1. Pre-lecture (the night / morning before)
a) I look at the course outline to check the topic.
b) I get an overview by doing the recommended reading the week before.
c) I make a list of any new words or questions for the topic.
d) I try to predict the content.
2. Just before the lecture (5 to 10 minutes before the start)
a) I arrive at the lecture on time.
b) I talk to other students about the day's lecture topic.
c) I prepare in my mind for the type of organisation and delivery
the lecturer will probably have.
d) I try to predict the content.
3. My habits during lectures
a) I listen while the lecturer gives a review of last week's topic.
b) I listen for the introduction and the first heading.
c) If there is an overview of the lecture on a slide, I use those points for my subheadings and to organise the body of my notes.
d) I note any definitions that the lecturer gives.
e) I have a system for organising and highlighting suggested references, authors, and articles the lecturer discusses.
f) I clearly identify examples and illustrations so I know which points they refer to.
g) I use a "?" if I cannot understand something.
4. Immediately after the lecture
a) I talk to some of my classmates.
b) I check one of my classmate's notes in order to compare something I was unsure about.
c) I have developed some methods for checking the accuracy of my notetaking.
5. After the lecture that day
a) I look at my notes and ask myself questions to check comprehension of the main ideas.
b) I look up the correct spelling of words I have identified during
the lecture.
c) I email / telephone / talk to a classmate as part of my regular revision.
d) I prepare some questions for the relevant tutorial.
6. A couple of days after the lecture
a) I look at my notes again and identify which parts may help for my exams, and which for my assignments.
b) I look at the next topic coming up and plan my pre-lecture preparation time.
c) I enjoy feeling on top of things when I'm as prepared as I can be.
| Exercise 2. Skim the text and prove that note-taking is an active process, making a student an active learner. |
Note-taking
Some academic writers try to skip the note-taking stage. Instead, they read their material and highlight the salient points with a highlighting marker. However, the writing derived from this approach is usually vague, ill-defined, and lacks structure, substance, and coherence.
When taking notes, first write the full reference citation at the top of
the page. Having this here will save you the task of having to look up the articles again when creating the reference page. Next, use a very basic outline form and record only the ideas needed to support your writing topic. Use short, concise, incomplete sentences with just enough words to hold the idea. The goal during note-taking is not to create grammatically correct writing; rather, to restate and remember the author's ideas in a way that makes them readily accessible to you.
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Taking effective notes during the lecture is an important academic activity that helps you to concentrate, stimulates your ability to recall, and helps you
to be organised. Note-taking will help keep you focused on the task in hand. Active learning is effective since it uses multiple senses and multiple activities. When note-taking we are using listening and writing skills and we are using our brain and muscles. Also, by writing down notes, you are paraphrasing the lecture or reading material into your own words and into a format that you are more likely to understand when you review the notes. Note-taking is an active process, making you an active learner. The notes you produce are your own work and are a visible reminder of the effort you have put into the course. A comprehensive set of personal notes is a great motivator; you are well on your way to success!
Students often comment that the sheer amount of information delivered
at each lecture can be daunting and confusing. Effective note-taking should have a purpose, be well organised, reduce your study time, and increase your retention of knowledge. Most importantly, effective note-taking can be a valuable
time-saving skill. Note-taking is a skill which requires practise.
| Exercise 3. Scan the text for specific information and complete the table. |
| Tools for note-taking | … |
| What should be note-taken | … |
| Goals of note-taking | … |
| Skills used in note-taking | … |
| Traits of effective note-taking | … |
| Exercise 4. Read the text about note-taking strategies and say if you have ever used such techniques or you have your own method of effective note-taking. |
Note-taking Strategies
There are a few techniques and tips outlined here on how to take, organise and store notes to help make your life easier.
Note Mapping
Mapping notes is a very effective tool which aids visual learning and retention. Notes are organised into a concise, logical map.
Figure 3. Mind map
| The Cornell method of note-taking The Cornell method of note-taking presents a format whereby you divide your A4 page into columns, like so: | 
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The example of the Cornell method of note-taking see at Fig. 4.
Figure 4. Cornell method
R's method
With this method, the 5 R's of note-taking are described. They are:
1. Record: During the lecture, use the note-taking column to record
the lecture using telegraphic sentences.
2. Questions: As soon after class as possible, formulate questions based
on the notes in the right-hand column. Writing questions helps to clarify meanings, reveal relationships, establish continuity, and strengthen memory. Also, the writing of questions sets up a perfect stage for exam-studying later.
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3. Recite: Cover the note-taking column with a sheet of paper. Then, looking at the questions or cue-words in the question and cue column only, say aloud, in your own words, the answers to the questions, facts, or ideas indicated by the cue-words.
4. Reflect: Reflect on the material by asking yourself questions, for example: What's the significance of these facts? What principle are they based on? How can
I apply them? How do they fit in with what I already know? What's beyond them?
5. Review: Spend at least ten minutes every week reviewing all your previous notes. If you do, you'll retain a great deal for current use, as well as, for the exam.
Using abbreviations
When taking notes, you can reduce the amount of language by shortening words and sentences. Some ways of abbreviating are:
• leaving out most articles and conjunctions (the, a, and, but);
• shorten words by leaving out vowels or other letters (also known as "word truncation");
• using abbreviations and symbols for commonly used words and phrases.
Many words have a commonly used abbreviation. Here are some examples of words that have a common abbreviation:
| Word | Abbreviation | Word | Abbreviation |
| people | ppl | especially | esp |
| research | res | understand | ustand |
| national | natl | introduction | intro |
| equation | eqn | junior | jr |
| education | ed | weight | wt |
| government | gov | package | pkg |
| department | dep | highway | hwy |
You can form your own abbreviation for just about any word. Here are three ways you can do this.
