Effective Note-takingThe difficulty of taking notes: No

Effective Note-taking
    Good morning, everyone! Today I’d like to continue our series of talks about study skills in university. This morning I’m going to discuss how to take notes effectively.
    As we all know, note-taking is difficult since spoken language is more diffuse than written language and its organization is not immediately apparent. In addition, spoken language is quickly gone, which makes analysis difficult. So it can be seen that to achieve such a complex task as note-taking, a high level of ability in many separate skills is required. Now let’s discuss these skills in details.
    Before taking notes, prepare yourself mentally. Be sure of your purpose and the speaker’s purpose. Review your notes and other background material if available because increased knowledge results in increased interest. Besides, a clear sense of purpose on your part will make the speaker’s content more relevant. Be ready to understand and remember. Anticipate what is to come, and later evaluate how well you were able to do this.
    While taking notes, the student has to understand what the lecturer says as he says it. The student cannot stop the lecture in order to look up a new word or check an unfamiliar sentence pattern. This puts the non-native speaker of English under a particularly severe strain. Often he may not be able to recognize words in speech which he understands straightaway in print. He’ll also meet words in a lecture which are completely new to him. While he should, of course, try to develop the ability to infer their meanings from the context, he won’t always be able to do this successfully. He must not allow failure of this kind to discourage him, however. It is often possible to understand much of a lecture by concentrating solely on those points which are most important. But how does the student decide what is important? It is, in fact, the second skill I want to talk about today.
    Probably the most important piece of information in a lecture is the title itself. If this is printed beforehand, the student should study it carefully and make sure he is in no doubt about its meaning. Whatever happens he should make sure that he writes it down accurately and completely. A title often implies many of the major points that will later be covered in the lecture itself.
    Be alert to the speaker’s emphasis through tone, gesture, repetition and illustration on the board. A good lecturer, of course, often signals what is important or unimportant. He may give direct signals or indirect signals. Many lecturers, for example, explicitly tell their audience that a point is important and that the student should write it down. It is worth remembering that most lecturers also give indirect signals to indicate what is important. They either pause or speak slowly or speak loudly or use a greater range of intonation, or they employ a combination of these devices, when they say something important. Conversely, their sentences are delivered quickly, softly, within a narrow range of intonation and with short or infrequent pauses when they are saying something which is incidental. It is, of course, helpful for the student to be aware of this and for him to focus his attention accordingly.
    Having sorted out the main points, however, the student still has to write them down. And he has to do this quickly and clearly. In order to write at speed, try to develop a suitable system of mechanics: jot down words or phrases, not entire sentences; develop some system of shorthand and be consistent in its use; leave out small service words; use contractions, abbreviations and symbols.
    Most students find it helpful to abbreviate. They also try to select only those words which give maximum information. These are usually nouns, but sometimes verbs or adjectives. Writing only one point on each line also helps the student to understand his notes when he comes to read them later. An important difficulty is, of course, finding time to write the notes. If a student chooses the wrong moment to write, he may miss a point of greater importance. Connecting words or connectives may guide him to a correct choice here. Those connectives which indicate that the argument is proceeding in the same direction also tell the listener that it is a safe time to write. "Moreover", "furthermore", "also", etc., are examples of this. Connectives such as "however", "on the other hand" or "nevertheless" usually mean that new and perhaps unexpected information is going to follow. Therefore, it may, on these occasions, be more appropriate to listen.
    After taking notes, review and reword them as soon as possible. Don’t just recopy or type without thought. Reminiscing may provide forgotten material later. Rewrite incomplete parts in greater detail. Fill in gaps as you remember points heard but not recorded. Arrange with another student to compare notes. Sharpen your note-taking technique by looking at other students’ notes. How are they better than your own? How are your notes superior? Compare the information in your notes with your own experience. Don’t swallow everything uncritically. Don’t reject what seems strange or incorrect. Check it out. Be willing to hold some seeming inconsistencies in your mind over a period of time. Make meaningful associations. Memorize that which must be memorized.
    OK. In today’s lecture, we’ve discussed several skills that can help one in taking notes effectively. In our next lecture, we’ll explore how to read effectively.