3 - Séquence 1: Note taking in writing and speaking situations

Introduction
1.1 what note taking is
1.2 text vs. non-text sources
1.3 note taking and active listening
1.4 note taking procedures
1.5 identifying and wording topics, ideas, concepts and purpose(s)
1.6 reviewing
1.7 The unspoken: attitudes and postures
1 1.8 dos and don’ts

Contenu de la Séquence 1:

Introduction
[The present lecture is part of a subject that is taught to help you learn and study. As the
title of the lecture says: it concerns the techniques that are useful for your university
studies. Among the other subjects preparing you for ‘l’Anglais Technique’, the note taking
lecture is different because it will show you how you can best learn while listening to
lectures or read texts in your speciality. Therefore, it deals with the ways you can improve
your skills in order to perform better.
The word note taking is written in three different ways: as note-taking, notetaking
or note taking. You can choose your own way. In this lecture, we favour the second
possibility. Note taking is generally defined as the practice of recording information from
different sources. By taking notes, the student records the main information he believes to
be important, avoiding himself the difficult task of having to recall everything his teacher
says. Notes are taken from different sources, either a lecture, an oral discussion at a
meeting. These notes will remain the only record of the event. From hand-written tasks,
today students can have recourse to digital note taking possible.]

1.1. what note taking is

[Note taking as a concept has been given numerous definitions depending on the
context, the pedagogical culture and the profiles of the partners (teachers and
students/pupils) involved. Thus, the literature abounds with specific definitions directly
linked to the context of use.
READ and PAY ATTENTION to the words in red as they give you a quality, a
characteristic, a nuance, a trait that show differences between the various definitions.
DRAW a table with 4 columns and put the items in red in the appropriate box.]

Definition 11:
“Note-taking is a method of recording temporary but essential information for
greater performance. In a systemized way, note-taking helps structure information
during meetings and make it easy to recall the materials later. Writing down ideas helps
with focus and managing tasks. Consistent note-taking brings value to easy-to-review
classified information systems. Digital note-taking apps tend to take over traditional
shorthand because of the neat, quick, and effortless editing nature of digital space.”

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 Definition 22:
“Note-taking is the practice of writing down or otherwise recording key points of
information. It's an important part of the research process. Notes taken on class lectures
or discussions may serve as study aids, while notes taken during an interview may
provide material for an essay, article, or book. "Taking notes doesn't simply mean
scribbling down or marking up the things that strike your fancy," say Walter Pauk and
Ross J.Q. Owens in their book, "How to Study in College." "It means using a proven
system and then effectively recording information before tying everything together."
Note-taking involves certain cognitive behavior; writing notes engages your brain in
specific and beneficial ways that help you grasp and retain information. Note-taking can
result in broader learning than simply mastering course content because it helps you to
process information and make connections between ideas, allowing you to apply your
new knowledge to novel contexts, according to Michael C. Friedman, in his paper, "Notes
on Note-Taking: Review of Research and Insights for Students and Instructors," which is
part of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching.
Shelley O'Hara, in her book, "Improving Your Study Skills: Study Smart, Study Less,"
agrees, stating:
"Taking notes involves active listening, as well as connecting and relating information to
ideas you already know. It also involves seeking answers to questions that arise from the
material."
Taking notes forces you to actively engage your brain as you identify what's important in
terms of what the speaker is saying and begin to organize that information into a
comprehensible format to decipher later. That process, which is far more than simply
scribbling what you hear, involves some heavy brainwork.”

