Script – Take Note! Help
Part 1 – Abbreviations and Keywords
Hi, I’m Michael from the Self-Access Centre at Victoria University. I’m going
to show you how to take simple notes from a text and then how to use these
notes to write a summary.
First read this text about Christopher Columbus.
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1436. He became an
explorer and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. Columbus tried to find a
route to Asia which would lead to an increase in wealth for Spain.
However, he discovered a new country instead. This was the Americas
which is now known as the West Indies.
In any text, some words are more important than others. The important words
are called key words.
Underline the keywords. Read them aloud as you mark:
Christopher Columbus - born - Genoa, Italy – 1436.
explorer - crossed - Atlantic Ocean - 1492.
tried to find route - Asia - increase wealth for Spain.
However - discovered - new - country - the Americas - now known as West Indies.”
Part Two– Note taking
The next step is to arrange these keywords into notes
Start with the topic words, Christopher Columbus Now, write the first fact
neatly under the title. Use a hyphen to separate it from the title.
- b. Genoa, Italy 1436
Notice how the word born is shortened to simply ‘b.’? This is called an
abbreviation. Many words can be abbreviated. Abbreviations are used so you
can take notes more quickly.
Now write the next fact neatly under the first one. Again, use a hyphen to
separate it from the other words.”
- explorer cross. Atlantic Ocean 1492.
Continue in this way until all the keywords have been made into notes
- tried find route
Asia - ( wealth for Spain)
- But – discov. - new country - the Americas - now known as – W. Indies.
Notice how I’ve used symbols in the notes. An arrow can represent the word
‘to’ or ‘towards’, an upward arrow represents the word ‘increase’ and brackets
were used to represent additional information.
Also notice how I cut short some words.
b. for born;
cross. for crossed
discov. for discovered.
W. for West
I can easily remember what these abbreviations mean.
Part Three– Summary Writing
After you have taken your notes, you can use them to give a talk – or you can
write them into a summary of the topic. Because you have identified the key
words and taken abbreviated notes you have got the most important ideas of
the topic. A summary includes only the main ideas or points, but it must
include good grammar.
Start with the topic words and write a sentence. You can add additional words
so that your summary is different from the original text.
Christopher Columbus was born in the city of Genoa in Italy in the year 1436.
He was an explorer and he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean trying to find a
route to Asia and increase the wealth of Spain. However, Columbus
discovered the Americas, a country we now call the West Indies.
You can practice your note taking skills using this program. Choose a topic or
theme and work through the activities – Key words, note taking and summary
writing.
You can compare your work with the teacher – but remember, there is often
more than one correct answer when taking notes and writing summaries.