Techniques are presented to determine user-interest sensitive notes. User selected passages, user interest information, condensation transformations and optional meaning distortion constraints are identified. User foci expressed by the selected passages are determined based on the similarity of the elements in the selected passages to elements in the user interest information. User sensitive notes are determined by selectively applying the condensation transformations to the selected passages to preferentially retain user foci while eliding less salient information. Meaning distortions constraints are optionally applied in conjunction with condensation transformations or in creating the condensation transformations in order to reduce the likelihood of distorting the meaning of the passage.