Definition 33:
“Note-taking (sometimes written as notetaking or note taking) is the practice of
recording information from different sources and platforms. By taking notes, the writer
records the essence of the information, freeing their mind from having to recall
everything. Notes are commonly drawn from a transient source, such as an oral
discussion at a meeting, or a lecture (notes of a meeting are usually called minutes), in
which case the notes may be the only record of the event. Since the advent of writing and
literacy, notes traditionally were almost always handwritten (often in notebooks), but the
advent of notetaking software has made digital notetaking possible and widespread. Note-
taking is a foundational skill in personal knowledge management.”
Definition 4: [even the much-criticized Chat-GPT has gone through the difficulty of
defining what note taking is from a large amount of data available to it].
“Note-taking is the process of capturing important information, ideas, or details
during a lecture, meeting, presentation, or any other situation where information is
being presented or discussed. It involves actively listening, selecting relevant points, and
writing or recording them in a concise and organized manner to serve as a reference for
later use. Note-taking aims to enhance retention, understanding, and engagement with

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Nordquist, R (Updated on September 11, 2019, ‘How to take better notes during lectures, discussions, and
interviews’ (https://www.thoughtco.com/note-taking-research-1691352).
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 the material being presented while allowing for easy review and study at a later time.”
[SELECT the items you think most adequate and put them in the appropriate column.]
Definitions Definition 1 Definition 2 Definition 3 Definition 4

1. recording 1. recording key 1. practice of recording 1. process of capturing

Characteristics temporary, essential points of information from different important information,
information information sources and platforms ideas, or details
& principles

SUMMARISE (15mn) the definitions using the aforementioned parameters and

defining features:
Example of a summary:
“Note-taking (sometimes written as notetaking or note taking) is the practice of
recording key points of information from different sources and platforms. Notes are
commonly drawn from a transient source, such as an oral discussion at a meeting, or a
lecture (notes of a meeting are usually called minutes). It is the process of capturing
important information, ideas, or details. In a systemized way, note-taking helps structure
information. Note-taking can result in broader learning than simply mastering course
content because it helps you to process information and make connections between ideas.
Taking notes involves active listening, as well as connecting and relating information to
ideas you already know. Digital note-taking apps tend to take over traditional shorthand
because of the neat, quick, and effortless editing nature of digital space”.
-------------------------------------
1.2 Text vs. non-text sources4
[In the real context of university language departments, one admits that lectures are
given if different ways and formats. Broadly speaking, notes can be taken from text and
non-text sources, i.e., from oral lectures and/or reading texts]. Note-Taking from Non-text
Sources Purpose Note-taking from non-text sources (such as lectures and videos) is an
essential academic skill, particularly in high school and college, when content from written
sources generally becomes secondary to information and ideas presented in class lectures,
discussions, and activities. Students use the same note-taking model they use for written
sources, but some aspects differ slightly.
[There is quite a difference between the two activities] Note-Taking from Text Sources
Purpose: Note-taking from written and oral sources is an active reading and listening
activity. Notes provide students with rich material to aid in information recall, essay-
writing, and exam preparation.
Taking Notes From Reading: To get the most out of the time that you spend reading, it is
essential to develop effective note-making skills. Jotting down notes on a reading in the
margins and/or highlighting important sections can help you to focus and better understand
what you read. However, as your reading becomes more extensive and purposeful, writing
effective notes will save you valuable researching and writing time. Good note making can
help you to keep a record of what you read and record your thoughts about it while they are
fresh.

Task 1.2.1. Define note taking

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 Multiple choice questions (MCQ) to define note taking

1.3. note taking and active listening5

[In the first part of the lecture, one must acknowledge the fact that note taking
and active listening are two skills students must master in order to perform correctly. In
both instances, the student has to be an active participant in his learning. Both skills are
intertwined and render the job of the student difficult]. “Note-taking is a method of
recording temporary but essential information for greater performance. In a systemized
way, note-taking helps structure information during meetings and make it easy to recall the
materials later. Writing down ideas helps with focus and managing tasks. Good notetaking
involves effective listening that includes concentrating on, selecting, summarizing, and
finally, evaluating what is being said by the lecturer. The key to effective listening is to be
an active listener. Active listening requires you to listen attentively to a speaker, understand
what they're saying, respond and reflect on what's being said, and retain the information
for later. This keeps both listener and speaker actively engaged in the conversation, and it's
an essential building block of compassionate leadership.

