Lesson 7: Navigating text types and basic note-taking

Lesson aims:
• Understand different text features
• Understand the purpose behind navigating text
• Identify key points in an academic text
• Learn how to take effective notes that will help you in your reading and
writing process
• Distinguish between good and bad notes
• Create effective notes

Prepare for class

Thorough preparation before class helps you understand the content discussed in class, and
enables you to contribute to the various discussions and tasks given in class.

Complete this section on your own before class.

Watch the video on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pPqGH6PMcE and take

notes on how to manage all your academic reading by having a purpose, reading actively,
and questioning what you read.

Notes:
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
 In class

For this week’s lesson, you will need to be familiar with the paragraph/essay topics and the
needs analysis template you started to complete in the past two weeks’ lessons. If you have
missed any of the lessons from the past week, we suggest that you first catch up the work by
looking at the online materials and lesson recordings.
We will be focusing on navigating academic texts. This means that we will try to help you realise
that there are different texts/sources that you can use and teach you the best ways to use them.
As you have gathered by now, you need to be proficient in both reading and writing in order to
be successful in your studies. However, you cannot be a good writer, if you are not a good
reader. Therefore, it is important to note that as a scholar you will be required to read for
different purposes. It is purpose that determines how you will approach each reading
task.
There are a number of ways to establish purpose, such as from the essay brief or the
structure of the text you are reading.

What is a text

A text can be regarded as anything that conveys a set of meaning to the person who examines
it. In essence, it is something that has layers of meaning which one can draw conclusions
from. This is not limited to written materials such as books, journals, magazines, newspapers
etc., but also includes movies, songs, advertisements, etc.

Task 1

• Complete the activity below.

Read the explanation of the word ‘text’ in the grey block above. Reflect on the texts you have
encountered during your high school career and think about the texts you might encounter
during your university studies. Think about what type of texts you anticipate to use or have used
during your university studies. Tick the ones that you think you will encounter.
 Blogs Novels

Journal articles Biographies

Newspaper articles Textbooks

Books Encyclopedias

Web pages Study guides

Seminar papers Academic posters

• Where do you think you will use these types of texts?

You will soon notice that as a Humanities student, you will be expected to read a large number
of texts. When you are reading for your course, you need to make sure you are actively involved
with the text. It is a waste of time to passively read as you do for leisure.

Task 2

Reflect on the questions in the table to gauge your level of interaction with texts.
• Tick the boxes which apply to you, and be prepared to share your thoughts with the
class during your weekly in-class lesson:
 Tick

1 Do you know exactly what you are looking for while

reading academic texts?
2 Are you able to identify the purpose for your reading
before you start to read?
3 When you find relevant information from a text, do you
know what to do with it?
4 Can you select important and/or relevant information
for your purpose?
5 Can you pick out key words and/or information?

6 Do you vary your approach to reading a text

depending on the nature of the task?

Reading is an active engagement between you and the author through the mode of a text. The
author of the text is most often trying to persuade your thinking. Thus, it is imperative for you to
continually question and engage with the texts you read. One way to do that is to understand
the features of the text that is in front of you if you are to engage successfully. Read through the
table in the grey block below and proceed to watch the two videos. Please take notes of
information that seems useful to you or that you think is important in the space provided after
the videos or underline/highlight information in the table that you also see in the videos.

Please note: We are not going to cover all text features in all texts. We will highlight certain
features that you can use to identify trends in any text.

