Academic Skills Advice
Infosheet
Symbols and Abbreviations for Note-taking
Symbol/Abbreviation / Meaning& or + / And/in addition to
Greater/more/better than
Fewer/less/smaller than
= / Equal to/same as
≠ / Not the same as
δ / Small change
Δ / Large change
→ / Leads to/produces/causes
↓ / Decreasing/reducing
↑ / Increasing/upwards trend
~ or c / Approximately/around
∴ / Therefore
∵ / Because
w/ / With
Wrt / With respect to
e.g. / For example
i.e. / This is/means that
Etc. / And so on
p. / Page
Info / Information
Cd / Could
Wd / Would
xxxn / Xxxtion e.g. education = educn
xxxt / Xxxment or xxxant e.g. government = govt
C / Century e.g. 19C = 19th century
Signalling words to listen for in lectures/labs
· Highlighting sequence: “Firstly...Secondly…”
“The first step…”
· Indicating supporting points: “Furthermore...”
“In addition...”
“Also...”
“Moreover...”
· Indicating contrasting arguments: “On the other hand...”
“However...”
“A different perspective...”
“Alternatively...”
· Connections: “Therefore…”
“Because…”
“It can be seen that…”
“Leads to the conclusion…”
· Emphasising significance: “A crucial point...”
“Essential…”
“Crucial…”
“The key issue...”
“The take-home message...”
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