Note-writing as an intellectual craft: Niklas Luhmann and academic writing as a proces

(Highlight: 11; Note: 0)

▪ Writing is not simply a way of saying what someone knows but one
of the most effective ways to unveil what there is to say.

▪ "in fact,
writing creates a thought and the capacity to think: with writing you discover thoughts that you
barely knew you had

▪ the
most productive writers in any genre tend to spend around 80% of the time pre-writing, 15%
revising, and only 5% creating the final text.

▪ Note-taking can be conceptualized as a type of pre-writing.

▪ contrary to common intuition, the permission for approximate
writing tends to increase the quality of formal writing instead of decreasing it,

▪ this new way
of writing carries an innovative role in the history of writing: a note becomes a physical and
intellectual object highlighted in the context in which the note was conceived

▪ nsidering that writing was a
form of discovery, he argues that his card file constantly showed him that “it would be
impossible to think without writing, at least in the case of any sophisticated thought, in network"
(Luhmann, 1992, p. 3).

▪ the notes are phrases or short paragraphs expressing original
ideas or comments on the ideas of other authors. Luhmann is radical in his proposal that the
note should be written with one’s own words and sum up the idea as much as possible. I

▪ Because of this, when reading, I always have in my
mind the question of how the books I read can be integrated into the note-filling system

▪ o Luhmann, a note is the physical manifestation of thought, an object that can be
physically manipulated to create new ideas and be connected with new notes.

▪ This type of connection intensifies the possibilities of new theoretical relations due to
its element of serendipity: a surprise emerged from the relations that did not exist so far,
something close to what Roland Barthes called a 'controlled accident' with the writing and
organization of notes (

Planted: Sunday 29 June 2025
Last tended: Monday 30 June 2025