Chapter 1. Chapter 7 College Success Career Success

1.1

At work, taking good notes enables you to record instructions, deadlines, action items, ideas, and questions. In long meetings, note taking can help you stay alert, focused, and actively engaged. It can also communicate your interest in and commitment to your work, as well as your desire to succeed.

For this activity, pretend that your boss has sent you to a professional conference. She wants you to attend a presentation at the conference, give her a one-paragraph summary of the main ideas, and report what you learn to your colleagues at the next staff meeting. To do this exercise, follow these steps:

1. Go to the TED Talk Web site and watch a video on a topic that interests you or is related to your future career. TED Talks are “ideas worth spreading” — short presentations designed to share information and opinions and to inspire viewers.
2. As you watch the TED Talk, pretend you’re at the conference, sitting in the audience. Take notes that capture the speaker’s main ideas, and write down any questions or ideas you have about the topic. (If you were at an actual conference, you’d have an opportunity to ask the speaker questions or share your own ideas.)
3. After watching the TED Talk, in the text box below, type a one-paragraph summary of the talk. Consider having someone review your notes and summary paragraph to give you feedback on whether you’ve captured the main ideas. (Note: This person doesn’t need to have watched the TED Talk. If you took good notes, the information you’ve recorded will be clear.)

   Question

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4. Bonus: As a last step, pretend that you’re back at work and that you have to report to your colleagues on what you learned from the talk. With a partner or a small group (in or outside of class), briefly describe the TED Talk, highlight the speaker’s main points, and share your questions and observations.