Learning & thinking · a life skill
Deliberate Synthesis Notes
notes that join sources, counted every week
Most notes copy one source at a time. For two to four weeks on one question, you tag every note as a copy of one source, a link between sources, or your own. Each Friday you close the sources and argue your answer in five sentences. Two numbers, the share of link notes and the Friday count, tell you whether your notes are joining up.
- Moderate to start
- High impact
- Learn it in 2-4 weeks
- One question, four Fridays
Week 1 was mostly copying. The change came from what was read, not from trying harder: one source that disagreed gave the others something to meet.
Two to four weeks
Try it now.
One question, one running page of notes, three or four reading sittings a week, and ten minutes every Friday.
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Pick a question you'd argue
Not a topic. "Should the high street close to cars?", not "town planning". You should be able to take a side by the end.
Reading to argue is where joining notes paid off in the study below. -
Tag every note as you write it
Number your sources. A note from one source is a copy. One that names two or more is a link. One with none is your own.
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Make each link say how
Name both sources and one word for how they meet: agree, clash, explains or extends. A link without the word is two copies on one line.
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Friday, sources closed
Write five sentences arguing your answer. Then open your notes and mark each sentence that needed two sources to write.
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Read the two numbers, change one thing
If links stay flat, change what you read: add a source that disagrees. If links rise but Friday doesn't, rewrite your links as claims.
Copies still count. You need them to have something to link. The aim isn't zero copies; it's that by the third week, most sittings end with at least one link.
This week's page
Tag the notes, then log the week.
Write a note and tick the sources it draws on. The tag follows from how many you tick. When the week is done, put the tally into the log beside it with your Friday count.
This week so far
No notes yet.
The weeks
| Week | Link notes | All notes | Friday, of 5 |
|---|
Log two weeks to see which way it's going.
Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. It's gone when you leave the page, so copy the log at the end of each week.
Why read to argue
Notes that joined texts went with deeper understanding, for readers building an argument.
Åste Hagen, Jason Braasch and Ivar Bråten gave 44 undergraduates several texts about climate change. Some read in order to write an argument, others to write a summary. Nobody was told how to take notes; the researchers looked at the notes people took on their own.
Among the students reading to argue, notes that elaborated across texts, connecting one to another, were related to deeper, more integrated understanding. Among the students reading to summarise, no such relationship showed up. The arguing students also seemed more aware of the strategies they were using.
The honest limits: 44 students, one topic, one sitting. The notes weren't assigned, so this is a relationship, not proof that link notes cause understanding; stronger readers may simply do both. That's why this page has you check your own Friday count rather than trust the tally alone.
Reading to write an argument
Notes that joined the texts went with deeper, joined-up understanding.
Reading to write a summary
No such relationship was seen.
The idea
Why it works.
A copy note keeps each source in its own box. A link note makes you hold two at once and decide how they meet, which is exactly what an argument asks for on Friday. Reading toward a side gives you a reason to compare instead of collect.
The tags make that visible. You can't easily tell, while reading, whether your notes are joining up. A count you take every week can, and the Friday sentences check that the links reached your thinking and didn't just sit on the page.
When it goes wrong
Habits that help.
- Tag as you write. Tagging a week of notes on Sunday turns into guessing. The tick takes two seconds in the moment.
- One word for every link. Agree, clash, explains or extends. If you can't pick one, it isn't a link yet.
- Keep Friday closed-book. With the notes open, the five sentences become copying again, and the count stops meaning anything.
- Change one thing a week. A new source or rewritten links, not both. Then next Friday tells you which one helped.
Practise this in HourLife.
In Learning: Send a capture on. Track the books, courses, podcasts, videos and articles you are working through, log where you are, and keep what you take from them.
