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Writing is an important aspect of learning. As you listen to a lecture, or read a section of your textbook, you'll find that taking notes will not only help you remember the information later, it will also help you process the information as you hear or read it. Taking notes requires the ability to listen for the main idea or find it in a piece of writing, and summarize it briefly. The key is briefly. It can be counterproductive to try and take down every word the professor says in a lecture, or to copy a complete sentence describing a concept or an idea. Instead, use phrases that contain the key idea and a brief description of its meaning.
In the following exercise, practice summarizing each idea listed by writing a short description of it in the space that is provided. Try to keep each note to about ten words. Use abbreviations that you know and will remember when reviewing the material later.
How we write is shaped by the world in which we live, with cultural differences affecting not just the language we use but also the assumptions we have about how the written text will be understood and used. The study of writing is itself influenced by culture, with some researchers concentrating on the teaching of writing within a multi-cultural society and others concerned more with writing as a professional and business activity.
Source: Sharples, Mike. How We Write: Writing As Creative Design. London: Routledge. 5.
Attempts to explain the difference between the writing of an older child and an adult by comparing the surface forms of language are doomed to failure. The essential difference lies not in the vocabulary not the grammar, but in the mind that produced it; in particular the ability of adults to reflect on their own writing processes.
Source: Sharples, Mike. How We Write: Writing As Creative Design. London: Routledge. 19.
The majority of lupus patients suffer at some stage from joint and muscle pains. In many patients this presents as 'pain all over'. In acute flares of lupus the symptoms are often described as being 'flu-like'. Unlike other rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, there is often very little to see in the way of joint swelling.
Source: Forshaw, Joanne. "Lupus: The Symptoms and Diagnosis." The Lupus Site. Retrieved 22 Feb 2007 from www.uklupus.co.uk/fact3.html.
Corticosteroids are the chemicals commonly known as steroids. They are normally produced by the cortex of the adrenal gland, which sits atop the kidneys & produces many chemicals..Corticosteroids give extra strength & power to the body in times of need.
Source: Forshaw. "Corticosteroids." The Lupus Site. Retrieved 22 Feb 2007 from www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/7228/cortico.html.
Although engineers have been transforming lives throughout recorded history, these transformations have been particularly significant during the 20th century. Their contributions have revolutionized many different areas due to innovations such as electrification, automobiles, health technologies, nuclear|technologies, air travel, water supply and distribution, electronics, radio and television, agricultural mechanization, computers, telephony, air conditioning and refrigeration, highways, spacecraft, the Internet, imaging, household appliances, petroleum and petrochemical technologies, lasers and fiber optics, and high performance materials.
Source: Raju, P.K. and Sankar, Chetan S. Introduction to Engineering Through Real-World Case Studies. 2. Retrieved 22 Feb 2007 from www.introtoengr.org/files/pdfs/introduction.pdf.
The challenges for the future stem from the fact that about two billion people worldwide still live without access to electric power. The need for an inexpensive means of generating electric power and transmitting it with minimal loss is a critical one. If electrification's next century is to be as successful as its last, we need young men and women to pursue careers in engineering and science.
The Ohio peoples had an extensive trading network. Among the artifacts found in the burial mounds, archaeologists have found large ceremonial blades chipped from obsidian (a volcanic glass) from deposits in what is now Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming; embossed breastplates, ornaments, and weapons made from copper nuggets from the Great Lakes; decorative objects cut from mica sheets from the southern Appalachians; and ornaments made from shells and shark and alligator teeth from the Gulf of Mexico.
Source: Francis, R. Douglas; Jones, Richard; and Smith, Donald B. Origins: Canadian History to Confederation. 3rd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Brace, 1996. 6.
The linguistic classification of the Amerindians unfortunately leads to the linking together of widely disparate groups that had little in common except their language family. The language of one could differ as much from another as English from German or Portuguese from Romanian. Within the same linguistic family, groups often had different ways of life.
Source: Francis, R. Douglas; Jones, Richard; and Smith, Donald B. Origins: Canadian History to Confederation. 3rd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Brace, 1996. 7. ("The" changed from "This")
In contrast to the other culture areas in Canada, a hierarchical structure based on wealth and heredity evolved on the Northwest Coast. Clearly marked divisions separated chiefs, nobles, and commoners, and social grading existed within each class.
Source: Francis, R. Douglas; Jones, Richard; and Smith, Donald B. Origins: Canadian History to Confederation. 3rd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Brace, 1996. 10.
And while it's true that fewer and fewer people are purchasing newspapers, it's also almost certainly true that more and more people are reading news. This thanks to portals, newspaper Web sites, search engines, syndication feeds, and millions of blogs.
Source: Michael Hirschorn. "Get Me Rewrite! A Modest Proposal For Reinventing Newspapers." Atlantic Monthly 298.5 (Dec 2006). 174. (last sentence is only the first half of the original sentence)
