听力 note-taking

Some hints on taking notes

1. Take notes throughout the lecture. Try to write down as much information as you possibly can. Write vertically, not horizontally. Change to another line when necessary. Indention may be used to symbolize what is less important.

2. Always write down any terms that are new to you, definitions, specific facts, lists of items, and statistics.

3. Speakers will sometimes give clues telling you which points in a lecture are especially important and will be asked about. Some of the most common clues:

a. Repetition of a point

b. Emphasis from tone of voice or from pauses before or after making a point

c. The amount of time spent on a point

4. Pay attention to the use of signal words or phrases in the lecture, especially ones that indicate the structure of the lecture or a change of topic.

5. In academic discussions, important information may be in comments that students make (particularly if the professor agrees with the student).

6. When taking notes on conversations, pay attention to who is saying what. For example, if a professor is speaking to a student, you may want to put the initial P before notes on what the professor says and S before what the student says.

7. Take notes during repeated expressions (sometimes just similar in meaning). In fact, try to write down as many words as possible when listening for the second time.

8. Organize your lecture notes according to order of importance. The most important ideas should be on the left side of the page. Indent to the right to show that an idea is subordinate to or supports the more important idea. In other words, ideas on the left side of the page are general divisions of the lecture. As you move to the right, ideas become more specific. You should also skip lines between important parts of the lecture. Writing notes in this way helps you analyze the material that you are listening to and organize your notes in a logical way.

Main idea

Supporting idea

Supporting idea

Minor point, example, detail, etc.

Main idea

Supporting idea

Minor point, example, detail, etc.

Minor point, example, detail, etc.

You can indicate ideas that you think are especially important with a box, a circle, an underline, or an exclamation point (!).

Leave plenty of white space around your notes so that, if the speaker returns to a point later, you can add new notes.

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9. The average lecturer speaks about 125 to 150 words per minute. The average note taker can

write only about 20 to 25 words per minute. Therefore, you need to use abbreviations and other shortcuts to help you get down as much information as possible.

a. Don’t write your notes in complete sentences. Write in phrases.

b. Omit unimportant words and words that do not carry information.

Suppose the lecturer says this:

The taiga is the largest of all the world’s biomes.

You note might read: Taiga largest biome.

Common words that you can generally eliminate:

Be verbs(is, are, was, were), articles(a, an, the), pronouns(they, his, them),

determiners (this, that, these), prepositions (of, with, from)

c. Use standard abbreviations and symbols: