Note-Taking Taking Notes – UEfAP

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Listening Comprehension and Note-Taking

Summarising & note-taking

Taking notes

Taking notes is an important part of the life of every student. There are two main reasons
why note-taking is important:

1. When you are reading or listening, taking notes helps you concentrate. In order to
take notes – to write something sensible – you must understand the text. As
listening and reading are interactive tasks, taking notes help you make sense of the
text. Taking notes does not mean writing down every word you hear; you need to
actively, decide what is important and how is related to what you have already
written.
2. Notes help you to maintain a permanent record of what you have read or listened
to. This is useful when revising in the future for examinations or other reasons.

Good notes should be accurate, clear and concise. They should show the organisation of
the text, and this should show the relationship between the ideas.

How to take notes.

When you’re listening, first listen to the beginning of the text to find the main points and
how they are related. Then listen for the subsidiary points; see how they are related to the
main points and to each other. Then, reduce the points to notes. Make sure links and
relationships between the ideas are shown.

Good notes need to be organised appropriately. There are two main methods for this:

1. List

The topic is summarised one point after another, using numbers and letters and
indentation to organise information in order of importance. The numbers and letters can
be used by themselves or in combination.

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X,

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I,

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8,9,10,

(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii), (ix), (x),

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a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i,

Or using decimals:

1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

For example:

1. XXXX 1. XXXX 1. XXXX

2. XXXX 2. XXXX 2. XXXX
1. XXXX 1. XXXX 2.1. XXXX
2. XXXX 2. XXXX 2.2. XXXX
3. XXXX 3. XXXX 2.3. XXXX
3. XXXX 3. XXXX 3. XXXX
1. XXXX 1. XXXX 3.1. XXXX
2. XXXX 2. XXXX 3.2. XXXX
1. XXXX 1. XXXX 3.2.1. XXXX
2. XXXX 2. XXXX 3.2.2. XXXX
3. XXXX 3. XXXX 3.2.3. XXXX
3. XXXX 3. XXXX 3.3. XXXX
1. XXXX 1. XXXX 3.3.1. XXXX
2. XXXX 2. XXXX 3.3.2. XXXX
4. XXXX 4. XXXX 4. XXXX
1. XXXX 1. XXXX 4.1. XXXX
2. XXXX 2. XXXX 4.2. XXXX
3. XXXX 3. XXXX 4.3. XXXX
5. XXXX 5. XXXX 5. XXXX

Example
Example 1

2. Diagram

A diagram of the information shows how the main ideas are related and reflects the
organisation of the information. You can use flow charts, pictures, tree diagrams, mind
maps (Buzan, 1974), tables etc. You can also include circles, arrows, lines, boxes, etc.

Example

Example 2; Example 3; Example 4; Example 5; Example 6

In both ways, you can use headings, underlining, colours, and white space to make the
relationships clear. There is no generally best layout – it depends on what you like and
your purpose. Some ways of taking notes are more appropriate for some topics. A
description of a process suits a flow chart and a classification is shown clearly using a
tree diagram. It is important to show how the ideas are the connected and how the
information is organised. Advantages and disadvantages are easily shown using a table
format.

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Make sure you write down where your notes have been taken from. It will save you time
when you need to check your facts or write a bibliography. In lecture notes, make sure
you write down the name of anyone quoted and where the quote has been taken from.
You can then find it if you want to make more detailed use of the information.

Exercise

Try these exercise: Exercise 1,Exercise 2.

Notes are a summary and should therefore be much shorter than the original. Thus,
abbreviations and symbols can be used whenever possible. The table below shows some
conventional English symbols and abbreviations. You will need specific ones for your own
subject.

and &

and others (people) et. al.

and other things etc.

answer A

approximately ≈; approx; c

at @

because ∵

before example :

centimeter cm

century C

chapter ch.

compare cf.

correct ✓

decreases, falls ↘

degrees °

department dept.

divided by ÷; /

east E

equal to =

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equivalent to ≡

especially esp.

for example e.g.

governnment govt.

greater than >

grows, increases ↗

important N.B.

in one year p.a.

information info.

kilogram kg

less than <

maximum max.

minimum min.

minus –

much greater than >>

much less than <<

multiplied by x

north N

not come from

not equal

not lead to

not proportional to

number No. or #

page p.

pages pp.

percent %

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plus +

possibly poss.

probably prob.

proportional to

question Q

results from

results in, leads to

same as above “

similar to

that is to say, in other words i.e.

therefore ∴

south S

unlikely ??

uncertain, not sure ?

very v.

with reference to re.

wrong X

west W

year yr.

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