digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Read journal articles with two separate systems: use highlighting to make re-reading faster, and use a note-taking app to capture quotes and references you might reuse in your writing. The speaker demonstrates this with a sociology paper on "Cosmopolitan cities" using Evernote, tags, and a "to read" list.
Key Points
- Highlight selectively: the speaker mainly highlights sentences that summarize a paragraph, especially in the abstract, and looks for simple sentences stating the study's aims or findings.
- Keep highlighting and notes distinct: highlights orient you when you return to the article, while notes capture only passages useful for your own writing.
- Log the full reference at the top of each note so you don't have to search for it again later.
- Use tags such as "literature notes" and the author's name so you can group work by author.
- Record useful quotes with the full inline citation, which the speaker says is a personal habit that helps the authors and dates stick in his memory.
- Keep a "to read" list at the bottom of each note for works cited in the article, then read those later.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Read the paper and highlight sentences that describe the study's purpose or findings in simple terms, and sentences that summarize a paragraph.
- Create a new note in your app (the speaker uses Evernote) titled with the article's title.
- Add a tag for the category (e.g., "literature notes") and tags for each author's name.
- At the top of the note, jot down the full bibliographic reference.
- Scan the article again for passages you might reuse in your writing, and copy those quotes into the note along with the full inline citation at the end of each sentence.
- Add a "to read" section at the bottom of the note, listing any cited works you want to read next (e.g., "Massey 2005").
- The example quote used is the authors' definition: "we conceptualize Cosmopolitan City as urban areas whose cultures emphasize values including autonomy, freedom, egalitarianism, and mutual respect."
- The speaker says the tagging tip came from The Thesis Whisperer.
- The speaker notes that some highlighted bits will overlap with notes, but notes are not a copy of all highlights.
Bottom Line
Separate reading aids from writing material: highlight to speed up re-reading, and take notes with references, tags, and reusable quotes so the work is ready for your own essays.
