AbbreviationinNote-taking.doc

Using Abbreviation and Symbols to Write Notes Quickly

Ⅰ
Common symbols used in note-taking
& or +
and, plus, with (many people use a simple squiggle (ɣ) to represent ‘and’)
–
minus, without
=
equals, is the same as, results in
≠
does not equal, is not the same as, does not result in
( )
include, among
≈ or ~
approximately, more or less, about, similar to
<
is less than, is smaller than
>
is greater than, is larger than
↑
increase, rise, growth
↑↑
rapid increase
↓
decrease, fall, shrinkage
↓↓
rapid decrease
⇒ or ∴
therefore, thus
∵
because
" "
ditto (means the same as the words above)
→
leads on to, produces, causes
x
no, not, incorrect, wrong, negative, bad
xx
definitely not, disproved
?
uncertain, possibly, unproven, doubt, question, issue
✓
yes, correct
✓✓
definitely, certain, proven
# or no.
number
✳
special, important, notable (when added to a word or phrase)
/
per, each, ratio (e.g., £50/day instead of ‘fifty pounds per day’)
@
at
Σ or s
sum
§
section (e.g. read § 7 again)
$
money, cost, price
%
percent
↔
linked, interrelated, connected
Δ
change
...
etc. or missing words
//
parallel; end, stop, halt, etc.
:
say, speak, talk, marks, announce, declare
.d
yesterday
.y
last year
.2m
two months ago
2y.
two years later
wk.
next week
☆
important, exemplary, best, outstanding, brilliant
∧
transition, turn
♂ / ♀
male/female
⊙
conference/meeting/negotiation/discussing
□
country

Some common general abbreviations
c. (or ca.)
approximately, roughly, about (abbreviation for the Latin ‘circa’)
e.g.
for example
i.e.
in other words, that is
c.f.
compared to, by comparison with
w/
with
w/o
without
w/i
within
v.
very
vv.
extremely
ft.
foot, feet
pkg
package
viz.
namely
C
century (e.g. C19 for ‘nineteenth century’)
1920s
i.e. 1920-1929
etc.
and so on, and so forth, et cetera
K or k
a thousand (e.g. 50K for ‘fifty thousand’)
m
a million (e.g. $6m for ‘six million dollars’)
vs
against, as opposed to, versus
b/4
before
b/c
because
re:
regarding, about
e.g.
example
2
to, two, too
4
for
N.B.
note
wrt
write
rt
right
yr/yrs
year/years
ch
chapter
wd/wds
word/words
diff.(s)
difficult(y)(-ies)
excl.
excluding
incl.
including
imp.
important/importance
lang.
language
ltd.
limited
1st, 2nd, 3rd
first, second, third
G.B., U.K.
Great Britain, United Kingdom
Eng.
English
Brit.
British
Q.
question
A.
answer
p./pp.
page/pages
re-
with reference to/concerning
tho
though
thro
through
s/t
something
s/o
someone
f
frequency
ibid
Latin, “the same work”
H2O
water
°
degree
IT dept
Information Technology department
I/O
instead of
R
are
Some abbreviation techniques
1. Symbols helpful in math -- these are commonly used in texts and references.
Σ = sum f = frequency ≠ = not equal
2. Leave out periods in standard abbreviations.
cf = compare eg = example dept = department
3. Use only the first syllable of a word.
pol = politics dem = democracy lib = liberal cap = capitalism mar = marketing cus = customer
cli = client
4. Use entire first syllable and only 1st letter of 2nd syllable.
pres = presentation subj = subject ind = individual cons = conservative budg = budget
5. Eliminate final letters. Use just enough of the word to form a recognizable abbreviation.
assoc = associate bio = biology info = information ach = achievement ins = insurance
chem = chemistry max = maximum intro = introduction conc = concentration prof = professor
min = minimum/minute rep = repetition exch = exchange hist = history geog = geography
6. Omit vowels; retain only enough consonants for a recognizable skeleton of the word.
ppd = prepared prblm = problem estmt = estimate bkgd = background gvt = government
mkt = market mgr = manager msg = message std = standard rcv = receive tchr = teacher
ppl = people
7. Use an apostrophe in place of letters.
am’t = amount cont’d = continued gov’t = government educat’l = educational
8. Form the plural of a symbol or abbreviated word by adding “s.”
chpts = chapters egs = examples fs = frequencies intros = introductions
9. Use “g” to represent ing endings, “m” to represent ism endings, “n” to represent tion endings, “o” to
represent cian endings, “d” to represent ed endings, “bl” to represent able/ible/ble endings, “mt” to
represent ment endings, “z” to represent to ize endings, and “fl” to represent ful endings.
ckg = checking estg = establishing decrg = decreasing exptg = experimenting sm = socialism
stdn = standardization techo = technician acptd = accepted avbl = available amdmt = amendment
regz = recognize mnfl = meaningful
10. Spell out short words such as “in,” “at,” “to,” “but,” “for,” and “key.” Abbreviations or symbols for short words will make the notes too dense with shorthand.
11. Leave out unimportant words. Always use 1, 2, 3... instead of one, two, three...
12. Leave out the words a, an and the, and dot your i and cross your t later.
13. If a term, phrase, or name is written out in full during the lecture, substitute initials whenever the term, phrase, or name is used again. For example, Center for Aerospace Sciences becomes CAS thereafter.
14. Use symbols for commonly recurring connective or transitional words.
& = and w/ = with w/o = without vs = against
∴ = therefore = = is or equal
15. Use technical symbols where applicable.
zb = German, “for example” H2O = water ibid = Latin, “the same work” ° = degrees
16. Use the first few letters of the word – just enough to remember what the abbreviation stands for.
imp for ‘important’ info for ‘information’ eval for ‘evaluation’
17. Remove all (or most of) the vowels from the word and use just the key consonants bunched together.
mngmt for ‘management’ mkt for ‘market’ (and mkting for ‘marketing’) dvpt for ‘development’
18. For words that have just one syllable, write just the first and last letter of the word. Here are some examples of words that have been abbreviated by writing just the first and last letter of the word.
qt = quart ld = land tk = tick rd = round gl =girl pk = pack nt = night fd =field lk =link ht = heart
An example of the use of symbols and abbreviations to take efficient notes
Imagine you heard the following in a lecture:
At the end of the twentieth century the United Kingdom’s population, at around sixty million, was similar to that of Italy, but Italy’s population was shrinking because its birth rate had fallen below its death rate. The UK’s population was still growing, albeit very slowly – at a rate of 0.09% between 1995 and 2000.

