The past few weeks I’ve posted four articles on research techniques. They included planning your research, , taking notes and organizing your research. Now I’d like to add a quick list of abbreviations I use to take faster notes.
This list is not exclusive. I add to it as I go and keep a master list in case I forget what I meant by a specific symbol. I make it up as I go and use anything I can to shorten the process. It may be a symbol from math or music, engineering or medicine. Whatever works is fair game. If you want to draw the Triforce to mean triad or trilogy, go for it. As long as you will remember what you used.
Use abbreviations and symbols that makes sense to you. The most important part of creating your personal shorthand is to maintain the master list. Having a master list will save you from having to look things up again. Save a copy of the master list with the rest of your research and clearly mark it as your Shorthand Key.
I keep a handwritten key because many of the symbols I use are difficult to add to a list. I omitted them here for obvious reasons.
If you know actual shorthand, use that. If not, make your own version. Sometimes I use foreign cues, like q. for who, what, where. There are no rules. This is your shortcut.
You will notice I often say “depending on context” on my list. That’s because it’s easy to have one abbreviation or symbol mean multiple things. You will know what you meant in the context of your notes. It’s pretty easy to tell whether you meant sentence or sentenced. One is grammatical, the other is legal.
Another trick is to eliminate all the vowels. You can still read English without them. It’s weird, but true.
Example of my shorthand (not an exclusive list):
[table id=1 /]
I add to this list for each project. For example, during a project on epidemiology I used some of the following abbreviations:
[table id=2 /]
Making a shorthand list saved me tons of time when coming up to speed on this area of medicine. Be sure to write your abbreviations down before you forget what they mean. It will help if you ever revisit your notes. I typically keep a project-specific list behind my master list.