BBI2002 INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC ENGLISH

SEMESTER 3, 2016/2017

LECTURE NOTES 2 (WEEK 3 WEEK 4)

NOTE-TAKING STRATEGIES

Topics included are:

1. Previewing and Predicting

2. Recognising Signposting Expressions
3. Identifying Key Ideas and Details
4. Shortening Process
INTRODUCTION TO NOTE-TAKING

During a lecture or a talk, you are expected to concentrate and listen to the content of the
lecture in order to gain comprehension of the lecture. However more often than not listening
alone may not be enough. Therefore some students may resort to note-taking. There are many
reasons for taking lecture notes:

It helps your understanding of the material.

The notes provide an indication to what is important in the lecture.

Personal notes are usually easier to remember.

Writing down notes from a lecture is not a simple matter of writing down everything that you
hear. Below are four common strategies that you can employ to ensure effective note-taking.
 UNIT 1: PREVIEWING AND PREDICTING

Before the lecture

A. Read up on the content beforehand

Before attending a lecture, you should prepare yourselves by previewing any relevant materials,
such as the textbook or power point notes.

Read assigned material or pre-read about the topic.

Revise previous lecture or tutorial notes before class.

Make notations about material or concepts you do not understand.

Look up vocabularies that are unfamiliar.

Start by entering the classroom with an open-minded and positive attitude.

Make a conscious effort to pay attention. Concentrate on concentrating.

B. Predicting the content of the lecture

While listening, you will subconsciously compare what you hear with what you already know. In
order to help this process, you should spend a few minutes before the lecture thinking about
what you expect to hear. You can focus on the title of the lecture and think about what you
already know, or questions that you would like answered.

EXERCISE 1 (Audio track 1)

You are going to listen to a lecture on plagiarism. Make predictions with a partner. What do you
think the content of the lecture will be?

Listen to the lecture and answer the following questions.

1. What is the lecture about?

2. Is your prediction correct?

3. Do you think making predictions helps with your listening?

 UNIT 2: RECOGNISING SIGNPOSTING EXPRESSION

Signposting expressions are words and phrases used in order to guide the listener coherently
through what is being said. Listening for the signposting expressions can help you to follow the
lecture more easily. The expressions are used to link or connect one idea with another, signal
what is happening and show direction in which a conversation, talk, discussion or lecture is
heading.

Some examples of signposting language:

SIGNPOST FUNCTION
There are three main parts to todays Indicating the structure of a lecture.
lecture.

So, now Id like to move on to the Indicating a change of topic.

topic of unemployment.

One of the key points to understand is Introducing a main point.

the effect of inflation on the economy.

The table below contains some of the common signposting expressions that can guide you on
the overall content of a lecture and when different sections of the lecture are being discussed.

Signposting Examples

FUNCTION SIGNPOST EXPRESSIONS

Today we are going to talk about

Introducing the topic of the The topic of todays lecture is

lecture
This morning we are going to take a
look at

Today Ill be talking about /

discussing...

What Im going to be talking about

today is

The purpose of todays lecture is

 The subject/topic of my talk is ...

Explaining the lecture In todays lecture Im going to cover

structure (sections / three points.
subtopics)
Im going to divide this talk into
three parts.

First well look at.. Then well go

on to And finally Ill
Introducing the first section / Lets start by talking about...
subtopic or first of a list of
To begin,
points
Firstly,

Ill start with,

The first advantage / reason / cause

etc. is...
Reformulating ideas In other words

I mean

So to speak

In a manner of speaking

That is to say
Finishing a section We've looked at...

Ive talked about.

To sum up,
To signal the end of the talk /
Summing up So it is clear from what we have
discussed today that

I'd like now to recap...

Let's summarise briefly what we've

looked at...

In conclusion,

To summarise,

In summary, Overall,

The three main points are

 Speakers often include personal stories, jokes or other information which are not directly
related to the main topic. You may ignore this and only continue with your note-taking when
the speaker signals a return to the main subject.

FUNCTION SIGNPOST EXPRESSIONS

By the way

Going off the Topic That reminds me

Before I forget
Lets move on to
Now, lets turn to
Returning to the Topic And Id now like to talk about
The next / second
I'd like now to discuss...
The next issue/topic/area Id like to
focus on
As I was saying
Anyway
Back to our topic
Where was I?

Recognising paraphrased information is also very important while taking notes. This is to avoid
writing the same information twice. The following phrases signal that a speaker is paraphrasing:

In other words.
That is .
That is to say
I mean
To put in another way
 EXERCISES

EXERCISE 2

What information is being conveyed in each sentence based on the signpost words used?
Choose the appropriate function form the choices in the box below. You may use any
function more than once.

A Introducing topic/subtopic D Explaining structure

B Returning to the topic E Finishing a section
C Summing up F Reformulating ideas

1. As I was saying, there is just not enough support for the office restructure. ( )

2. Today Ill be talking about the endangered animals in the rain forest. ( )

3. My talk today will be divided into two parts. ( )

4. And Id now like to talk about the second advantage of social media. ( )

5. In other words, we have to take part in helping to protect the environment. ( )

6. In conclusion, there are several advantages in taking immunization. ( )

7. The second advantage of urban farming is that it is convenient. ( )

8. I have talked about the causes and the effects of air pollution. ( )

9. First we will look at the problems and then we will go on to the solutions. ( )

10. That is to say, the community needs to work together to stop crimes. ( )

EXERCISES

EXERCISE 3 (Audio Track 2)

Listen to the following lectures. Identify the signposting language used in the lecture and
answer the questions below.

