Note taking improves your ability to ______ on what the speaker says. 【37】

Tutor: Welcome to this class on note taking. Let’s take a look at the basics first of all. The first question we need to look at is ’Why take notes?’ The purpose of taking notes during a lecture is to help you to concentrate on what the speaker is saying and to provide you with a summary in note form so that you can write up your notes in full later. Also, it may be that the notes provided by the lecturer are not sufficient--the lecturer may add new information during the lecture and your own notes will be needed to provide you with a complete record of the lecture. Taking your own notes will promote a deeper understanding of the content of the lecture.
    So, how do you take notes? The general principle in note taking is to reduce the language by shortening words and sentences. The following advice will help you to take notes efficiently, leaving you free to listen to your lecturer. Remember that these notes are for you and as such you can use any method you like, so long as it enables you to reproduce the ideas contained in the notes and show how these ideas connect to each other later. However, there are certain principles you should bear in mind and certain conventions that are commonly used which you may find useful. First of all, you must be able to determine what you need to write down, what is important to you.
    How do you know what is important and what is not? This is not an easy question to answer, but there are things you can look out for. The first piece of information you receive is the title of the lecture. This is perhaps the most important single piece of information of the whole lecture, so you should make sure that you write it down in full. Even better--find out what it is beforehand so that you can have time to think about what the lecture will be about.
     Secondly, listen for direct or indirect signals from the lecturer that tell you what is important. As a direct signal, for example, he/she may say, "This is important, write it down," or "Make sure you get this down." Or, he/she may make indirect signals such as pausing before saying something important, or saying it slowly, loudly or with greater stress. Listen for repetition. When the lecturer repeats a point, go back to your first notes and add in any new details or information.
    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.
    Now, how should you write your notes? As mentioned above, you can make notes in any way that you like, but the following guidelines will help you to develop a style that is both quick and accurate. Concentrate on the important ideas--avoid repetition and omit things that do not need to be stated specifically because only you yourself will be reading the notes and you will know what they are referring to. Summarise important ideas-- you can use words that are not used by the lecturer to restate in a shorter form what he/she is saying. Write in short phrases rather than in complete sentences.
    Many students ask me when they should write up their notes. You might not have time to note down everything you want during the lecture itself so you must rewrite them as soon as possible so that you minimise the risk of forgetting something. Finally, you should decide on a personal note-taking style and be willing to adapt according to whom you are listening.
    For more practice in note taking, take a look at these books which can be found in the Resource Room: "Study Listening" by Tony Lynch, particularly units 6 and 12. Then there’s "Learning to Study in English" by Brian Heaton and Don Dunmore, especially units 5 and 10. The first one is published by Cambridge University Press and the second one is published by Oxford University Press.