Inefficient Note-taking During Chinese To English Consecutive Interpreting And Strategies For Improvement

During consecutive interpreting,note-taking is a necessary tool to aid interpreters in storing and recalling information.The quality of an interpreter's note-taking system correlates directly with interpretation quality.This thesis addresses inefficient note-taking and proposes several strategies for improvement by analyzing the author's Chinese to English interpretation at the “2019 China(Shenzhen)IT Summit” mock conference and by examining several repeating note-taking inefficiencies and their resulting interpreting errors.Nine examples have been selected from the interpretation for analysis,each containing a variety of interpreting and note-taking errors.The three interpreting errors which appear throughout the examples are missing information,added information,and misrepresented logic.The five note-taking inefficiencies which resulted in these errors are excessive notes,missing links,a lack of effective symbols,unclear structure,and misleading symbols.Following the analysis of the nine examples,the author proposes several methods to improve note-taking efficiency.Drawing upon personal experience and the works of other interpreters and researchers,the author suggests several strategies to increase note-taking efficiency.These strategies are aimed towards improving active listening skills,cultivating a clear and effective series of symbols,and developing the ability to efficiently coordinate the efforts of note-taking and active listening.