There are 4 Types of Listening :

 [In order to understand the skill of listening, one must be aware of all types of listening
there are in a normal situation and in academic contexts]. Deep listening occurs when
you're committed to understanding the speaker's perspective; Full Listening. Full listening
involves paying close and careful attention to what the speaker is conveying; Critical
Listening (be able to be critical); and Therapeutic Listening (use to heal).
In the classroom, teachers seem to put the emphasis on active listening, which needs the
total involvement of students. The next question to ask is: “What are 5 main characteristics
of active listening?
[Active listening differs somehow from the simple skill. It is defined by the active
participation of both partners]. They all help you ensure that you hear the other person, and
that the other person knows you are listening to what they say.
One must then: - Pay attention. Give the speaker your undivided attention, and
acknowledge the message - Show that you are listening. - Provide feedback. - Defer
judgment. - Respond Appropriately.
[Besides], the three the main techniques for active listening are paraphrasing, clarifying
and summarizing. Paraphrasing is restating the speaker's thought, in your own
words. There are two main elements that you need to include in your notes:
 The content of your reading, usually through brief summaries or paraphrasing, plus a
few well-chosen quotes (with page numbers); and your reaction to the content, which may
include an emotional reaction and also questions that you feel it raises”.
 [In the literature, language teachers often make the difference between note taking and
note making, which seem to be two different procedures. It is worth using this dichotomy
because it help make the job of the teacher easier].
 [Note taking and note making: what is the difference? In the first case, you take notes in
lectures or seminars, writing down what other people are saying for future reference. In the
second instance, you make notes from reading books, journals, any form of text.]

Task 1.3.1. Note taking while listening

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 In this activity, you are asked to take notes while listening to a spoken text. Try to
identify key words, topic sentences and the unfolding of ideas in different stretches of
discourse.
_______________________________
Practical tips and advice6
 If you are seeking conceptual information, focus on the main points the professor
makes, rather than copying down the entire presentation or every word the
professor says. Remember, if you review your notes after class, you can always
fill in any gaps or define words or concepts you didn’t catch in class.
 If you are learning factual information, transcribing most of the lecture verbatim can
help with recall for short-answer test questions, but only if you study these notes
within 24 hours.
 Record questions and thoughts you have or content that is confusing to you that you
want to follow-up on later or ask your professor about.
 Jot down keywords, dates, names, etc. that you can then go back and define or
explain later.
 Take visually clear, concise, organized, and structured notes so that they are easy to
read and make sense to you later.
 If you want your notes to be concise and brief, use abbreviations and symbols.
Write in bullets and phrases instead of complete sentences. This will help your
mind and hand to stay fresh during class and will help you access things easier
and quicker after class. It will also help you focus on the main concepts.”

Which advice would be most useful for you if you were asked to take notes during a
lecture?

