How to Use Your Mind | Page 8

be using the notebook twenty years hence, therefore make it
durable.
Second, write plainly. This injunction ought to be superfluous, for common sense tells us
that writing which is illegible cannot be read even by the writer, once it has "grown cold."
Third, take care in forming sentences. Do not make your notes consist simply of separate,
scrappy jottings. True, it is difficult, under stress, to form complete sentences. The great
temptation is to jot down a word here and there and trust to luck or an indulgent memory
to supply the context at some later time. A little experience, however, will quickly
demonstrate the futility of such hopes; therefore strive to form sensible phrases, and to
make the parts of the outline cohere. Apply the principles of English composition to the
preparation of your note-book.
A fourth question concerns size and shape of the note-book. These features depend partly
upon the nature of the course and partly upon individual taste. It is often convenient and
practicable to keep the notes for all courses in a single note-book. Men find it
advantageous to use a small note-book of a size that can be carried in the coat pocket and
studied at odd moments.
A fifth question of a mechanical nature is, Which is preferable, bound or loose-leaf

note-books? Generally the latter will be found more desirable. Leaves are easily inserted
and the sections are easily filed on completion of a course.
It goes without saying that the manner in which notes, are to be taken will be determined
by many factors, such as the nature of individual courses, the wishes of instructors,
personal tastes and habits. Nevertheless, there are certain principles and practices which
are adaptable to nearly all conditions, and it is these that we have discussed. Remember,
note-taking is one of the habits you are to form in college. See that the habit is started
rightly. Adopt a good plan at the start and adhere to it. You may be encouraged, too, with
the thought that facility in note-taking will come with practice. Note-taking is an art and
as you practise you will develop skill.
We have noted some of the most obvious and immediate benefits derived from
well-prepared notes, consisting of economy of time, ease of review, ease of permanent
retention. There are other benefits, however, which, though less obvious, are of far
greater importance. These are the permanent effects upon the mind. Habits of correct
thinking are the chief result of correct note-taking. As you develop in this particular
ability, you will find corresponding improvement in your ability to comprehend and
assimilate ideas, to retain and reproduce facts, and to reason with thoroughness and
independence.
READINGS AND EXERCISES
Readings:
Adams (1) Chapter VIII.
Dearborn (2) Chapter II.
Kerfoot (10)
Seward (17)
Exercise 1. Contrast the taking of notes from reading and from lectures.
Exercise 2. Make an outline of this chapter.
Exercise 3. Make an outline of some lecture.


CHAPTER III
BRAIN ACTION DURING STUDY
Though most people understand more or less vaguely that the brain acts in some way

during study, exact knowledge of the nature of this action is not general. As you will be
greatly assisted in understanding mental processes by such knowledge, we shall briefly
examine the brain and its connections. It will be manifestly impossible to inquire into its
nature very minutely, but by means of a description you will be able to secure some
conception of it and thus will be able better to control the mental processes which it
underlies.
To the naked eye the brain is a large jelly-like mass enclosed in a bony covering, about
one-fourth of an inch thick, called the skull. Inside the skull it is protected by a thick
membrane. At its base emerges the spinal cord, a long strand of nerve fibers extending
down the spine. For most of its length, the cord is about as large around as your little
finger, but it tapers at the lower end. From it at right angles throughout its length branch
out thirty-one pairs of fibrous nerves which radiate to all parts of the body. The brain and
spinal cord, with all its ramifications, are known as the nervous system. You see now that,
though we started with the statement that the mind is intimately connected with the brain,
we must now enlarge our statement and say it is connected with the entire nervous system.
It is therefore to the nervous system that we must turn our attention.
Although to the naked eye the nervous system is apparently made up of a number of
different kinds of material, still we see, when we turn our microscopes upon it, that its
parts are structurally the same. Reduced to lowest terms, the nervous system is found to
be