Task 3
Text features: navigation aids

Navigating texts may sometimes seem tricky; however, knowing the purpose of different text
features will help you access the information in the text, and aid your understanding of the
text. There are a number of things that an author will use to help you gather the information
you need to focus on from the text and set goals for your reading. Below are a few features
you can look at:

Text feature Purpose

Title Tells the reader what information they will learn about
Table of Shows the reader the different section titles and where they are
contents located
Directs the reader in the text to find specific information on a topic, or
Index
word
Provides important vocabulary and definitions for the reader to
Glossary
understand the text
Headings/
Help the reader to identify the main idea for that section of the text
subtitles
Sidebars/
Help elaborate or provide additional detail related to the text
grey boxes
Pictures/ Help the reader visualise real events, steps or objects described in
captions the text
Labelled Allow readers to see detailed depictions of an object/idea from the
diagrams text with labels that teach the important components
Charts and Represent and show data related to, or elaborated on, something in
graphs the main body of the text
Help a reader locate a place in the world that is related to the text,
Maps
and quickly understand the relative location of something in the text
Signals important vocabulary or phrases that are integral to
Bold print
understanding the content of the text
Indicates proper nouns and important vocabulary that the reader
Italics
should take note of when reading (similar to bold print)
Bullets Summarise or list information in a text
 Helps the reader visualise something in the text in both large and
Inset small scale, in combination with the large picture (e.g. a zoomed-in
picture of South Africa in the corner of a picture of the map of Africa)
Allows the reader to see all the layers of whatever is described in the
Cross
text (e.g. an apple that has been cut into two – so you can see what
section
the inside looks like)
Allows the reader to understand when events in the main body of text
Timeline
occurred relative to other events

Note: Remember to keep your essay brief/questions at hand when reading. You are ultimately
looking for the answer to this brief, and so it will help you find the relevant information you
need.

How to question while reading:

Questions help your mind engage and concentrate on your reading task, because you are
actively looking for answers to the questions. The following example questions will help you
improve your comprehension as you actively search for answers to your questions.

Title

Read the title to help prepare for the subject of discussion.

Questions you can ask while reading the title:

o What is the title?
o What do I already know about the topic?
o What do I think I will be reading about?

Headings
Notice the boldface headings to understand the structure of the text.

Questions you can ask while reading the headings:

o What do I think I will be reading about?
o What questions do I have based on the headings that are likely to be answered
in the text?

Introduction

Read the introduction or summary to see what the author thinks are the key points.

Questions you can ask when reading the introduction:

o What does the introduction tell me I will be reading about?
o Do I know anything about this topic already?

First and last sentence in the paragraph

Read the first and the last sentence in a paragraph to identify the main idea of the
paragraph.

Questions you can ask when reading the first and the last sentence of the paragraph:
o What do I think the section will be about based on the first and last sentence in
each paragraph?

Visuals and vocabulary

Notice any maps, graphs or charts – they are there for a purpose.

Questions you can ask while looking at visuals and vocabulary:

o What can I learn from the visual/s in the text?
o How do the visual/s help me to better understand the meaning in the text?
 o Is there a list of key vocabulary terms that I can use?
o Do I know what the boldfaced word/s mean?
o Why is this particular word bolded?
o Can I distinguish between the meaning of the boldface word/s and the rest of
the sentence?

It is important to ask yourself why you are reading a text, and what you want to get out of the
exercise so that you read with a specific focus in mind.

Watch the two videos on how to actively engage with your reading. The first one introduces you
to reading academic texts and the second one takes you on a guided tour of a journal article.

Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pPqGH6PMcE: Introduction to the reading of

academic texts. Remember to take notes.

Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm0bbH45ie0: Guided tour of a journal article.

Now, do the following activity. You can use your notes and the information in the grey
block to help you.

Task 4

Study the following insert taken from an academic writing textbook and answer the questions.
 (Bailey, S. 2011. Academic Writing A Handbook for International Students. 3rd Ed. New York:
Routledge)

• List all of the text features you can see on this page.

• Based on the text features on this page, what do you think the chapter will be about?
• Which text feature was most useful in helping you understand the text? Why?

• Which text feature was least helpful to you in understanding the text? Why?

Now that you can identify texts that might help you in your research, it is time to consider how
to take notes when reading.

Task 5

Discuss the following questions in your online class:

• What is the purpose of taking notes?

• Try to mention a few note-taking strategies that you may have used at school.

• Do you ever take notes in your content courses? Why?

