Some suggested symbols used in note-taking
+ －
< > ≤ ≥
= ≠ ≈
×
∵ ∴
The obvious advantage of abbreviations and symbols:
(a) To help save time in taking notes, thus adding to the efficiency of note-taking;
(b) To escape the trap of word-for-word translation (by reducing an idea, which may be expressed by one word or a number of words, to a symbol);
No hard-and-fast rule to follow, it is better to find your own balance.But in trying to strike that balance, a number of basic principles should be observed:
(a)It should be remembered that abbreviation and symbols are, like any other part of notes, means to an end, and not an end themselves.
(b)To make sense, abbreviations and symbols must be ‘logical’ to the interpreter using them.
Frequently Occurring Notions:
Any notion that is likely to occur often in an interpreter’s work should have its corresponding abbreviation or symbol.
(a)should have a list of abbreviation for the country names they come across most frequently;
(b)should have a list of abbreviation for the major international organization;
(c) should have abbreviations or symbols for the notions that come up frequently in your own particular area;
(d)should create family groups of symbols and logical combinations of symbols such as economic(E), monetary(M), financial(F), budgetary(B); then words such as increase or improvement or growth
Links
(i) short link words in English which can be used as they stand. For example: as for ‘because’ family; but for turning point family words and phrases such as ‘on the other hand’; so for ‘therefore’ family.
(ii)can use the mathematical sign to express links. For example, ∴ to mean ‘therefore’.
Tenses
The tenses in English that are most important to note are the present, the past and the future;
A simple way to note down the three types of tenses is to use will or -ll to express the future, does to express the present, and has or - (verb)ed to express the past.
Suffixes(Examples)
(i) ind ≠industry; diff ≠difficult or different;
But we can use suffixes to distinguish these words, especially these family group words. For example:
prodt = product; prodn =production;prody =productivity;
Parentheses
Sometimes an interpreter is aware of what the speaker has said and has fully registered it intellectually but does not have the time to note it down. At that time, the parenthesis can be used as a warning sign to the interpreter, saying, ‘Be careful! There is that other point you must include here’. A key word in that parenthesis should trigger off memory of the story.