An Analysis Of Note-taking Efficiency In Chinese-to-English Consecutive Interpreting And Solutions

Professional interpreters use a special system of nota-taking to support their shortterm memory,as the capacity of human memory is limited,and thus to facilitate interpreting process.This thesis studies the author’s interpretation at Lin-Zhang Debate on Industrial Policy Mock Conference,identifies the reasons for inefficiency in the current note-taking system and explores feasible solutions.Fifteen examples of typical errors and mistakes have been selected from the interpretation,and analyzed respectively.The author categories the general mistakes into wrong information,missing information,inaccurate interpretation,logic gap and poor delivery,and then examines their connection with the notes.To sum up,there are five major problems in the note-taking system,regarding the notation,logic marks,ineffective notes,wrong notes and inefficient notes.Based on author’s personal experience and previous studies by other scholars,this thesis proposes that in order to increase the efficiency,consecutive interpreters should optimize the notation and structure of their note-taking system,improve the coordination between note-taking and other tasks of interpreting process and use different strategy in different scenarios.