 • Have you ever studied for a test using your notes? If so, to what extent did it help?

By taking notes, you:

• Record ideas/evidence to use in your writing. You may take notes weeks or months
before you actually write your essay, so good record-keeping will be essential.
• Focus your mind during reading; it is easy to passively ‘read’ pages of text. This
means that you do not really engage with or digest the text. Note-taking forces you to
read actively and makes your reading time productive and purposeful.
• Separate the ideas from the author’s original words. Taking good notes will better
allow you to write about ideas/evidence in your own words. Note-taking is the first step
in paraphrasing effectively.
• Read critically. As you read and make notes, you need to consider the extent to
which you accept or reject ideas and interpretations (according to the essay brief you
have been given). Note-taking is a key part of this process, as you can also make
notes of your own thoughts and reactions.

You can take notes from listening (e.g. a lecture or an oral discussion in class) or from reading
material.

Different note-taking styles include:

• Linear notes: Notes are written on a page, one line after the other in a linear format.
 • Annotations: Notes that you can write next to a text or diagram on the text itself. BUT
never write in library books!

In this lesson, we will focus on taking notes from reading, and we will concentrate on linear
note-taking as this is the most common form of note-taking.

When taking notes, you do not provide a photocopy of the text, but you only write down the
main points or important information. Remember that you can use abbreviations or shortened
words. For this task, read the mock essay question below and the given reading:

Essay brief: Students’ lack of English proficiency affects their academic success in Higher
Education. In a well-structured essay, discuss the validity of this assertion.

Essay reading:
Current studies and literature such as the one done by Grumbly Your notes
(2000) and supported by other researchers such as Aina,
Ogunde and Olanipekun (2013) and Kong, Powers, Starr and
Williams (2012) indicate that proficiency in the language of
teaching and learning impacts on inter alia students’ academic
grades. The students mainly struggle in their learning as
engagement is limited due lack of proficiency in English, which is
the medium of instruction in class (Stephen, Welman and Jordan,
2004; Blacquierie, 1989; Kong, Powers, Starr and Williams,
2012). This is particularly so for Journalism students as the
nature of their discipline is very much English proficiency
dependent. The discipline is communication-driven, and failure to
communicate (and comprehend) has detrimental consequences
for the students and their futures in the industry.

Armstrong, Taylor, Gustafsson, Spaull and Berg (2011)

contribute to the view that English impacts on student successes.
One of the theories that have been used to describe why students
from a different linguistic background find it difficult to succeed
academically is the socialisation mismatch theory made popular
 by Faltis (1997). This theory predicts students stand a better
chance of performing academically if home language and literacy
socialisation patterns are the same as those used in teaching and
learning (Faltis, 1997). At a linguistic level, the patterns are never
similar when the medium of instruction is not the mother tongue
of the student.

Task 6

• What information does the question ask you to find?

• How will you find this information in the text you are going to read?

• Keeping the question in mind, try to skim for the information you need from the essay
reading, then jot down notes in your own style below.
____________________________________________________________________________

Discuss your notes with your peer, then ask the following questions:

• Do you think your partner made effective notes? In other words, did your partner
produce notes that are easy to understand and did they relate to the question? Why do
you think so?
 • Did your partner write in full sentences? If so, do you think this is a good strategy?

• Do you think your partner’s notes will be useful in a month’s time?

Ask your partner why they chose certain information to take notes on.

How do you think you can improve on your partner’s notes?

Task 7

Now compare your notes to the notes below based on the same reading that you used in the
previous activity.

Reading Notes
Current studies and literature such as the one done by Grumbly
(2000) and supported by other researchers such as Aina, Ogunde Lang’ proficiency =
and Olanipekun (2013) and Kong, Powers, Starr and Williams student results + futures.
(2012) indicate that proficiency in the language of teaching and
learning impacts on inter alia students’ academic grades. The
students mainly struggle in their learning as engagement is limited
due lack of proficiency in English, which is the medium of
instruction in class (Stephen, Welman and Jordan, 2004; Lack – comprehension &
Blacquierie, 1989; Kong, Powers, Starr and Williams, 2012). This engagement
is particularly so for Journalism students as the nature of their
discipline is very much English proficiency dependent. The
discipline is communication-driven, and failure to communicate
(and comprehend) has detrimental consequences for the students
and their futures in the industry.

Armstrong, Taylor, Gustafsson, Spaull and Berg (2011) contribute

to the view that English impacts on student successes. One of the
theories that have been used to describe why students from a Home lang’ = the best
different linguistic background find it difficult to succeed
academically is the socialisation mismatch theory made popular by
Faltis (1997). This theory predicts students stand a better chance
of performing academically if home language and literacy
socialisation patterns are the same as those used in teaching and
learning (Faltis, 1997). At a linguistic level, the patterns are never
similar when the medium of instruction is not the mother tongue of
the student.

• What do you think the person who took the notes above did well?

• Was the information relevant to the question? Why?

• Were any of the notes written out in full sentences?

• What note-taking techniques can you identify?

 • What abbreviations did the student use? What do they mean?

There is no correct way to take notes, and over time, you will develop note-taking styles and
strategies that suit your needs. However, there are some good note-taking strategies:

• Do not just underline or highlight text. Make sure to actually take notes either on a
separate piece of paper, or as annotations on your text. If you just highlight or
underline text, you probably will not remember why in a few weeks, and then you will
have to read it all over again.
• Taking notes on a separate piece of paper also forces you to engage with the text and
put the original text into your own words.
• Make sure you fully understand your purpose for taking notes. Do you have an essay
to complete? What is your essay brief? Are you reading to understand more about a
topic? Or are you reading to gather specific information (such as details or examples)?
• Try to put things into your own words. If you cannot, then ask yourself, do I really
understand this?
• Always note down the full reference of the text: the title of the text, the author’s
name/s, the year of publication.
• Always write down the page number you are taking notes from (and remember when
you change pages!).
• Try your best not to write in full sentences (again, this helps you to put things into your
own words).
• If you do write down a quote, make sure that you can tell it apart from your own words
(e.g. write the quote in a different colour pen).

Task 8

Keep the above example and tips in mind, and try to retake notes on a different part of the same
extract you used earlier in this lesson (Keep in mind the essay brief: Students’ lack of English
proficiency affects their academic success in Higher Education. In a well-structured essay,
discuss the validity of this assertion)

Collaborative teaching can offer a solution to the lack of language Your Notes
proficiency (Chen, 2008). Collaborative teaching strategy works well
on many dimensions and is a dream strategy for an educator
(Stenlev, n.d). Even though this teaching strategy was not initially
designed with language proficiency in mind, Stenlev (n.d) argues
that one of the positive spin-offs from this is that it is an excellent
way of teaching language and improving the communication skills
of students. In essence, it increases the student’s subject
knowledge and language proficiency.

Ovando and Collier (1998) add weight to the argument that in

improving the communicative competence of students, collaborative
teaching strategy is also central to language acquisition and
competence. It should also be highlighted that this competence is
not achieved at the expense of knowledge content. The students
improve on both content and language. A notable figure in
collaborative teaching literature, Kagan (1995), also noted the
positive effects of collaborative strategy as it supports and creates a
motivating context that promotes language development (Kagan
and Kagan, 1998).

• How do your notes compare to your previous notes? Is there anything you can do to
improve?
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

• Tell your peers what you did to improve your second attempt.
 • Do you think you will be able to make sense of your notes in three weeks from now?

Reflection

• What did you learn in this lesson? How do you think you can apply what you have learnt?

• Which part of reading and note-taking do you think you might struggle with? Please
provide a reason why you think you might struggle with this component.

• How do you think you might overcome this issue?

Online task

Please complete the lesson quiz on Blackboard. The quiz is based on the content from
lessons 1-7. The marks for this task will contribute towards your final module marks.

End of Lesson Seven.