Writing in the margins

Writing in the margins


In order to practice the writing in the margins system I watched two videos about the effect of the Holocaust. I chose to listen to these TED lectures because I have a strong interest in the way the Holocaust affected people during and after the liberation. The first video I watched was about 13 minutes and Edith Eve Eger, a Holocaust survivor, talked about how it affected her for the better, helping her see the good she had in her life and not focusing on the negative. The second video was Ana Blech talking more about how the population of the United States didn’t know much about what was going on in Germany and how the controlling publisher of the New York Times would include small bits of information but hide those articles in the middle of the newspaper often without titles. Because the New York Times was the leader in newspapers most of the others followed suite and left the Holocaust out of the front page headlines.
There were a couple things that I knew would work well for me. Even though I knew I liked the topic that I would be hearing about in the TED talks, having the assignment of using the writing in the margins system kept me listening for the main topics of both of the talks. Taking notes while listening to lectures is something I really struggle with.
A step I really liked in the system was step four where after you finished taking your notes, you take the time to reflect on them. Going back through the notes and relating them to something that I have experience really helps me retain that information. In the past I have always draw little pictures in my notes because it helps me correlate a picture to an idea or topic. When trying to remember things I tend to remember a picture or scence before the actual information so these doodles can save me if I can’t remember the information straight out. When doing the fifth step in the writing in the margins system I found it a lot easier to remember the information off of the pictures I drew...

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