1. Write just the beginning of a long word. Here are some examples of long words that have been abbreviated by writing just the beginning of the word:
| Word | Abbreviation | Word | Abbreviation |
| different | diff | feminine | fem |
| incorporated | inc | population | pop |
| elementary | elem | ambiguous | ambig |
| molecular | molec | separate | sep |
| division | div | hippopotamus | hippo |
2. Leave out the vowels when writing a word. Here are some examples of words that have been abbreviated by leaving out the vowels when writing
the word:
| Word | Abbreviation | Word | Abbreviation |
| century | cntry | point | pnt |
| mountain | mntn | school | schl |
| reason | rsn | clean | cln |
| popular | pplr | teacher | tchr |
| quality | qlty | progress | prgrss |
3. For words that have just one syllable, write just the first and last letter of the word. Here are some examples of words that have been abbreviated by writing just the first and last letter of the word:
| Word | Abbreviation | Word | Abbreviation |
| quart | qt | land | ld |
| tick | tk | round | rd |
| girl | gl | pack | pk |
| night | nt | field | fd |
| link | lk | heart | ht |
4. Common symbols and abbreviations:
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| ∵ | because |
| ∴ | therefore OR consequently |
| + | & | and OR plus |
| ? | question OR doubt OR possibility |
| > | greater than |
| < | less than |
| # | no. | number |
| $ | dollars OR money OR cost |
| Δ | change |
| / | per OR each |
| | increase OR improvement |
| ® | leads to OR causes |
| ¯ | decrease OR deterioration |
| « | linked OR interrelated OR connected |
| ↛ | does not lead to |
| = | equal OR the same as |
| ~ | approximately OR around OR similar to |
| ¹ | not equal OR not the same as |
| ´ | | not |
| µ | varies with OR related to |
| … | etc. OR missing words |
| etc. | etcetera; and so on |
| et al. | and the other authors |
| eg | for example |
| i. e | that is |
| NB | * | note well OR remember this |
| ♂ | ♀ | male / female |
| § | section |
| ¶ | para | paragraph |
| p. / pp. | page / pages |
| c | with / about (circa) |
| w/o | c | without |
| 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th | first / second / third / fourth |
| @ | at |
| cf. | compare to |
| am | morning |
| pm | afternoon |
| viz | namely |
| asap | as soon as possible |
| wrt | with respect to |
| Exercise 5. Below is the opening paragraph of a lecture on reading skills. Read it and underline the most important words. You should consider whether or not the whole meaning of the paragraph could be understood just from the words you have underlined. |
When a teacher or lecturer recommends a student to read a book it's usually for a particular purpose. The book may contain useful information about the topic being studied or it may be invaluable for the ideas or views that it puts forward, and so on. In many cases, the teacher doesn't suggest that the whole book should be read. In fact, he may just refer to a few pages which have a direct bearing on the matter being discussed.
| Exercise 6. Below are some more symbols that are commonly used in note-taking. Match the symbol on the left with the explanation on the right. Discuss your ideas with a partner. |
| 1.? | a) dash (join ideas / replace missing punctuation) |
| 2. / | b) or |
| 3. & or + | c) ditto (means the same as the words above) |
| 4. – | d) leads to / results in / causes |
| 5. " " | e) fall / decrease |
| 6. = | f) and / plus |
| 7. ¹ | g) does not equal, is the opposite of |
8. 
| h) greater than, more than |
| 9. > | i) is / are / have / has / equals |
10. 
| j) is the statement correct? |
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| Exercise 7. Now read the second paragraph of the lecture and write it down in note form. Use symbols or signs |
| Therefore | 
| because |
| the statement is correct | X | the statement is wrong |
Unfortunately, when many students pick up a book to read they tend to have no particular purpose in mind other than simply to "read the book". Often they open the book and start reading, page by page, line by line, word by word; in other words, slowly and in great detail. The result is that students frequently don't have an overall view of what they're reading; also, they tend to forget fairly soon what they've been reading.
| Exercise 8. Do you know (or use) any other symbols or signs? Add them to the list. |
| e. g. | for example | 1st | first |
| i. e. | that is | 2nd | second |
| etc. | etcetera; and so on | 3rd | third etc. |
| cf. | compare | UK | United Kingdom |
| viz. | namely | USA | United States of America |
| c. | about / approximately | Q. | question |
| N.B. | note | no. | number |
| dept. | department | p. / pp. | page / pages |
| diff. | difficult / difficulty | poss. | possible / possibly |
| excl. | excluding | prob. | probable / probably |
| imp. | important | probs. | problems |
| Incl | include | re. | with reference to |
| lang. | language | ref. | reference |
| ltd. | limited | tho' | though |
| max. | maximum | thro' | through |
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| Exercise 9. Can you guess what these abbreviations mean? Discuss them with a partner. |
| 1. A 2. GOV 3. INFO | 4. MIN 5. STS 6. V | 7. THE 8. RPA 9. SUM | 10. ABS 11. REV 12. PRO |
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| Exercise 10. Work with a partner. What do you think is the difference between active note-taking and passive note-taking? |
a) Divide these activities into active and passive note-taking styles. What would be the benefits of the more active styles?
1. underlining words;
2. copying lots of direct quotes;
3. thinking about your research aims before you start;
4. cutting and pasting from the Web;
5. recording direct quotes only when the exact words are important;
6. producing notes on everything you read;
7. not evaluating and criticizing sources, simply accepting them as useful evidence;
8. looking for answers to research questions;
9. noting mainly in your own words.