Your notes on this part of the lecture might look like this:

Ⅱ
缩略符号
the
–
more
mo
most
m-
for
f
all
l
can
kn
that
-t
they
-y
my
m.
from
fr
but
bt
new
nw
and
&
this
-s
some
sm
if
.f
would
(d
any
an
are
r
there
-r
could
kd
is
z
which
(c
thing
-,
he
e
has
hs
well
(el
be
b
what
(t
think
-nk
or
o
had
hd
do
d
you
u
was
(s
next
nx
to
t
have
hv
lie
l.
your
ur
whom
(m
until
tl
in
n
she
)e
time
t.m
an
a
will
(l
cannot
knt
of
v
shall
)l
send
s+
so
s
when
(n
easy
ez

部分英语缩略词表
acc
account/accountant
imp
import/imperial
acdg
according
imps
impossible
acpt
accept
impt
important
ad
advertisement
in.
inch/inches
admn
administration
ind
industrial/independent
ads
address
inst.
instant/institute
adv
advice
int.
interior/interest (兴趣；利息)
agr
agriculture
intsd
interested
agt
agent
I/O
instead of
alt
altitude
IOU
I owe you
a.m.
ante meridiem/before noon
I.Q.
intelligence quotient
AMAP
as much/many as possible
IVO
in view of (鉴于，考虑到)
amb
ambassador
is.
island
amt
amount
J
judge/justice
anal
analysis
jour
journal/journalist
anc
ancient
jr.
junior (大学三年级学生；年少的；初级的)
anon
anonymous
lat.
latitude
app
appendix
lb.
pounds (磅；英镑)
apt
apartment
L/C
letter of credit (信用证)
apv
approve
leg
legal
arch
architecture
lib
library/librarian
arr
arrive/arrival
liq
liquid
ASAP
as soon as possible
lit
literature
ass/assn
assistant/association
long.
longitude
at
atmosphere/atomic
M.A.
Master of Arts
att/attn
attorney/attention
mach
machinery
aux
auxiliary
mag
magazine
av
average
man.
manual
anc
ancient
manuf
manufacture
bal
balance
math
mathematics
bldg
building
MDL
model (型号；模特)
cert
certificate
Mdm
Madam
cfm
conform
med.
medicine/medical
cmi
commission
mem
member/memoir (回忆录)
cmp
complete
memo
memorandum (备忘录)
cmpe
compete/competitive
mgr
manger
cmun
communication
mid
middle
cncl
cancel
mod
moderate/modern
conc/concn/concd
concern/concerning/concerned
mph
mile per hour (每小时英里数；车速)
co.
company
MS
manuscripts(手稿)
c/o
care of (转交)
Mt
Mount/mountain
col
college/color
mus
music/museum
com
commentary/common/community
n
north/noon/name/normal
comm
commission
nat
national/native/natural
comp/compn
computer/competition
ncry
necessary
con
conclusion
n.d.
no date (无日期)
condn
condition
NLT
not later than (不迟于)
cont/contd
continent/continued
nr
near
corpn
corporation
obj
object/objective
cust
customer/custom/customs
obs
obsolete (过时的)/observe
def
defender/defense
obt
obtain
deg
degree
off.
office/official
dep
deposit
op.
opera/operation/opposite
dept
department
ord
ordinary
diff
difference
org
organization
disc
discount
orig
original
dist
distance/distinguish
oz.
ounce (盎司)
div/divd
divide/divorced
p.
page/power/pressure
dorm
dormitory
para
paragraph
dpt
departure
part
particular/partner
dz
dozen
pass
passive/passenger
e
east/earth/engineering
PAT
patent
