Add Meaning to Your Notes by Indenting Less Important Information.

Indenting less important information allows the main points of a lecture to stand alone near your margin, making them clear and easy to read. These main points in your notes are also noted as headings.

The following series of exercises will help you develop your outlining/indenting skills. Remember the basic outline pattern:

I. Main idea/Heading

A. Supporting Idea / Sub-Heading

1. Detail (example, fact)

2. Detail

B. Supporting Idea / Sub-heading

1. Detail

2. Detail

II. Main idea

… and so on

It’s not always critical to include ALL of the Roman numerals, numbers, and letters in your notes, but if they help your notes stay organized, use them.

Here is a short video clip to add to your understanding of outlining: Go to the TAKING LECTURE NOTES/LISTENING LIST or Google search Outline Method Manchester Community College or www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhSCPRY-k3g

Try Adding Your Own Headings

Directions: Your skill at creating headings and subheadings and using outlining in your notes can be strengthened by doing the following exercises. Below is a list of words that will serve as TOPICS (or HEADINGS). Look over the list. Then turn to the next page to begin the exercise.

Part A American presidents

Animals

Bedroom furniture

Beverages

Books

Cheeses

Clothing

Eye conditions

Famous Americans

Famous athletes

Famous people

Famous names

Foods

Footwear

Furniture

Instruments

Liquid Foods

Male names

Measurements

Measurements of length

Measurements of volume

Men's clothing

Metals

Musical instruments

Names

Nuts

Sports

Sports that use a ball

Stringed instruments

Terms applied to liquids

Terms used in music

Terms used in science

Types of cloth

Types of material

Types of singing voices

Wild animals

For each of the lists below, find the topic in Part A which describes it most exactly. (Read them carefully, for although more than one topic in Part A may fit a particular list, only one will fit most accurately.) Write your answer in the space provided. You may not be familiar with an item in some of the lists. You should check these with a dictionary. The first one is done for you.

1. Clothing

Necktie Pants Shirt Man's jacket Sweatshirt

3.

Washington Lincoln Roosevelt Eisenhower Madison

5.

Bed Chair Sofa Desk Dining Table

7.

Swiss cheese Brazil nut American cheese Mexican bean Canadian bacon

9.

Violin Harp Clarinet Banjo Guitar

2.

Evelyn David Bruce Edith Tom

4.

Babe Ruth Arnold Palmer Michael Jordan Joe Louis Lou Gehrig

6.

Lion Tiger Cow Panther Rattlesnake

8.

Inch Foot Yard Mile Kilometer

10.

Coffee Tea Cocoa Mineral water Milk

11.

Ounce Bushel Foot Pint Quart

13.

Silk Cotton Linen Rayon Nylon

15.

Skating Swimming Wrestling Hockey Track

17.

Alto Soprano Tenor Bass Baritone

19.

Melody Harmony Drum Quartet Overture

12.

Tin Copper Gold Platinum Silver

14.

Moccasins Sneakers Shoes Boots Sandals

16.

Basketball Golf Baseball Tennis Bowling

18.

Astigmatism Sty Glaucoma Cataract Conjunctivitis

20.

Osmosis Viscosity Evaporation Boiling point Condensation

from Developing Outlining Skills, by Irwin L. Joffe, 1972

Check Your Work: Answer Key for Creating Your Own Headings

1Clothing 11 Measurements 2 Names 12 Metals 3 American Presidents 13 Types of Cloth 4 Famous Athletes 14 Footwear 5 Furniture 15 Sports 6 Animals 16 Sports that Use a Ball 7 Foods 17 Types of Singing Voices 8 Measurements of Length 18 Eye Conditions 9 Musical Instruments 19 Terms Used in Music 10 Beverages 20 Terms Applied to Liquid

Try Some Outlining

Directions: Arrange the following items into an outline under the main headings shown in the outline below. Notice letters have been entered for you in the outline. Add your own letters as needed.