1.4. note taking procedures

Read and take notes from the following text in italics
[The focus of your present module is to help you learn in the most appropriate, the
easiest, the most efficient way in order to benefit from the teachers’ lectures. A three-step
process can be used by outlining first]: Outlining is a common note-taking system. Notes
and thoughts are organized in a structured, logical manner, reducing the time needed to
edit and review, allowing a lot of information to be digested in a short period of time. For
classes that involve many formulas and graphs, like mathematics or chemistry, a system
such as Cornell Notes may be better”…. Outlines generally proceed down a page, using
headings and bullets to structure information. A common system consists of headings that
use Roman numerals, letters of the alphabet, and Arabic numerals at different levels.
[The next sequence is the content that is going to be formulated one way or the other,
when the student is fully aware of is said and whether he is able to remember all that has
been said. The content starts with the way one writes sentences to reproduce either literally
or approximately what the teacher has exposed]. Sentence note-taking is simply writing
down each topic as a short, simple sentence. This method works well for fast-paced lesson
where a lot of information is being covered. The note-taker records every new thought, fact,
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or topic on a separate line. All information is recorded but is not organized into major and
minor topics. Notes can be numbered or set off with bullets showing where a new thought
begins.”
The growing ubiquity of laptops in universities and colleges has led to a rise in
electronic note-taking. Many students write their notes in word processor or prepare digital
hand-written notes using a graphic tablet or tablet computer and styli or digital pens, with
the aid of note-taking software. Online applications are receiving growing attention from
students who can forward notes using email, or otherwise make use of collaborative
features in these applications and can also download the texts as a file on a local computer.
It has also become common for lecturers to deliver lectures using these and similar
technologies, including electronic whiteboards, especially at institutes of technology.
Online note-taking has created problems for teachers who must balance educational
freedom with copyright and intellectual property concerns regarding course content.
Electronic note-taking may be less effective than traditional methods of note-taking. A
study done by Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the
University of California, Los Angeles showed that students who take notes digitally retain
less information than students who take notes on paper, and the digital note-takers have
more difficulty remembering what they've written. Electronic note-taking has created
computer-aided distractions in class as multitasking on laptops is very easy to
accomplish. However, this research only applies to typing notes on laptops, not writing on
tablets.”
Question: what does the three-step process consist in?
1. Outlining. 2. Sentence writing. 3. Electronic note taking.
-----------------------------------------
In order to give you an idea of how students take notes in real contexts, you are offered
a number of examples of handwriting notes more or less elaborate. They all seem to follow
a type of methodology that could have been suggested by their teachers:
https://in.pinterest.com/pin/50454458317151078/

https://in.pinterest.com/pin/465207836519786618/
 https://mynotesadda.com/ssc-cgl-english-grammar-handwritten-notes-pdf-2023/
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1.5. identifying and wording topic, ideas, concepts and purpose(s)
[As already stated, listening to a text, a lecture or a conference needs to be done by
being attentive to a number of signals provided by the author of the text.
An important step in note taking consist of being attentive enough to identify] topic,
ideas, concepts and purpose(s) means to be able to “distinguish between main points,
elaboration, examples, ‘waffle’ and new points by listening for:
 Introductory remarks. Lectures often begin with a useful overview of the key ideas
or themes of a topic. This helps you grasp the ‘big picture’.
 Verbal ‘signposts’ that indicate something important is about to be said. Lecturers
often signal key information with phrases like: “There are four main aspects”,
“This is important…” or “To sum up”.
 Repetition. Important points will often be repeated, especially in introductions and
conclusions.
 Phonological cues (voice emphasis, change in volume, speed, emotion and
emphasis) often indicate important information.
 Final remarks. Most lectures conclude with a summary, a restatement of the main
ideas and an indication of how the topic connects with upcoming material.

https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/note-taking-skills
[The diagram above shows the components to be considered when taking notes, namely
new vocabulary and concepts that may create problems, your personal take from the
lecture, the points to be considered and the illustrations/examples proposed.]

- “Note-taking with Electronic Devices

[In the present era where technology is invading the classroom, students must be
prepared for taking notes in a different way from the traditional paper and pen. The
following tips can help students working with their PC.]
 Save notes from each lecture as a separate document labelled with course name,
lecture number and date.
 Organise all documents and other course materials into a folder labelled with the
course code.
 Choose the notebook layout for your note documents.
 Try a note-taking app like Evernote, Microsoft OneNote or Google Keep.
 Become familiar with keyboard shortcuts so that you can easily add formatting and
‘save’ while you take notes7.”

1.6. reviewing8
[Note taking is not an end in itself. Students have to get ready for future use of these
notes: exam taking, exposés, and so on. This is why reviewing is an unavoidable phase the
student cannot do without. This means making sense out of bits and pieces that do not
always appear like clear ideas. This entails a number of changes and elaborations that will
be more complex because students do not systematically record everything the teacher says
or explain.]

