{"id":6,"date":"2017-12-18T17:02:12","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T17:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/brightcontinent\/2017\/12\/18\/appendix\/"},"modified":"2018-08-31T17:54:57","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T17:54:57","slug":"appendix","status":"publish","type":"back-matter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/bright-continent\/back-matter\/appendix\/","title":{"rendered":"Appendix A: Taking Notes"},"content":{"raw":"
Class Notes<\/h5>\r\nNote-taking from lectures is essential. Students often overestimate their ability to remember things without writing them down. Unfortunately, information that seems obvious one day may become a mystery a month later, when testing is about to occur.\r\n\r\nNotes, of course, are not meant to be an exact transcription--outside of a court, that is unnecessary. In African art history, most important points a lecturer makes are fairly easy to spot, as long as you're listening. Some basic information--definitions, technique, gender of artists--needs to be recorded from speech alone. Most information, however, is linked to projected images. The best way to be sure you're linking information to the correct image is to make a schematic drawing. We won't go so far as to call it a sketch--you're trying to capture the information, not record a perfect image (Fig. a). Why bother to make a quick drawing? The reasons are two-fold: you'll be able to match information to specific testable images and just by marking basics, you're noticing things about style--is the head one-third of the body height? Does the figure slant forward? Do the legs flex into two strong diagonals?\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_674\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"\"<\/a> Fig. a. Class notes from a lecture on Bamana chi wara<\/em> masquerade crests from Mali. Click to ENLARGE.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_679\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"230\"]\"\"<\/a> Fig. b. Notes on Islamic architecture. Visuals are included, but notes on the lecture material are stressed. Click to ENLARGE.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nApproaches to taking art history notes vary. Some (Fig. a) are free-form in nature and don't even conform to the lines on the page, while others are more orderly, emphasizing verbal over visual notes (Fig. b). Both are the work of former students who averaged A+ in all their art history courses, so it is clear there is not only one way to succeed. The video below shows a more structured method that might appeal to a different kind of student.\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pZgMpjjgCRA[\/embed]\r\n\r\nBe aware that numerous studies<\/a> have found that writing your classroom notes rather than typing them\u00a0promotes retention<\/a>. Taking notes by hand also requires you to edit on the fly, selecting important\u00a0concepts to record. This by-hand method also gives you the flexibility to not only add sketches, but underline concepts that might be repeated several times or otherwise stressed by the lecturer.\r\n
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Examples<\/h3>\r\nTry the following links for additional note-taking examples for art history (not necessarily for African art, but the same principles\r\n