ABSTRACT
Reading is not enough on its own. A permanent record of what has been read is necessary. In the long run, taking good notes always pays off, and is certainly quicker than having to re-read whole books to check one’s memory or scramble around the library searching for a reference that is dimly recalled. Students are not always aware of all the things that should be in their notes about a book or paper, so some basic features that should be recorded are listed below. The notes should always include: 1 Full bibliographic details:
• the author(s) with full names and all initials; the full title of the book/ article;
• the date the study was published originally (so you know if it is an old or a new study) and of the edition you are using;
• the publisher and the place of publication (if it is a book); • the name of the journal with full details of the volume and issue
numbers; • if an edited collection, the editors’ names, the title of the book and
page numbers of any particular article. 2 The Library Catalogue Number (e.g. LC5146 H27) so you can find it
again! (And the ISBN is useful if you ever want to buy the book yourself or order it for another library.)
In addition there should be a record of the key features of the book or paper, such as: 3 Is it an original study, or a report of other people’s work? (Primary or
secondary source?) 4 Is it empirical (has data in it) or theoretical or polemical (argumentative)? 5 What methods were used (e.g. questionnaires, interviews, experiments,
observation, etc.)? 6 What theory is cited (Marxist, Weberian…)? 7 What are the author’s conclusions (i.e. what did she find out/prove)? 8 What date was the research done? (Maybe many years before it was
published.) 9 The number of respondents/subjects (and the response rate).
