Using abbreviations Note-taking techniques

When you make quick notes, it helps if you can use a shorthand way of writing things down and most students adopt their own set of familiar abbreviations. It's quite useful to shorten any frequently used words and some common examples are given below.

• ed for 'education'
• R for 'research'
• soc-con for 'social construction'
• div for 'diversity'
• eco for 'ecology'

You could also adopt a method of removing all (or most of) the vowels from words, for example:

• mgmt for 'management'
• mkt for 'market'
• dvpt for 'development'

There are also some commonly used symbols that are quick and easy to remember. You might come up with a few of your own.