Organize your paper the same as for class notes.

Put the date at the top of the page.

Write down chapter or section you will be taking notes from.

Leave space in the left margin or between ideas for your own comments or questions.

Keep textbook notes separate from class notes. Use a separate

Get a general idea of what the reading is about.

Read the introduction, headings and subheadings, and any paragraphs that summarize the content.

Look at any illustrations or graphs and charts and read the captions.

Go back and read the chapter or section carefully. Look for the main ideas.

Try not to copy information directly from the textbook into your notes. Instead, summarize the information in your own words. This will help you to concentrate and learn.

If you do copy directly from the textbook, use quotation marks to indicate that it is a direct quotation. Take care to copy the quotation exactly.

Summarize the main ideas at the end of your notes and circle them.

Depending upon the textbook you may have built in aides to help you study,

Certain words may be in a different color or darker type. The author is telling you that this is important.

Look at the section headings if they are present. That is an outline of the chapter.

The chapter is each textbook has a heading and very often at the beginning of the textbook there are statements of what you will learn in the textbook. Go over these statements when you complete the chapter and make sure that you understand them.

See how each of the items in the chapter are related to the chapter heading. Learn this relationship. That is really a test your understanding.

Often there are questions at the end of each chapter. Go over them. Pay close attention to the ones called definitions or identifications. Again understand their relationship to the aims of the chapter.

Many textbooks have a list of definitions in a glossary at the end of the book. That is useful to you. You can also learn the meanings of words or phrases by going to Google and entering the word define and immediately after that the word that you need.

Good luck. I hope that these tips help.