5 note taking styles to keep you organized + 3 free templates
You process a lot of information in a day. Learn how to keep your thoughts organized with these five note-taking templates.
If you don’t take notes, you’ll probably forget. And if you take notes in a disorganized way, you probably won’t be able to find where you put the points you need anyway. But if you use a note-taking template, you can track information in a way that works best for your learning style.
The five styles of note taking templates.
There are hundreds of different ways to take notes — if not more. And the best way for you to take notes will depend on your personal style and learning preferences. To get you started, here are five popular styles of note taking you can use in a template:
The Outline Method.
Just like when you’re outlining a written piece, the Outline Method of note taking puts the most general information on the left and more specific information is indented underneath. Continue indenting as the information gets even more specific.
This method makes a great note-taking template because it groups information through the indenting. The outline method is perfect for school activities like writing and learning; an easy to use reading notes template can help with reading comprehension. You know the indented information is related to the more general, left-aligned information.
The Cornell Method.
Developed by students at Cornell, the Cornell Method is a way to take notes that leaves space for additional comments. This will create three sections on your Cornell note-taking template.
First, divide your page into sections:
- Draw a horizontal line two inches from the bottom of the page.
- Draw a vertical line two and a half inches from the left edge of the page, stopping at the horizontal line.
This will create three sections on your note-taking template.
Use the largest section on the right for taking notes and the smaller section on the left for adding keywords (called "cues") to label each thought in the notes section. Use the bottom section to summarize the page of notes.
The Mapping Method.
The Mapping Method of note taking links related ideas. It’s like a bubble map for your notes.
As you take your notes, draw lines between related content. The main idea of the information would go in the middle of the map, and all the related content would be in bubbles around it linked with lines. Continue creating lines and bubbles as needed to keep your information organized.
The Mapping Method is great for showing the relationships between information, but it can take up a lot of space on your page.
The Chart Method.
Pretend you’re taking notes in a spreadsheet, and you have the Chart Method. With the Chart Method of note taking, draw a grid and label the top of each column heading based on the information presented.
For example, if you’re learning about the history of music, you could label your headings:
- Date
- Genre
- Artists
- Impact
Then simply fill out the rows with the appropriate information. You can create new rows for different times periods, genres, or however you prefer to organize the information.
The Sentence Method.
With the Sentence Method of note taking, you simply write every new thought, fact, or topic in a complete sentence on a different line. Number your sentences as you go. This method is easy to use without a specific template in your processor of choice, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs however, be sure to utilize a free meeting notes template as a starting point and to stay consistent.
Save your note-taking template as a PDF.
No matter which of the note-taking templates you decide to use, it’s always a good idea to save your final notes as a PDF. PDF documents maintain your formatting no matter which device you use to open it. That means if you need to share your notes with coworkers, classmates, or anyone else, they’ll see your template exactly as you intended.
You can easily save your template document as a PDF or convert your template from Word to PDF online using a tool like Adobe Acrobat online services.
And if you need to add to your notes, you can quickly convert a PDF back to Word using nothing but your web browser.
Additional resources.
There are plenty of ways to work with PDFs to simplify your note-taking experience. Here are a few resources to help you learn in an organized fashion:
- Do you like the Chart Method? Learn how to convert Excel to PDF online.
- Want to collaborate with your colleagues? Learn how to share a link to your PDF notes, so anyone can add comments and sticky notes.
- Need to reorganize your notes? Reorder pages in a PDF to put your notes in a more logical order.
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Content as a Service - acrobat-hub - Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 08:45