Taking notes is one of the biggest skills you’ll need to master as a journalist. Here are our top tips for effective note taking.
Focus on What Facts Actually Matter
You don’t need to write down everything and in fact, trying to do that usually makes your notes worse. The priority is taking down names, dates, figures, and their exact quotes because they are the details that hold a story together. General conversation or background chatter can help you with context, but generally you should make sure that they don’t distract you from the key points being made.
Develop Your Own System
Everyone will have a system that works best for them. Maybe you learn shorthand or maybe you develop your own version. Most journalists end up developing their own shortcuts, such as abbreviations, symbols, or just faster ways of writing common phrases, so you can still write quickly without losing meaning. What matters most here is that you can understand your own notes later – there’s no point in writing fast if you can’t actually read them back!
A journalism degree, like those from //schoolofjournalism.co.uk/, will really help you develop those skills and techniques that will help you with effective and accurate reporting.
Don’t Sacrifice Accuracy for Speed
It can be tempting to paraphrase everything, but exact wording is often important, especially for quotes. If something sounds like a strong statement or could be quoted directly, mark it clearly as a quote in some way while you’re writing. Even small changes in wording can alter the meaning and context.