econ
economics/economy
paymt
payment
ed.
editor
pc
piece/personal computer
edu
education
pd.
paid (钱款)已付
encld/encl
enclosed/enclosure
perf
perform/performance
esp.
especially
pkg
packing
ex.
example/exception/extra
pl
people
exp.
export
prob/probs
problem/problems
expln
explain
pls
please
ext
extend/extension
posn
position
FAX
facsimile
poss
possible/possibly
ff.
following
prob
probable/probably
fig
figures
prod
product
fin
finance/financial
pt
patient
fl
fluid
qlty
quality
FLT
flight
qnty
quantity
fnt
Final
ref
reference
FOB
free on board (船上交货；离岸价格)
regl
regular
for
foreign/forestry
rep
representative
fp
freezing point
res
research
fr
frequent
respon
responsible
frt
freight (货物；货运)
resn
reservation
ft
foot/feet (脚；英寸)
rpt
repeat
fut
future
sitn
situation
FYR
for your reference (仅供参考)
st/sts
student/students
g
gold/grain/gram/guide/gender/gravity
tel
telephone
G.A.
General Assembly (联合国大会)
temp
temporary
gd
good
tgm
telegraph
gen.
generally
tks
thanks
gent
gentleman/gentlemen
trd
trade
gm
gram/general manager
trf
traffic
gov
government
ttl
total
gs
general secretary (秘书长)
T.U.
Trade Union (英)工会
guar
guarantee
ult
ultimate
h
harbor/hundred/husband/hydrogen
univ
university
hd
head (头部；首脑)
up
upper
hf
half
usu.
usually
H.O.
home office
vil
village
honbl/hon
honorable/honorary
V.P.
Vice President
H.Q.
headquarters
v.v.
vice versa (反之亦然)
hr
hour
wel
welcome/welfare
ht
height
wl
will
hwy
highway
wt
weight
hypoth
hypothesis/hypothetical
XL
extra large (特大号)
i.a.
in absence/absent

ib.
ibidem/in the same place

ID
identity/identity card

缩略字母
Z 表示"人"people/person，因为"Z"看上去像个人头，它通常被写在一个词或符号的右上角。例如：日本人：JZ。
C 表示政府，统治：government，govern 希腊字母C读/ga:ma/,近似government, 所以就用C来表示govern, government。governmental official 可以表示为 CZ
P 表示政治：politics, political希腊字母P读/pai/,近似politics, political。那么politician就可以表示为 PZ
E 表示总数：total, totally, entire, entirely, on the whole, all in all, to sum up, ect. E 数学符号表示总值。
G 表示效率：efficient, effective。G为效率符号。
Q 表示"通货膨胀"：inflation因为这个符号酷似一个上升的气球。
A 表示农业: agriculture. agriculture经常用到，所以用首字母代替。
B 表示商业：business。
C× 表示冲突，矛盾：conflict， confrontation。
W 表示工作，职业: work, employ 等。WZ可以用来表示worker, 而Z在W上方表示employer, 在下方表示employee。
i 表示工业: industry, industrial。字母i 像只烟囱，所以用来可以用来表示工业。
h这个符号酷似一把椅子，可以表示主持、主办：chair, host, preside over。那么在此符号上加Z表示主席，主持人：chairman, host, etc.
T 表示"领导人"：leader, head那么head of government, head of company 便可以表示为 CT
k 这个符号看上像条鱼，所以表示"捕鱼业"等合fishery 有关的词汇。
○圆圈代表地球，横线表示赤道，所以这个符号就可以表示国际的、世界的、全球的等: international, worldwide, global, universal, etc.
J 表示开心：pleasant, joyful，happy，excited, etc.
L 表示不满、生气unsatisfied, discomfort, angry, sad, etc.
EO 表示听到、总所周之：as we all know, as is known to all, as you have already heard of, etc.
O 表示漠不关心、无动于衷：indifferent, apathetic, unconcern, don't care much, etc.