DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, BOPAL, AHMEDABAD

CLASS XII (2020-21)

ENGLISH NOTES

Note Making
Notes are short written record of facts to aid the memory. Notes are usually taken to record a speech or
dictation while listening to it or after reading a book, magazine or article. They are referred back whenever
needed and may be reproduced in the desired way.

The necessity of note making

Note-making fulfils three useful functions:

1. It keeps a lot of information at our disposal for ready reference.

2. It helps us reconstruct what was said or written and thus accelerates the process of
remembering/recall. .
3. It comes in handy in delivering a speech, participation in a debate/discussion, writing an essay and
revising lessons before an examination.

Characteristics of good notes

1. Short and Compact: Good notes must be short and compact.

2. Complete Information: They must contain all the important information.
3. Logical: They must be presented in a logical way.
4. Understandable: They should be understandable when consulted at a later stage.

Mechanics of note making

While making notes we follow certain standard practices. These may be listed as follows:
(a) Heading and Sub-headings
(b) Abbreviation and Symbols
(c) Note-form
(d) Numbering and Indentation

♦ Tips to Prepare Notes:

 Prepare notes using phrases only, never use complete sentences
 The topic sentence of each paragraph is the main point and ideas affiliated to it are Sub-points-one or
more, depending on the concepts in the paragraph.
 Each sub-point may or may not have supplementary ideas which become sub-sub points. Provide an
appropriate title for the notes.
 Proper Numbering and indenting is very important.
 Include a minimum of 4-6 distinctly different recognizable abbreviations.
 Underline the abbreviations used and put the abbreviation keys in a box
 Cover all the important points in the notes meaningfully to prepare the summary in about 80 words.
 Write the summary or abstract in complete sentences in a paragraph.

♦ How to Summarise A Given Passage

 Read the passage very carefully and critically. You should get the main idea of the passage.
 Write the main idea of each paragraph in one well-developed sentence. Make sure that what you
include in your sentence are key points and not minor details.
 Write in the present tense (preferably in active voice).
  Be Concise-Summary should be within the word limit (about 80 words) and should be coherent
without any errors in logic.
 Don’t put your opinions, ideas or interpretations into the summary.
 Reread your summary and make sure that you have accurately represented the key points.
 Revise your summary for style, grammar and punctuation.

SAMPLE QUESTION:
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: (Delhi, All India 2009)

Effective speaking depends on effective listening. It takes energy to concentrate on hearing and to
concentrate on understanding what has been heard. Incompetent listeners fail in a number of ways. First,
they may drift. Their attention drifts from what the speaker is saying. Second, they may counter. They find
counter-arguments to whatever a speaker may be saying. Third, they compete. Then, they filter. They
exclude from their understanding those parts of the message which do not readily fit with their own frame of
reference. Finally, they react. They let personal feelings about a speaker or subject override the significance
of the message which is being sent.
What can a listener do to be more effective? The first key to effective listening is the art of concentration. If
a listener positively wishes to concentrate on receiving a message his chances of success are high.
It may need determination. Some speakers are difficult to follow, either because of voice problems or
because of the form in which they send a message. There is then a particular need for the determination of a
listener to concentrate on what is being said.
Concentration is helped by alertness. Mental alertness is helped by physical alertness. It is not simply
physical fitness, but also positioning of the body, the limbs and the head. Some people also find it helpful to
their concentration if they hold the head slightly to one side. One useful way for achieving this is intensive
note-taking, by trying to capture the critical headings and sub-headings the speaker is referring to.
Note-taking has been recommended as an aid to the listener. It also helps the speaker. It gives him
confidence when he sees that listeners are sufficiently interested to take notes; the patterns of eye-contact
when the note-taker looks up can be very positive; and the speaker’s timing is aided-he can see when a note-
taker is writing hard and can then make effective use of pauses.
Posture too is important. Consider the impact made by a less competent listener who pushes his chair
backwards and slouches. An upright posture helps a listener’s concentration. At the same time it is seen by
the speaker to be a positive feature amongst his listeners. Effective listening skills have an impact on both
the listener and the speaker.
a) Make notes on the passage given above in any format using recognizable abbreviations. Give a suitable
title to the passage. (4Marks)
b) Write a summary based on the notes you have made in about 80 words. (4Marks)

Answer:
Title: The Art of Effective Listening

1. Eff. speaking depends on:

1.1 eff. listening
1.2 concen. on listening
1.3 concen. on understanding what you hear
2. Reasons why incompetent listeners fail:
2.1 their attention drifts
2.2 they find counter arguments
2.3 they compete & then filter
2.4. they react
3. Ways for a listener to be more eff.:
3.1 concen. on the msg. reed.
3.1.1 mental alertness
3.1.2 phys. alertness-positioning body
3.1.3 note-taking-aid to listener
3.2. helps speaker
 3.3.gives him confidence
3.4.encourages the eye contact
4. Importance. of posture
4.1 helps listeners in concen.
4.2 seen by spkr. as a +ve feature among his listeners

List of Abbreviations

Eff. – effective
concen. – concentrating
msg. – message
reed. – received
phys. – physical
+ve – positive
impce. – importance
spkr. – speaker

Summary: Effective speaking and effective listening are two sides of the same coin, both equally important.
An incompetent listener will always fail as he drifts away from counters, competes and finally filters what
the speaker is saying. To be a good listener concentration is important combined with mental and physical
alertness. The importance of other factors like note-taking and posture cannot be ignored. All these are
effective listening skills and are viewed as a positive feature by the speaker among his listeners. They have
an impact not only on the listener but also on the speaker.

Practice Question:

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: (Delhi, All India 2010 )

Despite all the research every one of us catches cold and most of us catch it frequently. Our failure to control
one of the commonest of all ailments sometimes seems ridiculous. Medical science regularly practises
transplant surgery and has rid whole countries of such killing diseases as Typhus and the Plague. But the
problem of common cold is unusually difficult and much has yet to be done to solve it. It is known that a
cold is caused by one of a number of viral infections that affect the lining of the nose and other passages
leading to the lungs but the confusing variety of viruses makes study and remedy very difficult. It was
shown in 1960 that many typical colds in adults are caused by one or the other of a family of viruses known
as rhinoviruses, yet there still remain many colds for which no virus has as yet been isolated.

There is also the difficulty that because they are so much smaller than the bacteria which cause many other
infections, viruses cannot be seen with ordinary microscopes. Nor can they be cultivated easily in the
bacteriologist’s laboratory, since they only grow within the living cells of animals or plants. An important
recent step forward, however, is the development of the technique of tissue culture, in which bits of animal
tissue are enabled to go on living and to multiply independently of the body. This has greatly aided virus
research and has led to the discovery of a large number of viruses. Their existence had previously been not
only unknown but even unsuspected.

The fact that we can catch a cold repeatedly creates another difficulty. Usually, a virus strikes only once and
leaves the victim immune to further attacks. Still, we do not gain immunity from colds. Why? It may
possibly be due to the fact that while other viruses get into the bloodstream where anti-bodies can oppose
them, the viruses causing cold attack cells only on the surface. Or it may be that immunity from one of the
many different viruses does not guarantee protection from all the others. It seems, therefore, that we are
likely to have to suffer colds for some time yet.
a) Make notes on the passage given above in any format using recognizable abbreviations. Give a suitable
title to the passage. (4Marks)
b) Write a summary based on the notes you have made in about 80 words. (4Marks)