Earlier today, I had to do an outline of a five-page section of my history book. My outline ended up being four pages long (handwritten), and it took me an hour and a half. My outline was WAY too long!! Now I have to outline a twenty-page biology chapter and I'm freaking out because it's due tomorrow!! I don't want to spend my entire sunday doing homework!! I thought I was just putting the important points, but I guess not... Can you PLEASE help? I will be forever grateful!! My teacher said we'd be doing these kinds of outlines all year, and I really want to be able to work efficiently!
2006-09-17 09:44:47 · 6 answers · asked by pseudonym 5 in Education & Reference ➔ Homework Help
THANKS!! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!!
2006-09-20 10:39:30 · update #1
It takes time and practice to learn how to make effective notes and outlines. There are a few exercises you can try.
Read a paragraph and try to define that paragraph in 1-2 words. Once you've associated that paragraph with those words, it becomes easier to remember. Then just write a line that makes sense with those words (not necessarily a sentence), almost like what you would read in a newspaper.
Depending on the material you're reading, you could end up summarizing several paragraphs in just a few words. However, I can imagine with subjects like history and all the dates involved, it becomes quite hard!
Another trick that might be handy is to glance at the required readings and try to understand the structure of the text and pick out the keywords before actually reading it (hopefully your biology textbook helps you out by bolding all the key terms). Ask yourself "What are the headers in the text? What am I supposed to learn from this?" This way, your mind is more prepared to pick out the important information.
Believe it or not, with a lot of practice, the less you write, the more you'll remember, within reason of course! Don't expect to write nothing and remember everything. Pick out what you need to remember the details.
These techniques don't work with all texts because every book is written differently. That's why I emphasize practice; so you can learn what works for you.
You'll catch on ... don't put too much energy into worrying ... put your energy into getting things done!
2006-09-17 10:12:22 · answer #1 · answered by cdub 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Simplify! You should simply use shorter sentences and/or phrases to summarize each concept for the chapter and the book itself. Remember that you cannot give the entire course in one short outline. However, you can develop key points and theories within the outline, as to summarize and provide the necessary and most important points in your learning.
2006-09-17 16:48:48 · answer #2 · answered by It is . . . 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Outlines are small but strong phrases. If you ever see yourself writing more than a phrase stop...minimalize your sentence and write a page reference next to sentence....like this
A. Main Topic
I. Subtopic
a. simple detail (pg. 4)
pg refers to where in the book you can get a full detail
2006-09-17 16:50:37 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
After reading such texts every day you will soon realise that you don't want to spend your whole life sitting at books and you will read, write faster and shorter;)
What I do is reading at first and underlining the MOST important things. Then I just look at those underlined infos and choose the MOST important points - and write it down. That's it. And you remember more!
2006-09-17 16:53:33 · answer #4 · answered by Lady G. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Generally the first sentence of a paragraph should be all the info you need to summarize your chapter
2006-09-17 16:50:46 · answer #5 · answered by steveh_indy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
make it simple by a shorter detail. good luck! I already finished my homework yesterday.
2006-09-17 16:59:16 · answer #6 · answered by ♥Roberta. 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