What is note making and summarising?

Note making and

summarising is a crucial skill that helps us in academics. The function
of notes is to filter the important information and help us retain it. It
also makes it easier for us to refer to the important points in future.

Note Making Class 11 CBSE Format, Examples

• How to make notes:
• Read the passage carefully.
• Give a heading to your work. The heading will be based on the
following considerations.

• What is the main idea

of the passage?
• Frame a heading based on the main idea.
• Write it in the middle of the page.

• Give subheadings
• How has the main idea been presented
and developed?
• Are there two or three
subordinate/associated ideas?
• Frame subheadings based on these.

• Points are to be noted under each subheading.

Are there further details or points of the subtitles that you wish to
keep in these notes? These are called points. Points may have
subpoints.

5 All subheadings should be at a uniform distance from the margin.

• Indenting – Points should also be at the same distance away
from the margin.
• Do not write complete sentences.
• Abbreviations should be used.

• Help with abbreviations:

• Use standard abbreviations and symbols as far as possible.

• Capitalise the first letters of the names of states, countries or

organisations.
For example: UP, USA, UK and UNO.
• Common abbreviations

Common symbols such as i.e., e.g., Rx, /, ∴ , +ve, -ve, →

Sc. (for science), Mr, Mrs, Dr, govt, BSc, etc.
(leading to) ↑ (rising), ↓ (falling), =, >, <
•

• Measurements and figures – 100″, 100′, 100 kg, 100 mm,

100 mL.

Rx: A medical prescription. The symbol "Rx" is usually said to stand

for the Latin word "recipe" meaning "to take."

It is customarily part of the superscription (heading) of a prescription.

• Make your own abbreviations.

• Keep the main sounds of the words: edn (education), progm.
(programme).
• It is a good practice to keep the first few and the last letters of
the word such as education – edu’n, developing – dev’ing. Retain the
suffix so that later when you are going over the notes, you may recall
the full form of the word, for example: ed’nal (educational), prog’ve
(progressive).
• Take the following caution:

• Do not get overenthusiastic about abbreviations.

• You should not abbreviate every word.
• One abbreviation in one point is enough.
• As a general rule, the
heading should not be abbreviated.
• You may use abbreviations in subheadings
Note making Example Passage 2:
• A good business letter is one that gets results. The best way to
get results is to develop a letter that, in its appearance, style and
content, conveys information efficiently. To perform this
function, a business letter should be concise, clear and
courteous.

• The business letter must be concise: don’t waste words.

Little introduction or preliminary chat is necessary. Get to the
point, make the point, and leave it. It is safe to assume that your
letter is being read by a very busy person with all kinds of
papers to deal with. Re-read and revise your message until the
words and sentences you have used are precise. This takes time,
but is a necessary part of a good business letter. A short
 business letter that makes its point quickly has much more
impact on a reader than a long-winded, rambling exercise
in

creative writing. This does not mean that there is no place for
style and even, on occasion, humour in the business letter.
While it conveys a message in its contents, the letter also
provides the reader with an impression of you, its author: the
medium is part of the message.
• The business letter must be clear. You should have a very firm
idea of what you want to say, and you should let the reader
know it. Use the structure of the letter—the paragraphs, topic
sentences, introduction and conclusion—to guide the reader
point by point from

your thesis, through your reasoning, to your conclusion.

Paragraph often, to break up the page and to lend an air of
organisation to the letter. Use an accepted business-letter
format. Re-read what you have written from the point of view
of someone who is seeing it for the first time, and be sure that
all explanations are adequate, all information provided
(including reference numbers, dates, and other identification). A
clear message, clearly delivered, is the essence of business
communication.
• The business letter must be courteous. Sarcasm and insults
are

ineffective and can often work against you. If you are sure you
are right, point that out as politely as possible, explain why you
are right, and outline what the reader is expected to do about it.
Another form of courtesy is taking care in your writing and
typing of the business letter. Grammatical and spelling errors
(even if you call them typing errors) tell a reader that you don’t
think enough of him or can lower the reader’s opinion of your
personality faster than anything you say, no matter how idiotic.
There are

excuses for ignorance; there are no excuses for sloppiness.

