Notetaking Part 2: LATCH – Transcript

This is a transcript of the video "Notetaking Part 2: LATCH", hosted on YouTube.

Transcript

[QUT intro graphic]

[Title slide: Notetaking Part 2 - LATCH]

[Jenny] Another way is to use something called LATCH. So LATCH has been promoted by Ingurr Mewburn who works with PhD students. And she suggests that this is a good way to organise information and your notes about that information. So, she says, 'L' is for location.

[Slide 1: Location] Where is the author located in the debate?

So where is the author located in the debate? If you're going to go the literature grid way you might actually add that, that might be quite helpful to understand whether they're pro how you think about the situation or the topic, or they're against it. So that's really important.

'A' was for alphabetical. So keep the information in alphabetical order.

[Slide 2: Alphabetical] Keep the information in alphabetical order.

'T' is for time. Order your notes in the order that the referenced articles were published.

[Slide 3: Time] Order your notes in the order that the referenced articles were published.

'C' is for category. Sort the notes by themes that can be used as sections within a chapter of your thesis.

[Slide 4: Category] Sort the notes by themes that can be used as sections within a chapter of your thesis.

And then lastly, hierarchy. Order your categories to establish the logic of your literature review.

[Slide 5: Hierarchy] Order your categories to establish the logic of your literature review.

So really what we're doing here is we're also thinking about the end product at the very beginning. I know that sounds strange. But start to think about how your organisational system will help you get to that end stage of a completed thesis.

So if I'm using OneNote, or something like that, and I've got a project I'll often organise in terms of the output. So if it's a journal article I'll have a section for introduction, I'll have a section for literature review, one for methodology etc. and that's where all my notes go, pertaining to each of those chapters or sections of the journal article.

I really hope that some of today's ideas will help you to get started with an organisational strategy, get started with your system, and just do a Google search and find out how other people are organising their information and you'll come up with your own. Your individual organisational strategy which will add to the information management flow that you're going to create for yourself. Because we want you to be clear about where to find your information when you need it and not to feel overwhelmed because you've got too much information that's not categorised.

I'll see you next time.

[QUT outro graphic]

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