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How to do English

Note Taking

Self assessment

To make your learning efficient, first find out what you know and don't know about taking notes.

  1. Do I get the main points and sub points?
  2. Do I use a particular form that I find clear?
  3. Do I use incomplete sentences?
  4. Do I use my own code of abbreviations?
  5. Do I go over my notes within 24 hours after the session?

If you answered NO to any of these questions, you should check your note-taking skills!

Why take notes

Note taking is an important learning tool, not simply because of the information you are getting but by taking in information and then writing it out again, you are processing that information for yourself.

  1. It helps you to concentrate in class and keep you focussed on your subject.
  2. It helps you to organise the ideas you are learning about and is a source of valuable clues for what information your teacher thinks most important.
  3. As the lesson has been tailored to your needs, your notes often contain material that has been selected from diverse sources that you might find difficult to draw together yourself.
  4. It helps you learn more effectively because you are
    • using several kinds of activity - listening and writing skills and our brain and muscles
    • summarising the lesson into your own words and into a form suitable for you
    • an active learner, engaging with the information and ideas.
How to take notes
  1. At the beginning of a presentation, a speaker will usually outline what he or she will be saying. Note this overview as a guide to structuring your notes.
  2. Take notes selectively. Do NOT try to write down every word. It is important to write down
    • relevant facts and statements supported by evidence
    • important, relevant, educated opinions.

    Presenters often use examples to flesh out ideas. It is not important to write these down. When going over your notes later, try to think of your own examples.

  3. The speaker is usually making an important point if he or she:
    • Writes a heading/word on the board or on an overhead or PowerPoint presentation
    • Pauses before or after an idea.
    • Uses repetition to emphasize a point.
    • Uses introductory phrases to precede an important idea.
  4. Use your own words to summarise the main ideas. Use the presenter's only for technical terms or particularly apt expressions.
How to organise notes

Your notes should be organised into some visible form. Use your own mix of indentation, free lines, highlighting, font, colour and size to draw attention to important points.

Common patterns for organising notes are:

  1. Outlining
    • Topic sentence or main idea
      1. Major point providing information about topic
        • Subpoint that describes the major point
        • Subpoint that describes the major point
      2. Major point providing information about topic
        • Subpoint that describes the major point
        • Subpoint that describes the major point
  2. Mindmapping

    Mind Mapping Chart

    How to condense notes

    Use shortcuts that you will understand and that will make the writing process quicker by

    1. Eliminating small connecting words such as: is, are, was, were, a, an, the, would, this
    2. Eliminating pronouns such as: they, these, his, that, them
    3. Use symbols as shorthand
      = equals / of, per
      + and → leads to, produces, results in
      x times ← comes from, caused by
      > greater, more, larger (than) w/ with
      < less, smaller, fewer (than) w/o without
      ~ about, approximately w/in within
      X character Ψ psychology
      +ve positive ↑ increase
      -ve negative ↓ decrease
      ∴ therefore because
    4. Develop your own abbreviations by dropping
      • the last few letters of a word eg 'approp' for 'appropriate', 'contemp' for 'contemporary', 'eng' for English etc.
      • middle letters eg. 'lge' for large 'gt' for 'great', sml etc.
      • a combination of both 'posn' - 'position'

        Some common abbrevns are:

        e.g. for example i.e. that is
        etc. etcetera no. number
        NB note well c.f. compare
        re about, regarding char character
        esp. especially popn population
        v. very pop popular/population
        gen. general(ly) def. definite, definition
        usu. usual(ly) et al and others
        p.p. pages thru through
        pro professional tho though
  3. After the session
    1. As soon as it is possible re-read your notes and re-write them if necessary into a clearer format. If you do this within 24 hours, it will improve your memory of them significantly.
    2. Organise and file your notes in well-labelled folders or in a similar system.
    3. Have post-its on hand for you to add comments or questions at future readings.