Reading Mongraphs

Question

What would you say is the best tool for reading monograph.

Notes Tool and why?

Clippings and why?

Donovan R. Palmer · Answer

Hi Lukas —

It comes down to personal preference and what you are using the notes or clippings for.

I use highlights/notes when I want to see something in context.  I highlight using a color of preference for the type of highlight so that they stand out in my notebooks (yellow for monographs, green for Bible, etc.). Then if I make a note, I will also put my own searchable inline tag, though you can use Logos tags for this.  My current inline tags are: .insight .concept .claim .? .zettle .quote. The reason I use inline tags is that I export these highlights and notes to Capacities to combine them with Kindle, Snipd and other highlights from Readwise.  The inline tag is universal in all services that I use, so I can do global searches in my exported highlights regardless of which platform they came from.

I use clippings when I want to build quotes with ready-made citations that I plan to use in my writing. (papers, talks, posts) I do this when I need clear quotations with page refs. I don't use them so much now that I am not engaged in formal studies. I think of clippings like the old-style note cards we used to use in University. When I used them to write papers, I would export all my clippings to DevonThink, along with other books I had been reading, and then I would start building my papers from these cards. In this use case, clippings were better than highlights for more formal outputs.

Experiment and play with both…  I personally would love it if Logos would allow us to sync highlights to Readwise like Kindle does, but for now, it is a manual operation for me.