STD: XI

NOTE-MAKING AND SUMMARISATION

STD:XI
READING: Note Making and Summary Writing

Note-making is the practice of recording information captured from another source. By

taking notes, the writer records the essence of the information, freeing their mind from having
to recall everything. The source can be any book, article, meeting for any oral discussion.

Why is note making important?

In note-making, the writer records the essence of the information. It helps us to understand
and clarify thinking. Note-making saves a lot of time by going through the notes made. One
can get a glimpse of a lot of information from a short note.

Important Points

• Prepare a note using phrases only, never use complete sentences

• The topic sentence of each paragraph is the main point and the ideas affiliated
to it are sub-points- one or more, depending on the concepts in the paragraph
• Each sub-point may or may not have supplementary ideas which become sub-
sub points
• Provide an appropriate title for the notes or the summary or abstract as given
in the question
• Include a minimum of 4 to 6 distinctly different recognisable short forms
i.e, abbreviations of the words in the notes
• Cover all the important points in the notes meaningfully to prepare the
summary in about 80 to 100 words
• Write the summary in complete sentences in a paragraph

Format
Heading/ Title of the topic
1. Sub-heading 1
1 Point 1
1 ii. Sub- sub heading

1. i . a.Sub point 1
1 ii. b. Sub point 2
1. iii. Points 2
2. Sub-heading 2
2 i. Point 1
2 ii. Sub- sub heading

2. i . a. Sub point 1
2 ii. b. Sub point 2
2. iii. Points 2

Key/Abbreviations (Examples)
Gov- government
Info- information

Summary
Sample Question 1 :

Read the passage given below:

1. Occasional self-medication has always been part of normal living. Only during the
last hundred years or so has the development of scientific techniques made diagnosis
possible. The doctor is now able to follow up the correct diagnosis of many illnesses
with specific treatment of the cause. In many other illnesses of which the causes
remain unknown, he is still limited like the unqualified prescriber to the treatment of
symptoms. The doctor is trained to decide when to treat symptoms only and when to
attack the cause. This is the essential difference between medical prescribing and
self-medication.

2. The advance of technology has brought about much progress in some fields of
medicine, including the development of scientific drug therapy. In many countries the
Public Health Organization is improving and the peoples’ nutritional standards have
risen. Parallel with such beneficial trends are two factors which have an adverse
effect. One is the use of high-pressure advertising by the pharmaceutical industry
which has tended to influence both patients and doctors and has led to the overuse of
drugs generally. The other is the emergence of sedentary society with its faulty ways
of living: lack of exercise, overeating, unsuitable eating, insufficient sleep, excessive
smoking and drinking. People with disorders arising from faulty habits such as these,
as well as from unhappy human relationships, often resort to self-
medication. Advertisers go to great lengths to catch this market.

3. Clever advertising aimed at chronic sufferers; who will try anything because doctors
have not been able to cure them; can in a medicine, particularly if it is steeply
priced. Advertisements are also aimed at people suffering from mild complaints such
as simple colds and coughs which advertisements claim will clean up within a short
time due to the intake of a medicinal product.

4. These are the main reasons why laxatives, indigestion remedies, painkillers mixtures,
tonics, vitamins and iron tablets, nose drops ointments and many other preparations
are found in quantity in many households. It is doubtful whether taking these things
even improves a person's health or if it simply makes it worse. Worse because the
preparation may contain unsuitable ingredients making a person dependent on them.
They may also cause poisoning and worst of all the symptoms of an underlying
problem may be masked and therefore, medical help may be sought. Self-diagnosis is
a greater danger than self-medication.

a. On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes using headings and
subheadings. Use recognisable abbreviations, wherever necessary. Use a format you
consider suitable. Also apply an appropriate title to the set of notes.
b. Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words.
Answer

Title: Self-Medication- A Growing Trend

NOTES

1. Self-Medication and Medical Prescription

1.i Occasional self-medication practised in past
1.ii Medical diagnosis recent- 100 yrs approx
1.iii Difference between a prescribed medicine and self-medication
a. Doc trained - Knows when to treat symptoms and when to treat cause
b. Indiv doing self-medication ignorant abt above

2. Growth in Technology- Benefits and Adverse Effects

2.i Improvement in medicines, Public Health systems, nutritional stds
2.ii Sedentary society: lack of exercise, overeating, unsuitable eating, insufficient
sleep, excessive smoking and drinking
2.iii Self-medication- Ppl with a lifestyle disorder or relationship problms- target of
advertisers

3. Types of Self Medication and Effects

3.i Laxatives, indigestion remedies, painkillers, cough-mixtures, tonic, vitamin and iron
tablets, nose drops, ointments etc.
3.ii Can worsen problms
a. unsuitable ingredients
b. Medicine may mask real cause

