The Advantages of Writing in Textbooks

As I have come to realize, there are always going to be textbooks that I know in advance will be discarded and those I will want to keep to create my own personal library of reference books.

Pertaining to the textbooks I know I will keep for a lifetime, I have discovered there are advantages in writing in the margins, underlining key passages, circling words, and the like. By writing in the textbooks I own, I am making them suit my interests and needs.

Writing in textbooks is a way of personalizing these books to my own advantage.

Avoiding Clutter

Writing in the textbook makes the book a self-contained unit of information, therefore eliminating the need for separate note paper.

Writing directly in the textbook, then, has the advantage of keeping both my desk and my mind free from distracting clutter.

Grouping Ideas Together

Writing in the textbook also lets me group the author's ideas together in a way that I can understand more clearly.

Because I own the book, I can boldly take a pen, circle a word, and draw a line to similar terms in the dense passages of material.

I can also write on this line that connects terms to describe the passage in my own words.

Writing in the textbook has advantages because it makes me a kind of coauthor. I am breaking down the complex reading into my own manageable terms.

I discover how I read and understand in the most effective way, and then outline the chapters accordingly.

Creating References to Other Books

Writing in the textbook has the additional advantage of letting me cite relevant books and definitions by which I may later benefit. These citations can be written either at the beginning of the chapter or at the end.

For example, I may write: "See also in This Book, Page 45" Writing in the textbook allows me to extend the principle content of the particular textbook into a reference book which cites other resources.

Again, textbooks can become self-contained units of information, but only when I am bold enough to write in them.

In sum, I have discovered advantages to writing in those textbooks I know I will own for a lifetime.

As I create my own library of personal reference books, I discover that writing in textbooks lets me take the information that is already there and personalize it in a way that will best suit my academic needs.

Source: Personal Experience