How to Take EXTREMELY Good Notes on a Story

 

  1. First, read the story.
    1. You shouldn’t take notes until you have an idea of who is doing what, and where and when they are. 
    2. When reading a novel, read at least the first few chapters before you start taking notes.  Once you are a chapter or two into the story, go back and take notes on the parts you have completed.
    3. After you have begun your novel notes, you should take notes when you finish a chapter or the assigned section.
    4. As you are reading, write down any of the following as they occur to you:

                                                               i.      Questions about parts you find confusing

                                                             ii.      Theories about what will happen later

                                                            iii.      Words you don’t recognize

  1. Figure out the main elements of the story:
    1. What are the three pieces of the SETTING?
    2. Who are the main CHARACTERS?
    3. What kind of NARRATOR is telling the story?
    4. What are the main points of the PLOT?

                                                               i.      For a novel, make sure you leave extra note-taking space in your setting and characters list, since you will probably find out more information as your read further into the story.

                                                             ii.      Also for a novel, you may want to organize your notes about the plot by chapter so you have a pretty good record of what happened when.  Again, you may want to leave a few extra lines to add information, since classroom discussions will probably provide you with additional thoughts about what’s happening with the plot.

  1. Write down ONLY the really important, main points.
    1. Write enough that if you review the notes a year from now, you’ll still know what you were writing about.
    2. Don’t write complete sentences unless you have to!
    3. Use “shorthand” and abbreviations so you can write faster.
  2. Once you’ve considered the main elements of the story, you should give some thought to the other elements of story.  As you find the other elements, you should think about (and write down) WHY the author used these elements:
    1. What kind of CHARACTERIZATION is the author using, DIRECT or INDIRECT?
    2. What THEME(S) might the author be writing about?
    3. Are there any IRONIC moments in the story?  What makes them ironic?
    4. What is the main CONFLICT in the story?  What kind of conflict is it?  What is the CLIMAX of the story?  How does the main conflict get RESOLVED?
    5. As you approach the end of the story, do you find there was FORESHADOWING earlier in the story that hinted at the ending?
    6. Are there any ALLUSIONS in the story?
    7. Is the main character STATIC or DYNAMIC?
    8. Were there any ANALOGIES in the story, such as SIMILES or METAPHORS, or some other types of analogies?
    9. Was DIALECT used in the story? 
    10. Can you find any SYMBOLISM in the story?
    11. What sort of TONE is the author conveying?
    12. Etc.
  3. Review your notes.  Read what you have written.  Ask yourself questions and try to answer them.
    1. Do your notes make sense? 
    2. What conclusions can you draw about the author’s purpose for writing the story?
    3. Were your theories about what was going to happen later in the story prove correct?
    4. Did you answer all your questions about parts you found confusing?  (If not, seek answers!)
    5. Have you figured out/looked up definitions for the words you didn’t know?  (If not, find definitions!)