[Zettel Critique] Help with Titling and Atomicity for a Sociology note
I've just recently begun my Zettlekasten journey! Right now I am using it in undergrad university for my Sociology and other courses. In my Sociology class, where we learn about the social nature of crime, I had this insight about why crime rate differences exist between social groups - age, sex, race, etc. (see the following). The problem is I'm really not sure if this note is truly atomic, as I've been having difficulty coming up with a declarative title that expresses the note in a single sentence. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
You may find it more useful to forget whether this note is atomic and focus on “atomizing” the two points that it contains.
I don’t know how Obsidian works but I would copy and paste each point in separate editor windows and consider the claims ("Some groups actually commit crimes at a higher rate than others” and "Some groups are being accused/reported of crimes at a higher rate than others”) as tentative titles for two individual atomic notes. You have two declarative titles in front of you!
Individual notes per claim give you the space to elaborate on them without worrying about whether a note is “atomic” enough if they were being written about together. I would figure out how to express the two claims in a more succinct way. The effort put into thinking about how to pare down each tentative title can also contribute to the expansion of each individual claim.
Then you can link to each new note in the original. I’d rename the original note to something like "Differences in Crime Rates between Social Groups” and designate it as something like a 'Summary’ instead of an atomic one. In the future you may find that there are more than two reasons. Or maybe you just need a space to aggregate general details about the two reasons given above and their associated concepts and arguments.
It seems to me that the note is not about why there are different crime rates in different social groups, but about two possibilities on how the difference is conceived.
So, my guess is that the idea atom that you are after is in the title, but not in the content of the note. Or: It is implicit and needs to be made explicit.
So, the title could be fine if you work on the content.
I am a Zettler
I think a better question is: why do you want to create this note? Once that's clear, it will be easier to understand if the note content is really about that purpose. For example, the note isn't really about differences in crime rates because one of the two blocks says the differences are not "real". So maybe the idea behind the note is "How can we know if reported crime data is reliable or not?"
Or perhaps "Is public policy being decided on the basis of bad data?". Or "How can we determine if a given set of crime statistics is reliable?" Or "Reliability of crime statistics seems highly questionable." Maybe the core insight is "Crime rate statistics span a wide range of reliability." Or maybe something else.
It's your insight so only you can know what you had in mind. I suppose the course is over by now but the point remains. If you were thinking about some definite thing, then the note's contents should be about that thing.
I think the topic is too complex for just one note.
One way to approach the topic would be an overview, sometimes known as structure note or mind map or outline. Personally I like to combine claims with questions. Maybe like this:
As an undergrad you could consider alternatives to atomic notes in a zettelkasten. How do you write lecture notes?
Personally, I like to write lecture notes as long texts in a single file. I don't bother with breaking them down into "atomic" pieces. In a sociology course, I might write something like this in my lecture note:
"How is sociology relevant for crime? 1) Sociology can help identify and remedy causes of crime. 2) Sociology can help identify and remedy biases in policing and jurisdiction."
This wouldn't be an atomic note. It would be just one paragraph in a long lecture note.
I believe you get as many different answers as we are so different even in how we see atomicity and whole function of PKM. In my opinion, your note is completely fine. Me personally, I would not wright it in such literal, narrative way (whole sentences), as it hinders later reading and comprehension = I try to distill the meaning as succinctly as possible, often without long sentences and explanations etc., using shortcuts, and formatting as lists (shorter points, with indentation). But this is also personal preference.
TLDR: you are doing completely fine.