1. Phrase or word used to Introduce the topic:

___________________________________________________________________

2. Phrase or word used to introduce the first section:

___________________________________________________________________

3. Phrase or word used to return to the topic:

___________________________________________________________________

4. Phrase or word used to give further explanation about the topic:

___________________________________________________________________

5. Phrase or word used to introduce another sub-topic:

___________________________________________________________________

6. Phrase or word used to say an information again:

___________________________________________________________________

UNIT 3: IDENTIFYING KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS

Taking notes is a vital form of information transfer to record information and to aid
reflection. Other than listening to the signposting expressions, it is essential for you to
identify the important key ideas in the lecture in order to assist with note-taking.

Key words are words (nouns, verbs, etc.) that carry important information on the lecture.

Key or specific information is often factual in nature, for example;

names Stephen Hawkings, Ban Ki Moon, Zetty Aziz

places Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
professions doctor, singer, teacher
objects globe, laptop, book
numbers three, 4231, 572
quantities a few, a million, a lot

When listening to key words, you also need to pay attention to:

Cue words first, remember, most

Qualifying words rarely, always, must, only

Change of direction but, however, on the other hand, although

Emphasis significant, crucial

Support for example/instance, in contrast

Repetition of words or phrases.

TEXTBOOK TASK

Complete Task 3 on page 66 in the textbook.

While listening for key ideas, it is also important to properly organise your notes. This can be
done in a variety of methods which depends on individual preferences. One of the methods is
the Cornell Notes.

Here, your notes are divided into two sections:

1. Key points (main ideas)
2. Details (elaborations and examples)

Sample notes:

Lecture topic: Arthropods Lecture

By Dr Samuel L. Jackson Information

Key Ideas Details

 EXERCISES

EXERCISE 4
Read the transcript taken from a lecture on 'Space Exploration'. Identify and underline the
key ideas in the excerpt. Why do you think the key ideas are important?

The space age began in 1957, when Russia put the satellite Sputnik into orbit around the
earth. Since that time, human beings have explored the solar system with manned missions
to the moon and unmanned spacecrafts to Mars, Jupiter and other planets. Closer to earth,
working on board the space station has taught us much about people's ability to live in
space. This knowledge has changed some people's ideas about human beings colonizing
the moon or Mars, while others continue to dream about this possibility.

EXERCISE 5 (Track 3)
You are about the listen to a lecture on The Role of Water in Religious Ceremonies around
the World. Write down the notes in the space provided

Lecture Information
Lecture Topic: The Role of Water in Religious Ceremonies around the World
By: Josh Harrison, Peace Corps volunteer
Key Ideas: Details

1. Thailand

2. Islamic Cultures -
Saudi Arabia

3. Christian Ceremony:
Baptism Latin
America

UNIT 4: SHORTENING PROCESS

When taking notes, you can reduce the amount of language by shortening words and
sentences. By doing so, it enables you to quickly write down the important notes without leaving
any key ideas. Some methods of shortening are:
leaving out most articles and conjunctions (the, a, and, but)

shorten words by leaving out vowels or other letters

using abbreviations and symbols for commonly used words and phrases

It is important to remember that you will need to know what the abbreviations and symbols
stand for when you review your notes later. Here are some strategies for making this more
likely:

Use only abbreviations and symbols that fit your needs and that you will
remember easily. Too many can make your notes difficult to understand.

Be consistent so that the same symbol or abbreviation always means the

same thing. Otherwise your notes may become ambiguous.

Keep a separate list of your abbreviations and their meanings so that you can
refer to them if you need to in the future. If you start using a new
abbreviation, add it to the list.

Develop new symbols specific to your course content. For example, in a

literature course, you could place the first few letters of a characters
name in a box to refer to this character.
The table provides you with common abbreviations and symbols used for note-taking:

Abbreviations
lang languages RM Ringgit Malaysia yr year
s.
relig religion w/ with w/o without
.
kmh kilometres per hour inch inches w/i with in
cha chapter edu. education eg example
p
lr learn gvt government dif diferent
min minimum b/c because etc and so on
Symbols
@ at # number % percent
increase < greater than > less than
decrease because therefore
& and leads to connected
= equal not equal does not
lead to
X not missing words ? possibility
 EXERCISES

EXERCISE 6 (Track 4)

Listen to the talk about Changing Womens Roles and write down the notes in the space
provided. Use appropriate abbreviations and other shortening methods in your notes. Exchange
your completed notes with a partner and compare the abbreviations used.

Lecture Information
Lecture Topic: Changing Womens Roles

Key Ideas: Details

1. Women today
working in
professions

2. Problems for
families

3. Countries that
provide or do not
provide paid
vacation

EXERCISES

EXERCISE 7 (Track 5)
You are about to listen to a talk on Panda conservation. Predict the content of the talk. Then
listen to the talk and write down the notes in the space provided. Use appropriate abbreviations
and other shortening methods in your notes. Compare your notes with your partner.

Lecture Information
Lecture Topic: Panda Conservation

Key Ideas: Details

1. Causes of panda
endangerment

2. Role of zoos

3. Action taken for

conservation