3.2.4. Layout of Notes

The layout of notes on the page is very important, as it can considerably facilitate the recall of the information of the original. Ilg and Lambert argue that “students should … strive to develop a type of layout that carries meaning. The location on the page of a given abbreviation or sign should in itself convey some additional meaning (parallelism, precedence, subordination, anteriority-posteriority, cause-effect relations, origin-destination, active-passive). This is definitely more productive than an array of abstract symbols used regardless of their relative positioning.” [44:82].

It is obvious that the right layout of notes helps the interpreter pick up the chain of reasoning of the message to be reproduced in the target language.

Vertical (Diagonal) Layout

J.-F. Rozan was the first to introduce vertical and diagonal arrangement of notes, in his classic book “La prise de notes en interprétation consécutive”. [59]

Vertical layout he called “superposition” (in French), which was translated in English version of his book as “stacking”. Diagonal layout was denoted by Rozan as “decalage”, which means “shift” in English translation.

According to Rozan, “verticality means taking notes from top to bottom rather than from left to right. This method makes it possible to:

a) group ideas logically, allowing a complete and immediate synthesis when we come to read back our notes,

b) to do away with many links which would otherwise be essential to the clarity of the text.” [59:20]

Now, let’s consider these notions together with practical examples, given by Rozan. According to him, "stacking" consists of placing different elements of the text above or below one another. For example:

"the report on Western Europe"	Rort
	W Eur.

"the report on Western Europe" is an interesting document	Rort	int g
	W Eur.

“Since the French, US, and UK delegations…”		Fre
	As	US
		UK

“Since the French, US, and UK delegations have suggested…”		Fre
	As	US	suggest d
		UK

“The chapters of the report which deal with economic situation in Europe offer additional information and new statistics”	Chrs	give new	info
	Ec.Eur		stat cs

If the sign j → is used to denote "offer" and the sign + to denote "additional" and "new" then our notes will look like this:

Chrs	→ +	info
Ec.Eur		stat cs

Rozan also notes that brackets are an important part of the verticality system. In every speech there will be certain elements, which are mentioned to clarify an idea or to highlight a particular point, but which are not integral to the speaker's train of thought.

These parts of a speech should be noted in brackets, below the main element to which they refer. For example:

“...which leads to new investments, particularly in the transport sector”		→ + invts
		(Tort)

Then Rozan recommends: “To encourage a natural use of the verticality technique it is recommended that you use relatively large but narrow pieces of paper. This will allow you to note the maximum amount of text on one page whilst automatically bringing your notes back to the left hand side of the page.” [59:21]

It seems that whenever the question of how to take notes arises, a technique named “diagonal presentation” would come up.

Diagonal presentation was also introduced by Rozan in 1956. Also regarded as vertical arrangement, diagonal has been widely used by professional interpreters. The creation of diagonal layout is based on the fact that subject, verb and object are the most important elements of a sentence which contain nearly all information or meaning of the sentence, therefore, they should be clearly represented in notes. Applying this technique, the subject, verb and object are arranged diagonally, from left to right and from top to bottom of a page. However it does not mean that the interpreter only notes the subject, verb and object elements. Based on the structure, the interpreter can add other details in the notes if he or she wants.

Diagonal layout is highly recommended because of its clear presentation of notes. Notes in diagonal arrangement are concise and succinct; focusing on ideas rather than words, unlike notes in horizontal form which often tempt the interpreter to write as many words as possible. Diagonal layout is described as follows:

e.g.: “On the first day of the month, my grandparents liked to prepare traditional food made of raw fish, vegetables and spices”.

Based on the diagonal layout, this could be noted:

On 1st day/mth, my grp s ♥d cook trad. food of”

fish raw ) vegs spices

Such a logical analysis will give you all the required information at a glance, while giving you the flexibility of using your own words.

e.g.: During his years in jail, John was insulted, severely beaten and often deprived of food.

Dur. yr s  jai l John

insultd beaten no food (oft.)

Diagonal layout is also called décalage (after Rozan) which is translated into English as “shifting”, figuratively referring to “gap” or “discrepancy”. According to Rozan, “shift means writing notes in the place on a lower line where they would have appeared had the text on the line above been repeated”. How shift works is well explained by Rozan through many examples in his classical book on note-taking, mentioned above.

The following example is one of them. [59:21-22]

e.g.: “Over the course of 1954, prices rose, although not to the same extent as income, thus the population’s net income increased” is noted as follows.

Rozan’s notes are as follows (the symbol  denotes increase):