| Hi, Emily. What did you think of that lecture? |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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? |
| I see. Just use symbols. That's not a bad idea at all. |
| 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. |
| Why? |
| 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. |
| I think I can do this, even by looking at your notes. |
| 'Immed' must mean immediately. |
| 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. |
| I think I need an example of what you mean. |
| 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. |
| Wow! Now that's clever. |
| 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? |
| It's rather obvious when you think about it. |
| What's your next lecture about? |
| Legal Studies. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Which tells you that you will need a table, where, in tabular form, you can efficiently write down information. |
| But often the lecture's not that simple. |
| The professor throws in a really complex mix of ideas. |
| 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. |
| 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? |
| 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. |
| Okay... has directions. |
| It sounds logical. |
| What about the other subjects, such as Political Science? |
| There's no predictable order to that. |
| 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. |
| Okay, that just leaves Mass Media. |
| 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. |
| Okay. |
| 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. |