Academic Writing

Part 1:

The Writing Process
6 Effective note-making
Notes are for your personal use so you should create your own style. Your teachers will not
read or mark them, but you need to make sure you can still understand your notes months
after reading the original book or article:
(a) To avoid the risk of plagiarism, you must use your own words and not copy phrases from
the original.
(b) The quantity of notes you make depends on your task: you may only need a few points,
or a lot of detail.
(c) Always record the source of your notes. This will save time when you have to write the
list of references.
(d) Notes are often written quickly, so keep them simple. Do not write sentences. Leave out
articles (a/the) and prepositions (of/to).
(e) If you write lists, it is important to have clear headings (underlined) and numbering systems
(a, b, c, or 1, 2, 3) to organise the information. Do not crowd your notes.
(f) Use symbols (+, >, =) to save time.
(g) Use abbreviations (e.g. = for example). You need to make up your own abbreviations for
your subject area. But do not abbreviate too much, or you may find your notes hard to
understand in the future!
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See 
Unit 3.2
Abbreviations
Decline of Newspapers
New Business Monthly, May 2013, p. 37)
(a) Newspapers only source of news 100 yrs ago – now also TV, radio + www
(b) Newspaper sales > decline in advertising > newspapers shutting
(c) Attempts to attract readers:
•
more magazine content
•
free gifts
•
websites
but none very effective

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1.6: Finding Key Points and Note-making
41
7 Practice B
You have to write an essay titled ‘Improving student performance: an outline of recent
research.’
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Read the following text, underline the relevant key points and make notes on them.