TOPICS (or HEADINGS). Look over the list. Then turn to the next page to begin the exercise.
Part A American presidents
Animals
Bedroom furniture
Beverages
Books
Cheeses
Clothing
Eye conditions
Famous Americans
Famous athletes
Famous people
Famous names
Foods
Footwear
Furniture
Instruments
Liquid Foods
Male names
Measurements
Measurements of length
Measurements of volume
Men's clothing
Metals
Musical instruments
Names
Nuts
Sports
Sports that use a ball
Stringed instruments
Terms applied to liquids
Terms used in music
Terms used in science
Types of cloth
Types of material
Types of singing voices
Wild animals
For each of the lists below, find the topic in Part A which describes it most exactly. (Read them carefully, for although more than one topic in Part A may fit a particular list, only one will fit most accurately.) Write your answer in the space provided. You may not be familiar with an item in some of the lists. You should check these with a dictionary. The first one is done for you.
1. Clothing
Necktie Pants Shirt Man's jacket Sweatshirt
3.
Washington Lincoln Roosevelt Eisenhower Madison
5.
Bed Chair Sofa Desk Dining Table
7.
Swiss cheese Brazil nut American cheese Mexican bean Canadian bacon
9.
Violin Harp Clarinet Banjo Guitar
2.
Evelyn David Bruce Edith Tom
4.
Babe Ruth Arnold Palmer Michael Jordan Joe Louis Lou Gehrig
6.
Lion Tiger Cow Panther Rattlesnake
8.
Inch Foot Yard Mile Kilometer
10.
Coffee Tea Cocoa Mineral water Milk
11.
Ounce Bushel Foot Pint Quart
13.
Silk Cotton Linen Rayon Nylon
15.
Skating Swimming Wrestling Hockey Track
17.
Alto Soprano Tenor Bass Baritone
19.
Melody Harmony Drum Quartet Overture
12.
Tin Copper Gold Platinum Silver
14.
Moccasins Sneakers Shoes Boots Sandals
16.
Basketball Golf Baseball Tennis Bowling
18.
Astigmatism Sty Glaucoma Cataract Conjunctivitis
20.
Osmosis Viscosity Evaporation Boiling point Condensation
from Developing Outlining Skills, by Irwin L. Joffe, 1972
Check Your Work: Answer Key for Creating Your Own Headings
1Clothing 11 Measurements 2 Names 12 Metals 3 American Presidents 13 Types of Cloth 4 Famous Athletes 14 Footwear 5 Furniture 15 Sports 6 Animals 16 Sports that Use a Ball 7 Foods 17 Types of Singing Voices 8 Measurements of Length 18 Eye Conditions 9 Musical Instruments 19 Terms Used in Music 10 Beverages 20 Terms Applied to Liquid
Try Some Outlining
Directions: Arrange the following items into an outline under the main headings shown in the outline below. Notice letters have been entered for you in the outline. Add your own letters as needed.
Sporting dogs Feeding Housebreaking
Coat Field trials Hounds
Bones Shelter Obedience
Tricks Diseases Grooming
Mouth Working dogs Terriers
Dog shows Ears Cocker spaniels
Mongrels Eyes Wild dogs
I. Breeds of Dogs A. B. C. D.
II. The Body of a Dog III. The Care of Dogs IV. The Training of Dogs V. The History of Dog Breeding
Answer Key for Outlining
Practice Arranging Headings and Subheadings
Directions:
To the right of the items below are lines showing three different levels of indentation. Copy each of the items and show how they relate to each other by indenting them at the correct level of indentation. All items are in the correct order. Some lists require two levels of indentation while others require three levels. If you are not familiar with an item, check it with an encyclopedia or a dictionary. The first one is done for you.
1. Air transportation Air Transportation
Airplane Airplane
Helicopter Helicopter
Land transportation Land Transportation
Auto Auto
Railroad Railroad
Bus Bus
Sea transportation Sea Transportation
Tanker Tankers
Steamship Steamship
NOTE: If you are pressed for time, you may indicate your indentations by using x's on a chart as shown below: 2. Famous writers X
George Orwell X
John Steinbeck X
Stephen Crane X
Famous scientists X
Louis Pasteur X
Charles Darwin X
3. How to write a term paper
Doing the research
Preparing an outline
Writing a rough draft
Writing the finished paper
How to study for a test
Reading
Outlining
4. Branches of chemistry
Organic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry
Branches of biology
Zoology
Physiology
Branches of psychology
Experimental
Clinical
5. Water activities
Boating
Fishing
Swimming
Land activities
Mountain climbing
Dancing
Sightseeing
For the following exercises do your own indenting. All items are still in the correct order.
6. Business organization
The partnership
Advantages
Disadvantages
Government organization
7. Types of investments
Bonds
Stocks
Preferred stock
Common stock
Mortgages
Reasons for investing
8. Types of insurance
Automobile insurance
Collision
Fire and theft
Bodily injury
Homeowner's insurance
Health insurance
Life insurance
Term life
Limited payment life
Endowment life
Costs of insurance
Group plans
Individual costs
NO
NOTE: The next two exercises require more than two levels of indentation.
9. Carpenters' tools
Saws
Kinds
Uses
Planes
Plumbers' tools
Wrenches
Kinds
Uses
Pipe cutters
10. Places to visit
Museums
Kinds
Art
Science
Locations
Theaters
Zoos
Kinds of animals
Reptiles
Birds
Maintenance
Places to live
Mountain areas
The sea
from Developing Outlining Skills, by Irwin L. Joffe, 1972
:
Directions:
In the following lists, major and minor ideas are mixed together. Rewrite them in the proper order by filling in the outline following each one. Begin each item with a capital letter. If you are not familiar with an item, check it with an encyclopedia or a dictionary. The first one is done for you.
1. wood, beer, solids, oxygen, cloth, soup, liquids, tin, hydrogen, gasoline, carbon dioxide, gases
I. Solids
A. Wood
B. Cloth
C. Tin
II. Liquids
A. Beer
B. Soup
C. Gasoline
III. Gases
A. Oxygen
B. Hydrogen
C. Carbon Dioxide
2. Cleopatra, Thomas Edison, famous structures, inventors, Taj Mahal, famous people, Henry V, Eli Whitney, rulers, Golden Gate Bridge
I.
A.
1.
2.
B.
1.
2.
II.
A.
B.
3. research reports, short stories, types of fiction, science textbook, types of non-fiction, textbooks, novels, autobiographies, plays, history textbook
I.
A.
B.
C.
II.
A.
B.
1.
2.
C.
4. woodwinds, purposes of music, in opera, cello, in television, musical instruments, to dance to, clarinet, to heighten drama, viola, in religious services, in movies, strings, oboe
I.
A.
B.
1.
2.
3.
4.
II.
A.
1.
2.
B.
1.
2.
Answer Key
5.
5. medical treatment of heart disease, limit cholesterol, drugs, prevention of heart disease, exercise, surgery, change diet, stop smoking, lose weight
I.
A.
B.
1.
2.
C.
II.
A.
B.
6. poor grades, social problems, family problems, lack of friends, dating problems, academic problems, family disagreements, poor study habits, conflict with brothers and sisters, reading difficulty
I.
A.
B.
II.
A.
B.
III.
A.
B.
C.