Sporting dogs Feeding Housebreaking

Coat Field trials Hounds

Bones Shelter Obedience

Tricks Diseases Grooming

Mouth Working dogs Terriers

Dog shows Ears Cocker spaniels

Mongrels Eyes Wild dogs

I. Breeds of Dogs A. B. C. D.

II. The Body of a Dog III. The Care of Dogs IV. The Training of Dogs V. The History of Dog Breeding

Answer Key for Outlining

Practice Arranging Headings and Subheadings

Directions:

To the right of the items below are lines showing three different levels of indentation. Copy each of the items and show how they relate to each other by indenting them at the correct level of indentation. All items are in the correct order. Some lists require two levels of indentation while others require three levels. If you are not familiar with an item, check it with an encyclopedia or a dictionary. The first one is done for you.

1. Air transportation Air Transportation

Airplane Airplane

Helicopter Helicopter

Land transportation Land Transportation

Auto Auto

Railroad Railroad

Bus Bus

Sea transportation Sea Transportation

Tanker Tankers

Steamship Steamship

NOTE: If you are pressed for time, you may indicate your indentations by using x's on a chart as shown below: 2. Famous writers X

George Orwell X

John Steinbeck X

Stephen Crane X

Famous scientists X

Louis Pasteur X

Charles Darwin X

3. How to write a term paper

Doing the research

Preparing an outline

Writing a rough draft

Writing the finished paper

How to study for a test

Reading

Outlining

4. Branches of chemistry

Organic chemistry

Inorganic chemistry

Branches of biology

Zoology

Physiology

Branches of psychology

Experimental

Clinical

5. Water activities

Boating

Fishing

Swimming

Land activities

Mountain climbing

Dancing

Sightseeing

For the following exercises do your own indenting. All items are still in the correct order.

6. Business organization

The partnership

Advantages

Disadvantages

Government organization

7. Types of investments

Bonds

Stocks

Preferred stock

Common stock

Mortgages

Reasons for investing

8. Types of insurance

Automobile insurance

Collision

Fire and theft

Bodily injury

Homeowner's insurance

Health insurance

Life insurance

Term life

Limited payment life

Endowment life

Costs of insurance

Group plans

Individual costs

NO

NOTE: The next two exercises require more than two levels of indentation.

9. Carpenters' tools

Saws

Kinds

Uses

Planes

Plumbers' tools

Wrenches

Kinds

Uses

Pipe cutters

10. Places to visit

Museums

Kinds

Art

Science

Locations

Theaters

Zoos

Kinds of animals

Reptiles

Birds

Maintenance

Places to live

Mountain areas

The sea

from Developing Outlining Skills, by Irwin L. Joffe, 1972

:

Directions:

In the following lists, major and minor ideas are mixed together. Rewrite them in the proper order by filling in the outline following each one. Begin each item with a capital letter. If you are not familiar with an item, check it with an encyclopedia or a dictionary. The first one is done for you.

1. wood, beer, solids, oxygen, cloth, soup, liquids, tin, hydrogen, gasoline, carbon dioxide, gases

I. Solids

A. Wood

B. Cloth

C. Tin

II. Liquids

A. Beer

B. Soup

C. Gasoline

III. Gases

A. Oxygen

B. Hydrogen

C. Carbon Dioxide

2. Cleopatra, Thomas Edison, famous structures, inventors, Taj Mahal, famous people, Henry V, Eli Whitney, rulers, Golden Gate Bridge

I.

A.

1.

2.

B.

1.

2.

II.

A.

B.

3. research reports, short stories, types of fiction, science textbook, types of non-fiction, textbooks, novels, autobiographies, plays, history textbook

I.

A.

B.

C.

II.

A.

B.

1.

2.

C.

4. woodwinds, purposes of music, in opera, cello, in television, musical instruments, to dance to, clarinet, to heighten drama, viola, in religious services, in movies, strings, oboe

I.

A.

B.

1.

2.

3.

4.

II.

A.

1.

2.

B.

1.

2.

Answer Key

5.

5. medical treatment of heart disease, limit cholesterol, drugs, prevention of heart disease, exercise, surgery, change diet, stop smoking, lose weight

I.

A.

B.

1.

2.

C.

II.

A.

B.

6. poor grades, social problems, family problems, lack of friends, dating problems, academic problems, family disagreements, poor study habits, conflict with brothers and sisters, reading difficulty

I.

A.

B.

II.

A.

B.

III.

A.

B.

C.