Write in your OWN words | zettelkasten/academic note-taking tips

Bald by choice, female, nose ring, using pHD to sound clever even though performance studies is basically "schizophrenia with purpose", similar to finding the hidden layers of meaning when authors write books even if they didnt put it in there at all and people are just projecting their own beliefs. For these reasons I disregard.

I got SO MUCH out of this video, as usual. Thank you so much for sharing and teaching your unique ways with us

Your advices are so useful and helpful. It led me to find a joy to study. I appriciate a lot to share us those tips! I just started to use Obsidan app with zettelkasten methode, it really helped me to figure out notions and find out my own ideas. I'm not gonna lie, I was struggled with note taking not only during the lecture but also for revision. I finally found a methode which perfectly fit me. I owe you. Thank you so much!!

How do you separate Paraphrases and Quotes in Obsidian, if I ask?

Fantastic video! Many thanks Morgan.

If I want to put something into my own words I often find it useful to think about how I would explain the thought to someone who didn't understand it. I think that unless you can explain it you don't really understand it.

Would this apply similarly to a lifelong learner not in the pursuit of a particular goal or discipline?

Love this! What other writing books do you recommend the most? I loved Taking Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens- it’s pretty life changing

I agree, this is such a good video. Especially the bit toward the end, very brave indeed!

I wish you were my teacher about writing and literature and in a certain way you are. So thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Wow, this is such an eye-opener. Thank you for posting this video; this really helped me.

Wow, you are so refreshing to listen to! Thanks for sharing! I am a lifetime note taker pur sang, but just on the brink of discovering my 'system' and finding out if Obsidian is the tool for me. I have my own blog on my health since I got breastcancer. I read a lot and have been making so many notes on different subjects over the years. I want to make more use of this linking. It intrigues me very much.

WOW! Thank you. This is so enlightening and inspiring and empowering ♡

I love your thoughts and also the way you present them. Thanks for the great video. Your videos are thought provoking for me.

Excellent ❤

Excellent video, thank you!

i’m having trouble connecting academic notes (early in my BA with many diverse courses) to obsidian. i want to keep my pages as “concepts”, but at the same time I like to do my academic notes chapter-by-chapter. the concepts in those classes will be made into pages, but I feel that some are repetitive

Before I dive into watching this video, I've decided that I am going to document original thoughts when note-taking, when I have original thoughts and concur perhaps hypotheses, questions. Unless the information is completely new and profound is when I should document paraphrasing and original thought.
I am SO happy I've discovered your videos on Zettelkasten and Obsidian! I've always wanted to keep a directory in this way. The brain-map-graph is amazing. I was listening to your video and thinking about how cool it would be to have that, then you mentioned it and I was mind-blown! The advice for Zettelkasten/second-braining your learning and original thought, was like someone was finally validating me, giving me permission to do what I always wanted! lol! Which was keeping cohesive journaling. I'm so OCD and ADHD, I haven't found the point in journaling unless it can be this organized. Video suggestion: How not to be manic about your Zettelkasten/Quality Original Thought in Note-taking, lol.

Your video has sparked me to explore further ways of taking my paraphrased notes (which I write on nearly every book highlight) and writing my own ideas. Thank you!

So impressed by the quality of the video ! Thank you ! This video is some important piece of academic/student ethics teachers should have taught wayyyyyy sooner :)

As a PhD candidate in Theatre and Performing arts in Italy I find your videos so much interesting and useful. More, your pronunciation is so easy to follow for a non-native speaker!

I am struggling with the notion of "original thought". This is not related to Zettelkasten particularly, but more to the definition of originality (which implies IP and Copyright):
Since I can never be aware of all the ideas that people have had already, how do I know if something is my own thought or just (unknowingly) paraphrasing somebody else's?

I’m starting my PhD and your videos are the bestttt ones on notes ! Thank you! I am wondering what you do with “raw information,” eg my history notes often include facts like dates, names etc and I can’t really paraphrase/rewrite those and frankly they rarely connect. Any ideas?

Your excellent ideas and presentation outline exactly why good writing takes WORK!

This is by far the best video I have seen in months. Thank you

Could you happy to giving some of your books to me for my private study😅

i was inspired by your previous video to use zettelkasten, im still figuring it out but I think i finally understand everything. im using this system to write my papers so im very excited! thank you so much!

Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I find it very confronting to notice that "writing in my own words" takes so much energy, just to graph an idea, and even then, I don't know if it's really my own. Your explanation really helpt me a lot to review and rewrite and come to the core of what I'm trying to say. Being your own critic is hard! But to find someone that will give you honest, constructive feedback is even harder, even between the Dutch.

Hi Morgan! This is a great video. I like the philosophical ramblings and sometimes visioned myself sitting in one of your classes. I do not write much but that doesn’t mean I don’t think much. With the advent of PKM and note-capturing software like Obsidian, things will be different I guess. There is a lot of inspiration all around us and I guess nature will be my foremost source. Just one question, I fully understand and appreciate your thoughts on “paraphrasing“, but what about when you’re dealing with anecdotal sources and collective property like folklore and stories. By the way I am a conservation biologist and one of my interests is Ethnoecology. Thank you.

Another good video! Thanks, Morgan. I think I have spent this entire rainy day watching your videos and taking a lot of notes. Can't wait to get started.

Beautiful inspiring words!

I am very impressed by your advice on note-taking. I hope I don't make you mad by suggesting a resemblance to the G. I. Jane character in the movie of the same name.

I enjoyed your video

So glad I discovered this channel. Very nice to know there are authentic intellectuals out there. Lots of learnings here.

Personally for me to create my own words and thoughts I had to expand my vocabulary like using synonyms to add futher explanation to my points. But also offcourse along with 'paraphrasing' you also have to reference too like in text citations and also in your reference list.

After this I started doing:

[[I feel]]
[[I wonder]]
[[I think]]

Crazy and very useful connections you get doing it!

I can’t stop watching this video its soooooo valuable thanks… I do have a question and hope you can answer me… so after I created my permanent notes and linked them and was able to figure out a paper to write… don’t I have to still cite the books I used from the literature notes from which I created my permanent notes from or is it that since they are in my own words I don’t have to?

Love your explanation and articulation. I myself am doing my PhD in sociology through participant observation and following your curiosity is such a core aspect of that. Switching from being an architect to now research in sociology is giving me so much to learn and write. While not being from the filed sometimes feels like learning a new language and doing a PhD in it at the same time. On the way with the overwhelming reading material it is so easy to lose on to your own line of thought. Your video is a great and simple reminder to take the time and dig deeper into the thought. And simple is not easy. Research is a wonderfully creative process. Thank you for creating a space for that thought again. Love it.

i think having my own words wasn't really so hard, but i can get seen for being too opinionated if i kept blabbering my analysis over anything, so i realised to type them down and not too soon i already have so much notes. i dont just type i also take picture and then edit that image with a text of my thought and idea. sometimes a screenshot and then typing what the idea i got from that, i think its also pretty much about what idea something gave you as well because i always do this when im triggered with an idea.

Great input. Thanks Vic

OH MY GOSH!!! just discovered your channel by looking up obsidian tips for PhD students, but so thankful I followed the links to this video! These tips are so helpful. I love the way you teach. I wish we were all taught this way from a young age - to think critically and independently and to value our thoughts and all their sources. Thank you!!!! Can't wait to learn more from your channel!

Hello and thank you so much for the great and fruitful content… I wanted to request a further clarification on a point that got me a bit confused: how can I take notes after reading a book and then make them my own? I mean the idea is compelling but how do I not fall in plagiarism? Please please help… and by the way your video on obsidian system blew my mind I downloaded it and can’t wait to use it… thank you!🌹

Fantastic video. I’m an academic who’s getting my PKS , my second brain, off the ground, a Zettlekasten using Obsidian. This video is a great reminder of the bread and butter of the trade. I’m also passing this along to my Engineering daughter. She’ll greatly benefit from this. Again, thx!!

it was very very helpful. thanks so much Morgan

Morgan, thank you so much for this video. I am learning so much from your insight. I was wondering if you could address one of my burning questions. While I am very excited about the power of the Zettelkasten method, I do not really know what to do when I read, process, digest, and (almost) master textbooks that are full of "contents." Did Luhman have a way of handling such massive contents-filled books? For example, if I take literature notes from a chapter of my current linguistics book (ch. 8 Grammatical Metaphor), I may end up having hundreds of thousands of literature notes because it's a content-filled chapter. Could you please shed light on this? Thank you so much. Blessings on your studies!

Great insights. What i might add that beyond noticing there is also the (research) question or main paper thesis idea that provides a key filter and entry point into what is relevant and interesting.

This help find pathways but also fill addtional gaps across the network of related thoughts as these are furinshed into a conversation that argues specific points.