Supplementary Notes: Taking Notes from Interviews

It may be difficult to hear important information in an interview. However, in

speaking, many people use clue words that show the organization of their
thoughts. These clue words tell you that something important may follow. The
following chart shows some common clue words and phrases.

Opinion Facts Main Ideas

¾ What I suggest is
¾ Basically, I think
¾ What I’m thinking is
¾ They are supposed
to
¾ I believe
¾ It’s just that they
should
¾ What I mean is
¾ You could say
¾ I might say
¾ I agree that __, but
¾ I’m embarrassed to
admit
¾ I’m optimistic that
¾ One fact is
¾ The fact of the
matter is
¾ Statistically
¾ Count the cost
¾ The percent of
¾ There are of these
¾ Actually, you can
see — is less than
(more than)
¾ The rate of
¾ The rise of
¾ The forecast is
¾ The minimum
(maximum)
¾ I’ll start with In the
beginning The
basic (vital,
fundamental, root,
main) problem is
¾ Today, this is what
is happening
¾ My first (second,
third) point Let’s
look at the
separate parts
¾ One fundamental
point
¾ Let me give you an
example
¾ Another part of the
problem
¾ There are two
types of
¾ This means that
¾ Before I say
anything more
¾ You remember
¾ To repeat what I
said
¾ As you can see
then
¾ Maybe I can
summarize this
way
¾ To sum it up

Adapted from Spencer, C.M. and Arbon, B. (1997). Foundations of writing: Developing research
and academic writing skills. Ililnois: NTC.