Revisiting consecutive note-taking: What to note, how to note, and in what language?

Abstract

Note-taking is taught across the board at interpreter training institutions, but opinions as to ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘in what language’ one should take notes often tend to be curiously mixed. This paper revisits the three main areas where there seems to be no strong consensus, namely: 1) What and how much should interpreters note down? 2) How should they take notes: by taking down full words, abbreviations or symbols? 3) In what language should they prepare their notes: in the source or target language, in A or B language or, irrespective of the direction, in an economical language such as English? This study explores these three questions by first revisiting prescriptive views put forward by practitioners over the past few decades; it then highlights some of the empirical studies conducted in these areas; and finally it proposes recommendations for trainers, based on the author’s experience as a trainer of consecutive interpreting.