 Read through your notes. Make sure they are clear and legible. Clean them up - fix
spelling errors, expand on abbreviations, tidy up handwriting (if necessary).
 Fill in missing words or information and add anything extra that you may have
thought of since the lecture.
 Code your notes - use colour and symbols to mark structure and emphasis, highlight
major sections, main points and diagrams. Use different colours to emphasise main
points, classify different topics and link concepts or information.
 Explain and clarify diagrams by writing a simple version of their meaning.
 Identify anything that needs further clarification.

1.7. the unspoken: attitudes and postures

[Identifying topic, ideas, concepts and purpose(s) means also to pay attention to non-
verbal cues (facial expressions, hand and body signals) that indicate something important is
being said. Non-verbal cues include tone of voice, talking speed and intonation, gestures,
and facial expressions. Tone of voice tells you the emotion of the speaker – if they are
serious, light-hearted, sarcastic, excited, or any other emotion. This influences the meaning
of the lecture. Nonverbal communication cues—the way you listen, look, move, and
react—tell the person you are communicating with whether or not you care, if you're being
truthful, and how well you're listening. When your nonverbal signals match up with the
words you're saying, they increase trust, clarity, and rapport9.
“Nonverbal communication means conveying information without using words.1 This
might involve using certain facial expressions or hand gestures to make a specific point, or

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https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/note-taking-skills
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https://www.google.com/search?q=note+taking+and+the+non+verbal+communication.
it could involve the use (or non-use) of eye contact, physical proximity, and other
nonverbal cues to get a message across… Nonverbal communication can be categorized
into eight types: space, time, physical characteristics, body movements, touch,
paralanguage, artifacts, and environment10.
In speech, you must pay attention to prosody that gives you an extra information on the
one who speak (his mood, feeling, focus, intention, and attitude). The prosody of the speech
signal conveys information over the linguistic content of the message: prosody structures
the utterance, and also brings information on speaker's attitude and speaker's
emotion. Duration of sounds, energy and fundamental frequency are the prosodic features.]

Task 1.7.1. WATCH & TAKE NOTES (17mn22)

Prosodic Features of Speech11 (An Intro to Prosody ... www.youtube.com › watch. Matthew
Barbee. 28 September 2020.
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1.8. Dos and don’ts of note taking

[At times, note taking seems not to respond to norms, rules or principles. Still, in order
to facilitate your own job of learning, you need to accept the fact that there are things you
can do and others you cannot, even should not do.]
“- Write phrases, not full sentences. Only record the key words that you need to get the
idea of the point. Skip words like “the” and “a” that don’t add additional meaning to
the lecture content. Retain key technical or discipline-specific terms.
- Take notes in your own words. Paraphrase what you hear so it makes sense to you—it
helps you to understand and remember what you hear. Try to paraphrase everything
except where information needs to be noted exactly.
- Structure your notes with headings, subheadings and numbered lists. Use headings to
indicate topic areas or to include bibliographic details of the sources of information.
Use outline form and/or a numbering system and indenting to help you distinguish
major from minor points and as a clear way of indicating the structure of lecture
information.
- Code your notes—use colour and symbols to mark structure and emphasis.
- Use colour to highlight major sections, main points and diagrams. You can also use
different colours to classify and link concepts or information by topic. However, don’t
focus too much on colour coding when you’re in the lecture. It requires time and
concentration, so it’s more useful to do most of the highlighting and underlining when
you’re revising your notes later.
- Underline, circle, star, etc. to identify key information, examples, definitions, or other
important materials. Devise your own marking code to indicate each type.
- If you miss something, write key words, skip a few spaces, and get the information later.
Leave a space on the page for your own notes and comments.”12

[To conclude this part, you have to understand that you remain your own evaluator.
What works for you may not work for all students. Your level of efficiency in taking notes
depends on your own choice of how to solve your note taking challenge. You can adopt an

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eclectic approach to note taking by mixing elements from individual and collective
methodologies to constitute an approach that suits you best, and which corresponds to your
language capacity and skills.]