Study Skills: Note-taking 1
As students you may often attend lectures delivered in English. You will want to write down as many of the details as possible as you listen so that you can remember them later. However, taking notes on a lecture can be difficult. How can you write everything down quickly, especially when the words are long? You may still be writing one sentence while the lecturer is five sentences further along. By the time you have finished writing and can listen again you are lost! You no longer understand what the lecturer is talking about. Or, like many students, you may decide that it is more important just to listen, and so you stop taking notes. But then at the end of the lecture you have already forgotten many important details. This textbook will introduce some techniques which you can begin to use now to make sure that your listening and note-taking keep pace with the speaker's ideas.
Rephrasing Sentences for Note-Taking
Taking good notes requires you to be able to do two things very quickly: First, you must recognize main topics; second, you must be able to write down as many details and supporting examples as you can hear and understand. In other words, your hand must work as quickly as your ear.
Most students do not have special training in transcribing or copying speech. You don't need a course in secretarial skills or shorthand in order to do a good job taking notes. But you do need to practise a few simple techniques to help you to be thorough in your note-taking. You should use abbreviations. We will study that technique later. You should also learn how to write only the most important words from each sentence, and ignore the rest.
When you send a telegram to somebody, you must pay by the word; and for many people, money is limited. That is why we send very short telegrams which include only the most important words. For example, compare these two messages:
1. "I will be arriving tomorrow, Monday, April 15, on TWA flight number 222, at JFK airport."
2. "Arrive 15th TWA 222 JFK"
Which message would be more expensive?
When you take notes, you have a similar problem. In this case it is not money, but time, that is limited. Therefore, it is a good idea to practise listening for only the most important sentences in a section of speech, and only the most important words in those sentences.
Exercises.
Task 1: Learning to Rephrase
Listen to the following sentences. Write the words you think are most important in the space given.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Study Skills: Note-taking 1
As students you may often attend lectures delivered in English. You will want to write down as many of the details as possible as you listen so that you can remember them later. However, taking notes on a lecture can be difficult. How can you write everything down quickly, especially when the words are long? You may still be writing one sentence while the lecturer is five sentences further along. By the time you have finished writing and can listen again you are lost! You no longer understand what the lecturer is talking about. Or, like many students, you may decide that it is more important just to listen, and so you stop taking notes. But then at the end of the lecture you have already forgotten many important details. This textbook will introduce some techniques which you can begin to use now to make sure that your listening and note-taking keep pace with the speaker's ideas.
Rephrasing Sentences for Note-Taking
Taking good notes requires you to be able to do two things very quickly: First, you must recognize main topics; second, you must be able to write down as many details and supporting examples as you can hear and understand. In other words, your hand must work as quickly as your ear.
Most students do not have special training in transcribing or copying speech. You don't need a course in secretarial skills or shorthand in order to do a good job taking notes. But you do need to practise a few simple techniques to help you to be thorough in your note-taking. You should use abbreviations. We will study that technique later. You should also learn how to write only the most important words from each sentence, and ignore the rest.
When you send a telegram to somebody, you must pay by the word; and for many people, money is limited. That is why we send very short telegrams which include only the most important words. For example, compare these two messages:
1. "I will be arriving tomorrow, Monday, April 15, on TWA flight number 222, at JFK airport."
2. "Arrive 15th TWA 222 JFK"
Which message would be more expensive?
When you take notes, you have a similar problem. In this case it is not money, but time, that is limited. Therefore, it is a good idea to practise listening for only the most important sentences in a section of speech, and only the most important words in those sentences.
Exercises.
Task 1: Learning to Rephrase
Listen to the following sentences. Write the words you think are most important in the space given.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.