[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 1: Today, I'm going to give you three tips for note-taking. And then we'll focus on deciding what to include in your notes. Let's begin with some important tips for note-taking. First, listen carefully to the beginning of the talk and determine the main idea. Listen for clues about how the talk will be organized. A speaker will often introduce the topic and outline what the main points will be. Use that information to determine a structure for your notes. For example, in the beginning of this video, I said the following. "Today, I'm going to give you three tips for note-taking. And then we'll focus on deciding what to include in your notes."
If you were taking notes at home, you might listen to what I said and write down something like this. I mentioned that, first, I would talk about three tips for note-taking. And later, I will talk about what to write down in your notes. If you put this down, then you can know what to expect, and you can know how to organize your notes. Tip number two, write down as much as you can. You don't need to write down every word. And you don't need to write in complete sentences. But you should try to write down main ideas, supporting ideas, examples, definitions, and anything else that's going to help you understand the information. The more information you write down, the better you will understand the ideas from the talk. Tip three, if you don't understand something that the speaker says, leave a space in your notes where that information should go or write a question mark. This is important because when the lecture is over, you might not remember the ideas that need clarification. So you always want to make it clear in your notes. That way, you can ask a professor or a teaching assistant or even a classmate to explain the points that were unclear to you. Now, let's talk about what to write down. The best way to learn this is to look at an example. Download the handout below the video. Read a short clip from a lecture and underline or highlight the ideas that you think are important enough to be included in your notes. Pause this video while you do this. Then when you're ready, play the video again. Now, listen and notice what I highlight.
SPEAKER 2: First, many studies have made connections between violent video games and aggression in adolescence. In fact, this has been a very hot topic in recent years. I was at a national psychology conference last year, and there were five different presentations about the topic of video games and aggression. A trendy topic like this often turns people off. However, some of the studies are very convincing. For example, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology's August 2018 issue published research that stated that teens who played violent video games were more likely to partake in the use of drugs and alcohol, and they were more likely to engage in dangerous driving.
SPEAKER 1: Does it match what you marked? Now, look at how this translates to my notes.
In my notes, I wrote down the main idea of what the teacher said and the supporting evidence. I didn't include any additional information. For example, I didn't write down about the lecturer's conference that she attended. In my notes, I used key words and phrases, rather than complete sentences. Also, I used abbreviations, or shortened forms, of some of the words. This helped me to get down the information faster. Now, it's your turn to practice. Click Next to watch the talk and practice note-taking.
