Note Taking Basics

Note taking is an important

part of academic life.

To be successful at note taking, you

need to:
• Improve your reading skills.
• Develop your note taking skills.
• Be able to use your notes to study.
 Similar to All other Skills

• Reading and note taking improve ONLY

with practice.
• Practice every day for 5-10 minutes.
 Note taking = Rewriting

Note taking is writing complete ideas;

rewriting is writing complete
sentences.
 Example

Rewriting:
History 1002 meets 2 days a
week, from 10:00 am to
10:50.
Notes:
Hist 1002
Meets - 2 d/wk 10 – 10:50 am
 Successful Note taking:
Read for KEY WORDS
cau FACTO
ses RS
First - costs
o p m e n t
o f d evel
Stages
techno ces
logy di ffe ren
 Characteristics
of Good Notes
• Notes are short.
• Only the main ideas and important
supporting details are included.
• The notes are in note-form, that is,
the information is divided and sub-
divided by the use of numbers or
letters.
• Abbreviations and symbols are used
in the notes.
• Words like articles, prepositions,
and conjunctions are left out.
 Why Do We Make Notes?

We cannot remember new information

without writing some of it down. Taking
notes is necessary in order to remember
what we read or listen to. It also helps us to
identify the organization of a passage or
lecture and its main ideas. We also learn to
leave out non-essential information and
repetitions. Notes help us in our reference
work and preparation for examinations.
 Use symbols and
abbreviations.

Mr !
Mrs %
w/ 
pop x #
 How to Abbreviate Words
• Capitalize initial letters: AIR, GOI, UNO, etc.
• Take the first few letters of a word, and if
necessary, add an ‘s’ to show a plural: edu.
(education), geog. (geography), sc. (science), and
depts. (departments).
• Write the first few and the last few letters of a
word, with an apostrophe in between: can’t
(cannot), w’out (without), wrt’g (writing).
 A List of Few Symbols
Symbols Meaning
= equal to
& (or) + and/plus
≠ not equal to
> is greater than
< is less than
 therefore
∵ because, as, since
 insert (something which has been omitted)
from, to, leads to, results in, casues
/ rises, increases, by, grows to/by
@ at the rate of
 similar to, equivalent to
 List of a Few Abbreviations
Abbreviations Meaning
e.g. for example
i.e. that is
cf. compare with, refer to
etc. et cetera, and so on
viz. namely (naming someone or something you have just
referred to)
et al. and others
AD years after the birth of Christ (Anna Domini)
N.B. take note that, note (something important)
 Note complete ideas,
not just random words.
• Pop of USA pop of UK

• 1990 intl st < 2% of US st

BUT now > 9+%
Now let’s change
sentences to ideas . . .
 Change these sentences
into notes:
Studies on worldwide literacy* rates show that
almost 80 percent of the world’s population over
the age of 15 is now literate. This includes more
women than ever before.

*Literacy = ability to read

 One way to write this
info

Studies ww literacy rt = almost 80 % world pop

over 15 yrs now literate

+ grtr # of women than bef

 Change the sentence
into notes:

UNESCO’s study shows a drop in illiteracy from twenty-

two and four-tenths percent of the world population in
1995 to twenty and three tenths in 2000.
 One way to write this
info

UNESCO’s st shows fr 22.4% ww pop in ’95 to 20.3% in

2000
What important information is missing? What is the
decrease in?

The LITERACY rate INCREASED – the drop was in the

number of people who CANNOT read – the ILLITERACY
rate dropped.
 Another way to write it.

WW literacy rates

- almost 80% of ww pop 15+ yrs - literate

- more women than bef

- illiteracy 1995 2000

22.4% (ww pop) 20.3%
 DEAF-MUTES
Many teachers of deaf-mutes believe that the use of sign
language and the finger alphabet is not the best method. It
forces the deaf-mute to make his feelings known only to
other people in the same condition. So these teachers use a
method known as ‘oral instruction’. In this method, the
deaf are taught to understand what is spoken to them, and
even to speak.
Nowadays, many of the deaf and hard-of-hearing learn
to understand what is said by watching the lips of the
speaker. They learn to speak by looking at and feeling the
lips of the teacher and then following his movements.
Glossary: Deaf-mutes – people who cannot
hear or speak
  
Make outline notes on the paragraph.
Use abbreviations and symbols in your
outline.
 THE RIVERS OF INDIA

