Literature Notes

After reading a source, write what stuck in your own words - not a pile of copied highlights.

Key Concept

• Notes about a source in your own words - not a highlight dump.
• Level 1: Write what the book meant to you in your own words - like telling a friend the story in your voice, not reading every highlighted line back to them.
• Level 2: Literature notes capture your take on a source - what it argued and what you think - not a paste of every yellow mark.
• Level 3: Literature notes sit between reading and evergreen writing - they translate the author into your vocabulary before you link ideas.
• Level 4: After you read, write one page in your words - if it reads like the highlight reel, you captured the book, not your thinking.
• Level 5: Atomic Notes grow from literature notes when one claim earns its own page - Layered Reading feeds the stack without a highlight dump.
• Source notes stay tied to the book or talk - your atoms link out, not the other way around.
• Atomic Notes are your claims; literature notes hold the source.

Examples

• I wrote one paragraph on the coach's chapter about zone defense, not yellow highlights on every page.
• The PTA recap was what I actually remembered from the meeting, not a transcript of every speaker.

Note Relationships