Quick notes are meant to capture interesting, key pieces of information fast. I also use them to get ideas out of my head and onto paper. They are not meant to be neat, just legible enough to be useful. I have to admit that sometimes, mine are so messy I can barely make out my own handwriting when I sit down to write :).

Because their purpose is capture, not organization, they work well for writing short pieces. But it is difficult to write long, focused compositions directly from them. To guide the structure of longer pieces, I find it helpful to jot down a loose outlines based on the quick notes.

Example 1

These are quick notes for a video about squirrel proof bird feeders, leading up to the engineering proposal assignment. The final write up can be found here.

Example 2

These four pages helped guide my thinking about and writing of the Project Description section for the final draft of the Engineering Proposal.