There are a variety of different situations in which an individual should take notes on a particular topic including while the individual is listening to a lecture, reading a textbook, or reading a novel. Each of these situations requires different strategies in order to make sure that the individual is able to take notes on the topic that is being covered in the most effective way possible. However, there are certain strategies that can be applied to an individual's note taking regardless of the specific situation. One of these strategies is the strategy of marking key concepts in the notes that the individual takes and/or marking key sentences, phrases, or words in a textbook or novel. An individual, by underlining, circling, highlighting, or using other similar means of marking, can mark a particular note or passage as being more important than the notes or passages that surround the passage. This can be extremely helpful as it allows the individual to quickly identify the most important information, but it is only helpful if an individual understands which material he or she should highlight.
Fortunately, there are certain things that an individual can look for in his or her notes or in a textbook or novel that will signal that a certain piece of information should be highlighted, underlined, circled, or marked in some other fashion. First, the individual should highlight any phrases that relate directly to the main topic of the chapter, including phrases that identify important subtopics and phrases that offer examples related to the main topic. The individual should not necessarily highlight any phrases that add details about subtopics related to the main topic, but rather only those examples and sentences that identify the main idea of each passage related to the main topic. Secondly, the individual should mark any material that he or she does understand with a question mark or another symbol that makes it clear that the individual needs to review the material in that section at a later time. Next, the individual should mark any definitions or words that are important, such as definitions of key terms related to the main topic or uncommon words that are used to describe the main topic that the individual does not recognize. Finally, the individual should number any words or sentences that form a list of important ideas that the individual should review while he or she is studying the material.