Coding Your Readings

I was recently asked by a student how to tackle a stack of readings. She was writing a term paper. She knew exactly what questions she had to answer in the essay and basically how the essay would be organized according to sections (thanks to a very detailed assignment description). She had all of her research gathered (articles, chapters, web resources) and I had advised her to print them all to read. But how should she read and take notes to quickly accomplish her task?

I suggested coding. I described a very basic approach that I thought would work. Since she already knew what questions she had to answer and the sections that would be in the paper, I suggested she assign each question/topic a letter (A, B, C) and then make a quick reference sheet that provided an overview of the coding (A = general history, B = business strategy, C = competitive advantage, etc). While reading, if she came upon anything that answered a particular question or fit in a certain section, she could highlight it and make note using the coding established. Then, when she actually went to write the various sections of her term paper, she could quickly scan her readings and pull out all of the pertinent information.

For some people, colour-coding helps here as well. The basic principle remains -- you assign a colour to a question, topic, or theme and then use that to help you pull together information. You can use different coloured highlighters, coloured pencils, or your favourite pens or fine-tip markers. Of course, if you have several different items coded, you have to be sure you have enough different colours in your chosen medium, since you can only use each colour once.

How do you keep track of what you're reading and how it relates to the topics you're researching?