Abbreviations:

S.R.NO. ABBREVIATIONS WORDS

1. yrs years
2. approx approximately
3. doc doctor
4. indiv individual
5. abt about
6. stds standards
7. ppl people
8. prblms problems

Summary
There has been an advancement in diagnostic techniques and improvement in medicine in
recent past. Technological advancement promotes sedentary lifestyle in people. Lack of
exercise, overeating, eating wrong foods, insufficient sleep, excessive drinking and smoking
lead to rise in physical disorders or relationship problems. Further, advertising promotes self-
medication when doctors cannot find cures. Medicines promising quick recovery for cough,
cold, indigestion attract consumers. However, self-medication masks the real problem and
unsuitable ingredients in medicines may harm people.
Sample question:2

Read the passage carefully.

1. Despite all the research, everyone of us catches cold and most of us catch it frequently. Our
failure to control one of the commonest of all ailments sometimes seems ridiculous.
Medical science regularly practises transplant surgery and has rid whole countries of such
killing diseases as Typhus and the Plague. But the problem of common cold is unusually
difficult and much has yet to be done to solve it.

2. It is known that a cold is caused by one of a number of viral infections that affect the lining
of the nose and the other passages leading to lungs but the confusing variety of viruses
makes study and remedy very difficult. It was shown in 1960 that many typical colds in
adults are caused by one or the other of a family of viruses known as rhinoviruses, yet
there still remain many colds for which no virus has yet been isolated.

3. There is also the difficulty that because they are so much smaller than the bacteria
which cause many other infections, viruses cannot be seen with ordinary microscopes. Nor
can they be cultivated easily in the bacteriologist’s laboratory since they only grow within
the living cells of animal and plants. An important recent step forward, however, is the
development of the technique of tissue culture, in which bites of animal tissue are enabled
to go on living and to multiply independently of the body. This has greatly aided virus
research and has led to the discovery of a large number of the viruses. Their existence had
previously been not only unknown but even unsuspected.

The fact that we can catch cold repeatedly creates another difficulty. Usually, a virus
strikes only once and leaves the victim immune to further attacks. Still, we do not gain
immunity from colds. Why? It may possibly be due to the fact that while other viruses get
into the bloods stream where anti-bodies can oppose them, the viruses causing cold attack
cells only on the surface. Or it may be that immunity from one of the many different
viruses does not guarantee protections from all the others. It seems, therefore, that we are
likely to have to suffer colds for some time yet.

a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes on it using
headings and sub-headings. Use recognizable abbreviations (wherever
necessary – minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply an
appropriate title to it.
b) Write a summary of the passage

Ans:
Title: No Control Over Common Cold

NOTES
1. How to control comn. cold
1.i no cure to control it
1.ii cure avble. for Typhus & Plague
1.iii prob. of comn. cold not yet solved

2. Reasons for cold

2.i it is a viral infecn. that affects nose-lining
2.ii caused by fmly. of viruses called Rhinoviruses
2.iii for certain colds no viruses have yet been isolated
3. Problem of identifying viruses
3.i smaller than bacteria so can’t be seen with ordinary microscopes
3.ii cannot be easily cultivated in bacteriologists lab. bcs grow within the living cells of
plants & animals.

4. Division of tissue culture aided by

4.i bits of animal tissue go on living
4.ii multiply independently off the body
4.iii has led to discovery of large no. of viruses
4. iv their existence previously unknown and unsuspected

5. No immunity from cold

5.i viruses causing cold attacks only on surface & not blood stream
5.ii cannot be opposed by anti-bodies
5.iii immnty. frm. one virus doesn’t guarantee prtctn frm. all
5.iv you hv to suffer frm. comn.cold for some more time

Key to Abbreviations

S.R.NO. ABBREVIATIONS WORDS

1. avlble available
2. infctn Infection
3. fmly family
4. prob problem
5. bcs because
6 comn common
7. & and
8. immnty immunity
9. No. number
10. lab laboratory
11. frm from
12. no. number
13. prtctn protection

b) Write a summary of the passage.

Despite having the cure to eradicate diseases like Typhus and Plague, it seems ridiculous that
medical science has not done much yet to solve the problem of common cold. This is because
the study of viruses remains confusing as they cannot be seen with ordinary microscopes.
Now with the development of the technique of tissue culture a large number of viruses have
been discovered whose existence was earlier unknown. We keep catching cold and never
become immune to it because the viruses causing cold attack only on the surface unlike other
viruses that get into the blood stream and so can be opposed by anti-bodies.