The Importance of Note Taking in Academic Research

The Importance of Note Taking in Academic Research
Avid readers can certainly sympathise with Robert Louis Stevenson’s admission that he always kept a book in his pocket so that he would have something to read no matter where he was. His comment, however, was really that of a writer, for he claimed to keep ‘two books’ with him always – ‘one to read, one to write in.’ With note-taking apps available for every kind of smart phone, modern writers might not need to carry a book with them in order to have somewhere to jot their notes and thoughts, but the principle remains the same. Ideas come to the mind where and when they will, and they flee from it even more readily and unpredictably, so a means of recording them before they are gone is essential for serious authors.

Although some might think that spontaneous ideas and imaginative concepts are not a normal part of the carefully planned research and formally written prose associated with advanced scholarship, they are wrong. Unexpected ideas visit academics and scientists as often as they do other writers. In fact, the kinds of problems and analyses that fill the working days of active scholars are the meat upon which new ideas feed and grow during more leisurely hours. It would be nice if all the best thoughts arose when a scientist was busy in the laboratory or a literary scholar already typing at the computer, but the fact is that they are equally if not more likely to arrive when you take a restful walk through the park, eat dinner at a restaurant, travel home on the subway or awake in the middle of the night. If there is no means of recording those ideas, you may console yourself that you will remember them, but the possibility of being aware in the morning that there was something to remember but having no idea what it was is all too great. Having that book ‘to write in’ readily to hand will prevent you from losing what might have been the birth of an excellent paragraph, an insightful interpretation you had not yet considered or even an entirely new research project and the book it will ultimately generate.

Some authors may think the ideas that come to them spontaneously while they are engaged in activities other than research and writing so small or insignificant that they hardly deserve to be recorded. At times this is true and what seemed so important in the middle of the night will appear drab and redundant in the morning. More often, however, those ideas are the product of your mind working through the intellectual problems you have been tackling at work, and they can provide surprising solutions and take you, your research and your writing in new and productive directions. Remember that there is no need to develop your ideas immediately just because you bothered to put pen to paper. You need only jot down what you are thinking, long or short, clear or confused, simple or convoluted. As long as your writing is tidy enough so that you can read it later, you have planted the seeds for further thought, and even if they never blossom into anything wonderful, giving them the chance is far better than tossing away what may have been one of the most revolutionary ideas or greatest innovations of your scholarly career.