Note Taking

Taking Notes
• Taking notes is an important part of the life. There are two
main reasons why note-taking is important:
– When you are reading or listening, taking notes helps you
concentrate. In order to take notes you must understand the text.
As listening and reading are interactive tasks, taking notes help
you make sense of the text. Taking notes does not mean writing
down every word you hear; you need to actively decide what is
important and how is related to what you have already written.
– Notes help you to maintain a permanent record of what you have
read or listened to. This is useful when revising in the future for
examinations or other reasons.
• Good notes should be accurate, clear and concise.
 How to Take Notes
• When you're reading, first survey the text to find
the main points and how they are related.
• Then, reduce the points to notes. Make sure links
and relationships between the ideas are shown.
• Good notes need to be organised appropriately.
There are two main methods for this:
– List
– Diagram
 1. List
• The topic is summarised one point after another, using
numbers and letters and indentation to organise information
in order of importance. The numbers and letters can be used
by themselves or in combination.
 2. Diagram
• A diagram of the information shows how the main ideas are
related and reflects the organisation of the information. You
can use flow charts, tree diagrams etc. You can also include
circles, arrows, lines, boxes, etc.
• For Note Taking consider the following points:
– Use key words/key phrases.
– Use short form i-e. write in points.
– Don’t write full sentences.
– Use symbols and signs.
– Number each card on the top.
– State reference with information about source, author,
page, publication date etc.
– Write one main idea on one card and its supporting
detail.
 Example 1 (Grammar)
• The way we are using the word grammar differs in another
way from its most common meaning. In our sense, the
grammar includes everything speakers know about their
language - the sound system, called phonology, the system
of meanings, called semantics, the rules of word formation,
called morphology, and the rules of sentence formation,
called syntax. It also of course includes the vocabulary of
words - the dictionary or lexicon. Many people think of the
grammar of a language as referring solely to the syntactic
rules. This latter sense is what students usually mean when
they talk about their class in "English grammar.".
I. Grammar
A. Phonology
1. Sound system
B. Semantics
1. Meaning system
C. Morphology
1. Word formation
D. Syntax
1. Sentence formation
E. Lexicon
1. Vocabulary of words