Page 54 - DENG101_Communication Skills-I

Unit 5: Note Taking & Note Making

5.4 Reasons for Making Notes Notes

We make notes to:

1. Have a personal record of material
2. Assist understanding of material
3. Identify key points of the text
4. Help you retain what was said or what you read

5. Record pointers/reminders for further work, e.g. references
6. Remind you of things to do

5.5 Steps for Effective Note Making

The steps for effective note taking are as follows:
Step 1: You must be certain about the purpose of taking the notes.
Step 2: You must read the article or passage from which you have to make notes very carefully.
You must read it with full concentration. You may read it twice (or even more times) if you have

any doubts. After you are confident that you understand the text, you should select what you
think are the main points and highlight them. Ideally, the key points should include names,
dates, technical terms, arguments for/against, etc. You must keep a dictionary along so that you
can look up for any words you don’t understand.

Step 3: After you have identified the main points, you can now you can make notes. The idea
should be to summarise the text in most effective manner. You should be brief, but not so brief
that your notes don’t make any sense. You may/should use headings and subheadings to divide
up parts of your notes where appropriate.

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Caution Don’t forget that you will need to read your notes in the future, so you should be
able to understand what you have written.

5.6 Methods of Note Making

Anyone can make notes, but it is difficult to make good, concise, brief, accurate notes. Notes are

said to be good when they reflect and comment on the nature of the information you are referring
to and which you can use and understand in future. To make effective notes, there are a number
of techniques that you can use. We will discuss three of the most popular methods of making
notes in subsequent subsections.

5.6.1 Sequential or Linear Note-Making

This traditional approach typically involves making notes in the form of lists or phrases. Notes of
this type can be made for different purposes and can include more or less detail, as required, or
to highlight points. The main features of good sequential notes are:
1. Key words and phrases

2. Headings
3. Sub-headings

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