Dylan:
Hi, Emily. What did you think of that lecture?
Emily:
A bit hard to follow, but I have some good lecture-listening note-taking strategies which really help, so I can review the lecturer’s message later.
Dylan:
Lecture-listening note-taking strategies? Review it later? That sounds interesting. I must admit, I struggle a bit to take down the gist of what I hear. Look at my notes.
Emily:
Well, I can see a basic problem immediately. You’re writing full words, such as ‘century’ when all you need is a ‘C’, And don’t write ‘increase’; just draw an ‘up’ arrow. And why write ‘thousand’ when a ‘th’ will do?
Dylan:
I see. Just use symbols. That’s not a bad idea at all.
Emily:
It’s the most basic strategy, allowing you to record information at a faster pace. These lecturers can talk faster than others, too, so you don’t want to waste any time. But you need to be very familiar with your set of symbols.
Emily:
Because you’ll have to look at these notes days, weeks, or even months afterwards, when you begin writing your essay, so you’ll need to be able to interpret them at a later stage.
Dylan:
I think I can do this, even by looking at your notes. ‘Immed’ must mean immediately.
Emily:
But regarding the lecture as a whole, I knew the professor would be giving a set of specific recommendations, and comparing two alternative approaches, so I formatted my page in advance, adding the features consistent with the nature of what I was going to hear.
Dylan:
Ah ... I think I need an example of what you mean.
Emily:
Well, look at my page. Before the lecture, I drew large headings saying ‘recommendations’. You should always draw these, and I drew a table saying, ‘Approach 1’ and ‘Approach 2’. At the end I drew a flowchart, as obviously the final recommendation would be a step-by-step approach. Then I was prepared in advance to simply fill in the spaces.
Dylan:
Wow! Now that’s clever.
Dylan:
Your advice about note taking sounds great, but I still have one question, Emily. How are you able to design your page in advance? I mean, how can you predict the nature of the talk, and know which design is likely to work best?
Emily:
It’s rather obvious when you think about it. What’s your next lecture about?
Emily:
Well, that suggests to me that you’ll need a flowchart, since the judicial system has a very logical ‘do this first, do that second’ approach, which must be followed in that order—y’know, all the processes that happen in the courtroom, and the procedures that must take place to ensure complete legality.
Dylan:
Sure. That’s the way law is, very linear and orderly, but what about Culture Studies? That’s just a mass of comparisons of different cultures.
Emily:
Which tells you that you will need a table, where, in tabular form, you can efficiently write down information.
Dylan:
But often the lecture’s not that simple. The professor throws in a really complex mix of ideas.
Emily:
Then use a spider graph—like the web a spider makes, where there’s a central idea around which you attach all the associated thoughts, and ideas, and impressions.
Dylan:
I see. I think I understand. And that would be very quick, too; very efficient. I like that. But what about Management Theory? How would you approach that?
Emily:
The same as with Culture Studies. I’d use a network, which is basically the same as a spider graph, linking thoughts, although this time there are directions involved. It is this element that makes it different—the fact that the thoughts go one way and not the other.
Dylan:
Okay ... has directions. It sounds logical. And what about the other subjects, such as Political Science? There’s no predictable order to that.
Emily:
Well, for that I’d just put my notes in a line, that is, in linear, or straight- line fashion, and these notes would use symbols, of course, to save time.
Dylan:
Okay, that just leaves Mass Media.
Emily:
For that, I wouldn’t have any special design at all. As you say, sometimes it’s impossible to predict in what way lecturers will present their information, in which case the best you can do is pre-write headings, but not specific, just general, as in Main One, Main Two, Sub One, Two, and Three, and so on.
Emily:
But always be prepared to adapt to the nature of the talk, using any one of the other methods if it becomes appropriate at the time.
