Example (Patten)

On Chechnya, there have, it is true, been some recent moderately positive developments in response to international and Earopean Union pressure:

A clear prompt like this will help our intelligence, knowledge or memory do the rest. Here the missing information was in response to international and EU pressure.

The same technique works with other words, like but, for example, which could also be enough to pronpt the recall of a whole argument. See below, Opposites.

Opposites - two sides of an argument

Often if a speaker is describing two differing standpoints it will be unnecessary to note the second half of the argument. Instead we can reproduce it because we know that it is the opposite of the first half (which we noted) or because we know it from own general knowledge.

Example (MacShane 1)

The Europe of 1973 with dirty beaches, and expensive air travel and telephone calls has been replaced by a Europe which allows more people to travel, talk to each other and enjoy a shared and better-protected natural environment than ever before.

In this example we need not note a Europe which allows more people to travel, valk to each other and enjoy a shared and better-protected natural environment than ever before as it is basically the exact opposite of dirty beaches, and expensive air travel and telephone calls. All we need is a marker in our notes to tell us that. Here I have used by.…. but we could equally have used a pair of empty brackets to show that something has not been noted (see also above Brackets).

by... shows clearly that something is missing in the notes and, knowing that this technique is part of our note-taking system, we will assume that it is the opposite of dirty beaches, and expensive air travel and telephone calls. (You will note that the speaker has merely reversed their order for stylistic reasons). Again leaving things out like this will be a very personal affair and you must experiunent for yourselves. Much will depend on your own general knowledge, understanding of the subject matter and context of any given speech. The only way to find out what works for you is to practise these techniques and see when they work and when they don't.

In the examples in the sectjons Examples, Reasons and Opposites above I bave used three dots ... to show where a gap in the notes has to be filled from memory. You could equally use a pair of empty brackets if that works better for you.

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