Each student should write an abstract. This is one of the main responsibilities of the students. This is their job if you want. However, it often happens that young people cannot catch a meaning of lecturer, because of what their notes look like a set of incoherent passages of phrases.
Students are taught different sciences, but no one will teach you one of the most important sciences anywhere – the correct writing of the abstract. Naturally, there is no one right way to record lectures. However, there are several rules that we can tell you about.
How to Do It Properly?
In order for you to understand well the information from this article, we will write down each recommendation in a separate paragraph.
By the way, this is one of the main tricks in writing an abstract – the correct structuring of the material. After all, it is always easier to find a thing when it lies in its place, where it should lie, than that thing that lies heaven knows where.
But we will talk about this a little further, but now we introduce for your consideration a universal list of recommendations, how to correctly write an abstract. They are checked by time of student life.
A Person Is Not Able to Do Several Things at the Same Time
When you sit at the lecture and write down the new material and talk to a friend and surf the Internet with the phone at the same time, then forget about the well-written summary. A person cannot do several things simultaneously.
No, of course, maybe you can, but poorly. What happens when you do several things at the same time? You spray your attention to everything at once. This leads to the fact that you are everywhere (listen and write a lecture, talk with a groupmate, communicate on the Internet), but in fact, you are nowhere.
There are often cases at school when the teacher asks to stand up and repeat what he or she has just said. Surely you had a similar situation.
Of course, you are unlikely to be forced to repeat something aloud at the university, independent adults are studying in the higher school, they do not need to be looked after.
Although, as practice shows, they really need to be looked after.
You are given external freedom to make you grow faster, and not to do what you want. While you are a student, be good at learning. And you have to not to learn carelessly, but to give yourself completely to the learning process.
Only in this way can you get the necessary knowledge so that everything will be perfect later. Many people dream about this. Only a few know that you must maintain order both in the head and in the abstract.
In order to keep a good note, you need to concentrate on what the teacher is talking about. Leave all extraneous matters for later.
Write Only What You Think Is Necessary
Very often students make a gross mistake – they try to write everything verbatim. At the same time, they naturally interrupt the professor, ask him or her to repeat the previously spoken material.
Let us say you a big secret – you will not learn more if you have more information in the abstract. If you like to delve into the details, it is better to read the book on the question that interests you.
The main conclusion that you must make is that the lecture is given to you to understand the laws and principles of the functioning of the studied subject, and not for you to analyze in detail the various consequences of the phenomenon.
Always try to understand the cause, not the consequence.
So, do not try to write down everything that the professor says.
Try to catch the essence of what has been said, and write down the basic thoughts. You always have the opportunity to fill in the missing (but not very important) facts by reading a couple of textbooks on the subject you need.
Create Your Own System of Abbreviations
Although we said in the previous paragraph that you only need to write down the most necessary things, there are still situations when it is worth writing a very large amount of information for one lecture.
When students face such a problem, they often cannot keep up with the professor's dictation. What to do?
There is no big secret here. You just need to create your own system of abbreviations, which you will use with all subjects.
How to shorten words? Do it the way you want, the main thing is that the words really become short and you could understand this reduction or another. Try to reduce the most commonly used words and phrases.
Firstly, this allows you to keep up with the dictation, secondly, your arm is not so tired, and, thirdly, you save space in the notebook. It can still come in handy for you – the academic year is long.
Highlight the Main Points of the Lecture with Color
This is not a wish, it is a real necessity, let us tell you. Imagine, there are a few days left before the session, and you need to find some complicated moment that you did not understand at the lecture.
You know what you do not remember, but you cannot find exactly what you need to study more thoroughly. Time is limited, and another material worth repeating.
Panic, stress, etc. begin. Why bring yourself to this state? People create problems for themselves by and large.
Highlight the most important points. You need to allocate them so that then you can easily find the theme and the moment of interest in this topic.
However, too much of a good thing is good for nothing, so do not bother yourself in outlining the abstract with colored pens and pencils. It will be very difficult to find the right material.
So, highlight the most important things in the abstract, namely the topic of the lecture, definitions, formulas. Do in on the same principle in any notebook.
Structure the Material
Your abstract should clearly show what it is about. There is nothing easier to make your abstract more vivid than structuring the lecture material.
Therefore, always try to write down a lecture, guided by at least some logic. Break the text into paragraphs. In order to correctly determine the moment when it is worth making a new paragraph, listen to the intonation of the teacher's voice.
Write Neatly and Legibly
When a person aspires to catch everything, this negatively affects each of his or her actions. In particular, handwriting. In the end, when the students want to read the material, they have brain freeze because they cannot read what is written with their own handwriting in the abstract.
We hope that you have learned something new and useful for you to apply this knowledge in practice. Write summaries, they will be very useful for you in preparing for the exams.