• The business letter is your custom-made representative. It
speaks for you and is a permanent record of your message. It
can pay big dividends on the time you invest in giving it a
concise message, a clear structure, and a courteous tone.

• Make notes on the passage using recognisable abbreviations

in any suitable format. Give a title to the passage. 5

• Make a summary of the passage. 3 Answers:

• Title: Writing a Business Letter Notes:

• Features of a gd. busns letter

• conveys info efficiently to get results
• is concise
• is clear
• is courteous
• How to write a gd.
busns. letter
• Making letter concise
• Intro shd be brief
• make your pt in
precise words and sent’s
• short letr more effective
• style is imp.—may ocasnly have hum’r
• Achieving clarity
• Have a clear idea of what you wish to say
• structr the letter—intro & conclsn.
• use accepted format; para, topic, sent’s
• check facts, expl’ns, refs.
• Being courteous
• Expln. your
pt.
politely—avoid sarcasm/insults.
• careful wrtg & typg.
• gram. & spel’g errors to be avoided
• Importance of busns. letr
• a representative
• permanent rec. message.

Question 1.
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.

• On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes

on it using headings and sub-headings. Use recognisable abbreviations
wherever necessary. 5
Answer:
Title: The Art of Effective Listening Notes:
• Eff. speaking depends on:

• eff. listening
• concen. on listening
• concen. on understanding what you hear

• Reasons why incompetent listeners fail:

• their attention drifts

• they find counter arguments
2.3 they compete & then filter 2.4. they react

• Ways for a listener to be more eff.:

• concen. on the msg. reed.

• mental alertness
• phys. alertness-positioning body
• note-taking-aid to listener helps speaker-gives him
confidence encourages the eye contact

• Impce. of posture

• helps listeners in concen.

• 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

• Write a summary of the passage in not more than 80 words

using the notes made and also suggest a suitable title. Answer:
Title: The Art of Effective Listening 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.

Question 2.
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.

• On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes

on it in points only, using abbreviations, wherever necessary. Also,
suggest a suitable title. 5
Answer:
Title: No Control over Common Cold Notes:
• How to control com. cold:

• No cure to control it
• Cure avail, for Typhus & Plague
• Prob. of com. cold not yet solved
• Reasons for cold:

• It is a viral infec. that

affects nose-lining
• Caused by fmly. of viruses called Rhinoviruses
• For certain colds no viruses hv yet bn isolated

• Prob. of identifying viruses:

• Smaller than bacteria so can’t be seen with ordinary

microscopes
• Cannot be easily cultivated in bacteriologists lab. v grow
within the living cells of plants & animals.

• Div. of tissue culture aided by:

• bits of animal tissue go on living

• multiply independently off the body
• has led to the discovery of large no. of viruses
• their existence previously unknown and unsuspected

• No imm. from cold:

• viruses causing cold attacks only on surface & not

bloodstream
• cannot be opposed by anti-bodies
• imm. from one virus
doesn’t guarantee protection from all

• you hv to suffer from cold for some more time

• List of Abbreviations Eff. –

effective
com. – common & –
and
avail. – available
prob. – problem
infec. – infection
fmly. – family hv –
have
bn – been
lab. – laboratory V –
because
Dev. – development

no. – number fm –
from
imm. – immunity
• Write a summary of the passage in not more than 80 words
using the notes made. 3
Answer:
Summary: Despite having the cure to killing diseases like Typhus and
Plague it seems ridiculous that medical science has not done much yet
to solve the problem of common cold. This is because the study of
viruses remains confusing as they cannot be seen with ordinary
microscopes. Now with the

development of the technique of tissue culture a large number of

viruses have been discovered whose existence was earlier unknown.
We keep catching cold and never become immune to it because the
viruses causing cold attack only on the surface unlike other viruses
that get into the bloodstream and so can be opposed by anti-bodies.