How to Write Excellent Notes

Genevieve Cherwinski is a co-operative education teacher in St.
John’s, Newfoundland.

Students, burdened by jobs and other pressures on their time, will grasp
at anything that offers a quick solution to what is likely a chronic
problem. For these unfortunates, this set of seven guides has merit, if
only because they are short and relatively inexpensive. Pitched at
high-school students, they chart a “quick and dirty” course from
classroom to workplace not unlike the spiel presented by those private
educational institutions that were created to profit their creators.

To their credit, the guides adopt a straightforward, commonsense
approach salted with numerous truisms (“The important thing about
science is to be careful and precise,” notes How to Write Reports and
Essays). However, too often the set appears to encourage the
substitution of style for substance, as in the section dedicated to
“Making Professional Overheads” from How to Give a Classroom Talk.

While seven easy steps to success may work for a few, the vast majority
of those who may resort to these brief volumes will do so in a panic;
for them it is usually too late to find salvation. With the exception
perhaps of How to Write a Résumé and Cover Letter, these guides are
redundant for the diligent student who has already acquired the skills
associated with note-taking; studying; report, essay, and exam writing;
and classroom presentations. Such a student knows, from long experience,
that there are no quick fixes.