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Try It! Survey - Do You Hear What I Hear? The first stage in the process of taking notes in class is to listen carefully. This kind of listening involves hearing with a purpose. Not everything in a lecture or discussion is crucial to the development of the concept. The listener, therefore, must focus on determining the nature of the main idea despite distractions that might occur in the classroom. A. Just Listening How well do you listen? For this exercise you need to do something you probably haven't done in a long time: shut off the television; turn off the tunes; unplug the telephone; shut the door. Good. Now, just concentrate on listening to the sounds that you normally wouldn't pay attention to for about 3-4 minutes. What do you hear? Jot down the sounds you hear on a piece of paper, as you hear them, and then when time is up, briefly describe them in the space below. B. Just the Basics How well do you determine the focus of a lecture or an essay? Not every lecture begins at the beginning and ends at the end. Professors may get distracted with questions from students or with an anecdote that he or she decides to relate on the spur of the moment. Thus, it is easy for the notetaker to become distracted too. Listen carefully to the end of a discussion or a story since that is when a professor is likely to return to the focus of the lecture and when notetaking should generally resume. Notes that focus on the important ideas or facts rather than supporting material or extraneous detail will ultimately be more useful for studying and understanding the material. However, that is not to say that something interesting or relevant wouldn't be discussed apart from the lecture itself; thus it is important that careful listening continue throughout the discussion period. In a similar fashion, taking notes on the important concepts and ideas in written material will help organize and prioritize it for purposes of review and study. This exercise is in two parts; first you will delete the extraneous material from an excerpt of an essay included below, then you will organize the material into outline form. 1. This excerpt of an essay about the dismissal of the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Commission has been organized in linear form and somewhat out of order from its original. You are asked to determine which parts of the essay could be deleted without destroying its basic concept or idea. Simply click on the letter before the line you wish to delete. You may click on the letter again to 're-activate' the line. a. U.S. officials and human rights groups are blaming the defeat on countries with poor human rights records that have been opposed to U.S. activism on the commission.b. They argue that the United States often took a leading role in highlighting human rights abuses around the world, and the removal of the U.S. voice effectively 'silences' such criticisms at the international level. c. President Bush's National Security Advisor, Condoleeza Rice, pointedly noted that countries widely regarded as having a poor record on human rights, such as Sudan, gained seats on the commission, while the U.S. was removed. d. International critics have claimed that U.S. foreign policy is becoming increasingly 'inward-looking' by neglecting international treaties and organizations. e. A number of explanations have been put forth to account for the surprise exclusion of the U.S. from the human rights body that was first proposed by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. f. In light of these issues, the electoral defeat may not be simply the result of a concerted campaign by 'rogue states' to silence a vocal critic, but rather indicative of more widespread anger directed at the U.S. for a variety of reasons. g. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell blamed the defeat on a simple mix-up in the voting: some countries who had promised to support the U.S. may have switched their votes to another country, simply because they assumed that the United States would easily win re-election, making their vote unnecessary. h. The recent decision to abandon the Kyoto Protocol on global warming greatly angered the U.S.'s European allies, and the U.S. has often been isolated due to its unwavering support of its key ally in the Middle East, Israel. i. This view has even been expressed by a number of the United States' traditional allies. j. However, another interpretation of the vote is that it is being seen as an effort to 'punish' the United States for its recent foreign policy decisions and its attitude toward the United Nations more generally. k. In recent months, the United States has also clashed with the European Union over the distribution of AIDS drugs in Africa and the death penalty (the U.S. is the only advanced industrial democracy that still allows the death penalty on a regular basis). l. More generally, there has been much resentment within the United Nations regarding the unpaid 'membership dues' that the United States owes the UN -- over $1 billion.
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