Note-Taking Cheat Sheet
The five signals, the words that flag them, and keyboard shorthand — one page.
The five signals — what to keep
| Signal | What to keep |
|---|---|
| definition | a term being pinned down ("a wage is the price of labor") |
| cause | one thing driving another ("scarce workers -> wages rose") |
| number | a figure you couldn't reconstruct later (a date, a %, a count) |
| named-thing | the proper noun the talk hangs on (a person, event, law, place) |
| contrast | the turn: but, however, on the other hand |
Signal words — how to hear them
| Signal | You hear |
|---|---|
| definition | "the definition of…", "what we mean by…", "is defined as…" |
| cause | "this leads to…", "as a result…", "because…", "which is why…" |
| number / list | "there are three…", "first… second…", any figure said slowly |
| named-thing | "the work of…", "a case in point is…", a name said with weight |
| contrast | "but", "however", "on the other hand", "in contrast" |
| for example | an illustration, a moment to breathe — not a new point |
Keyboard shorthand — four rules
Symbols for relationships
- ->
- leads to / causes
- =
- is
- >
- more than
- ^
- up
- dn
- down
Slash the function words
- w/
- with
- w/o
- without
- b/c
- because
- b/w
- between
Truncate to the stem
- mgmt
- management
- dept
- department
- dev
- development
- gov't
- government
Standard academic
- e.g.
- for example
- i.e.
- that is
- cf
- compare
- etc.
- and so on
- NB
- note well