Open a map of India. The pattern of rivers is like

the lines on the palm of a hand. There are
hundreds of rivers. But most of them at some
point join the thicker lines to form the major
rivers. As in any other country, all our rivers, large
and small, are like close relatives of the people
who depend on their waters. But here in India they
are something more too – gifts from Mother India
herself. Like her, they too are all women. Again
like her they, too, have links with gods and
goddesses.
 Outline
1. Rivers in India like
i. Lines on palm – river systems
ii. Relatives – dependent on
iii. Mother India herself = women +
gods and goddesses
 Our Agriculture

India is an agricultural country. Out of every hundred

Indians, about seventy make their living through
agriculture. Agriculture gives us food, cotton for our
clothes, raw materials like jute and sugarcane for our
industries, and food for cattle. That is why, for
thousands of years, people all over the world, especially
the people of our country have been involved in
agriculture. India has large fertile plains which are
good for cultivation. Some of these fertile areas are (a)
the Northern fertile plain (b) the large Deltas of the
Coastal plains (c) parts of the plateau Region. All these
areas together constitute about half of the total area of
our country. Rice, wheat, millets, cotton, jute,
sugarcane and tea, are the chief crops grown here.
 How to make notes?
• Pick out the main and the sub-points.
• Delete non-essential words like a, an, the,
prepositions, adverbs etc.,
• Use short forms where ever possible.
• Think of an alignment. Generally it is like this
1. ___________________
a. ___________
b. ___________
2. _____________________
 Our Agriculture, in the
form of Notes.
• India, agri. country.
• 70% live thro’ agri.
• Agri. prod: food, cotton, jute.
• Fertile plains in India—
» Northern fertile plain
» Coastal Plain
» Part of Plateau Region
• Chief crops : rice, millets, wheat, cotton, jute, etc.,
 Nalanda
Read the following paragraph.

Nalanda is near Patna in Bihar. Today it is in ruins,

but 1,500 years ago it was the most important
Buddhist University in India. It was to respect the
memory of this ancient university that an
international centre for higher studies in Pali
literature and Buddhist philosophy — the modern
Nalanda Institute— was started here in 1951.
 Look at the notes given below and pick out
the abbreviations and symbols used in the
notes.
Notes
Nalanda near Patna, Bihar.
1,500 yrs ago important Buddhist univ.
India honour memory— Buddhist univ.—
Nalanda Univ. (intnl. centre — higher
studies) — Pali lit. & Buddhist phil. —
started 1951.
 Abbreviations
Notes:
Nalanda near Patna, Bihar.
1,500 yrs ago important Buddhist univ.
India honour memory— Buddhist univ.—
Nalanda Univ. (intnl. centre — higher
studies) — Pali lit. & Buddhist phil. —
started 1951.
 What do these
abbreviations mean?
yrs - years
univ. - university
--- - - was/is
intnl. - international
lit. - literature
phil. - philosophy
Which words have been
left out?
The words left out are:
is, was
in, of
it, this, here
ancient
an, the
founded
near
 HOW WAS THE ARYAN CHILD
EDUCATED?

Read the passage given below and put the main ideas in
boxes and supporting details in circles. The first
paragraph has been done.

1. The Aryan child was educated in gurukuls. The

upanayana ceremony was followed by admission to
gurukuls. After his upanayana, the pupil left the home of
his parents, and lived as a member of the teacher’s
household.
2. Later, with the growth of scientific knowledge,
arithmetic and grammar were taught along with the Vedas.
 
3. The children of the chiefs were taught the art of war.
They were given training in the use of the spear, the lance,
the sword, the bow. They were also taught the rules of
administration. These skills would help them when they
became rulers themselves.
4. The pupils were charged no fixed or regular fees, but it
was a custom for the guru to be given gurudakshina
(offering to the teacher). This was usually done when the
pupil’s student days were over, and the guru or teacher
thought him fit to take up his duties in the outside world.
Here are some notes made by a student
from an encyclopaedia on the Montessori
System. No abbreviations have been used,
so the notes are long. Rewrite his notes
using abbreviations and symbols leaving
out unnecessary words.
 Notes:
• Montessori system method of pre-school and elementary
education.
• Developed in the early 20th century by an Italian educator
Maria Montessori.
• Montessori system emphasized physical freedom and self-
help instructional materials. It also emphasized early
development of reading and writing skills.
• Montessori methods, earlier meant for educating mentally
retarded children, proved so successful that the same
methods were used to teach younger children of normal
development.
 Summing Up
• Now we have a better understanding of
note-making.
• We have also read passages on our
agriculture, Nalanda, rivers of India, and the
education of the Aryan child.
 Things to Remember
Use:

• Key words
• Space
• Headings
• Abbreviations and

symbols
• Complete ideas
 Things to Remember

• Rewrite your notes.

• Develop your own

style and

Practice, practice, practice.