As a PhD student, you’ll find yourself attending numerous meetings with supervisors, research groups, and collaborators. These meetings are critical to your progress, as they shape your research direction, offer feedback, and set actionable tasks. While it’s easy to overlook, knowing how to write meeting notes effectively is essential for keeping track of these discussions and ensuring you stay on course throughout your doctoral journey.
Taking good meeting notes ensures you capture key points, follow-up actions, and decisions that will guide your research. This article will explore the process of writing meeting notes, provide helpful tips, and share examples to ensure you master this skill.
What Are Meeting Notes?
Meeting notes are a record of the key points discussed during a meeting. Unlike meeting minutes, which are more formal and structured, meeting notes are often less rigid but equally important. They typically include summaries of discussions, decisions made, and action items that need follow-up.
For PhD students, these notes can be invaluable in tracking feedback from supervisors, planning research tasks, and reflecting on the overall direction of your work. As you progress through your research, you’ll need to reference past meetings frequently, making well-organised notes a vital resource.
How to Write Meeting Notes: The Process
Understanding how to write meeting notes effectively is a skill you’ll need throughout your PhD. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you develop an efficient process:
1. Prepare in Advance
Before the meeting, ensure you know the agenda or key topics that will be discussed. If possible, ask for a copy of the agenda or meeting schedule ahead of time. This will help you focus on the most important points during the meeting and allow you to set up your notes with sections dedicated to each topic. For example, if you’re meeting your supervisor to discuss your latest research chapter, create headings like “Methodology,” “Analysis,” or “Next Steps” in your document to stay organised.
2. Use a Consistent Format
Consistency is key when learning how to take good meeting notes. Create a template that you can use for every meeting. This should include:
- Date and time of the meeting
- Agenda or key topics
- Discussion points
- Action items
- Deadlines
Using a consistent format helps you quickly find information when reviewing past notes. A well-structured approach will also ensure you don’t miss anything important, especially when it comes to tracking progress.
3. Capture Key Points, Not Everything
When writing meeting notes, don’t try to capture every word that’s said. Instead, focus on the main points of discussion, decisions made, and action items. Summarise key ideas succinctly. For example, if your supervisor gives feedback on a draft, you don’t need to write everything verbatim. Instead, summarise: Supervisor suggested restructuring the introduction to better highlight the research gap.
4. Use Bullet Points and Clear Headings
To make your meeting notes easy to follow, use bullet points for key items and bold or underline important headings. This helps you quickly scan your notes when needed. Clear organisation is particularly important when you need to refer to these notes later, especially during viva preparation or when writing up your thesis.
5. Record Action Items and Deadlines
One of the most important aspects of meeting notes is tracking action items. Always note who is responsible for what and include any agreed deadlines. For example: Submit revised draft of Chapter 2 by [date]. This ensures that everyone is clear on their tasks and keeps the project moving forward.
6. Review and Distribute Notes After the Meeting
After the meeting, take a few minutes to review and tidy up your notes. This might include adding extra details, clarifying any ambiguous points, or correcting spelling mistakes. Then, if appropriate, share your notes with attendees to ensure everyone is on the same page regarding next steps.
Tips for Taking Good Meeting Notes
Taking meeting notes can seem a boring task at first, but with the right strategies, you can ensure they are accurate and helpful. Here are some tips on how to take good meeting notes:
1. Focus on Outcomes
As a PhD student, many of your meetings will revolve around feedback and progress tracking. Always focus on the outcomes of the discussion. What were the conclusions? What are the next steps? Who is responsible for what? These are the most important things to capture in your notes.
2. Keep it Brief
Be concise. Your notes should serve as a quick reference guide, so avoid lengthy sentences or over-complicating your points. Use shorthand or abbreviations for commonly repeated terms if necessary, such as “lit review” for literature review or “sup” for supervisor.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Clarification
If something isn’t clear during the meeting, don’t hesitate to ask for clarification. It’s better to take a moment during the meeting to understand the point fully than to leave with vague or incomplete notes.
4. Use Technology
Many students prefer typing meeting notes rather than writing them by hand. If you prefer typing, make sure you know how to type meeting minutes format effectively using note-taking apps like Microsoft OneNote, Google Docs, or specialised apps like Evernote. These tools also allow you to organise and store your notes in the cloud, making them easily accessible for future reference.
5. Stay Organised
Over the course of your PhD, you’ll accumulate a large number of notes from various meetings. Stay organised by keeping them in dedicated folders (digital or physical) for each research project or supervisor meeting. You might even want to create a “research journal” where you store both meeting notes and your reflections on the research process.
What Are Meeting Minutes?
While meeting notes are usually informal and intended for personal reference, meeting minutes are more formal and structured. Meeting minutes are an official written record of the proceedings of a meeting, typically used in organisations, committees, or formal academic settings. They document the topics discussed, decisions made, actions agreed upon, and often who attended the meeting.
How to Type Meeting Minutes: Format and Tips
For PhD students, knowing how to type meeting minutes may come in handy if you’re part of a research group or committee. These minutes follow a standard format:
- Title: Include the meeting’s title, date, time, and location.
- Attendees: List all participants and any absentees.
- Agenda: Outline the agenda items discussed.
- Notes: Record key points of discussion for each agenda item.
- Decisions: Document any official decisions or resolutions.
- Action Items: Detail any tasks assigned, who is responsible, and deadlines.
Meeting minutes must be accurate and formal because they serve as a legal record of the meeting. Unlike meeting notes, minutes are often shared with all participants and filed for future reference.
Example of Meeting Notes
To illustrate how to take good meeting notes, here’s an example from a typical PhD supervision meeting:
Meeting Date: 5th October 2024
Discussion Points:
- Chapter 1 feedback: Dr. Smith suggested focusing more on theoretical framework. Emphasise how the research fits into existing literature.
- Methodology planning: Agreed to begin designing survey by end of month. Discussed potential ethical issues.
- Conference presentation: Supervisor recommended submitting an abstract for the upcoming conference in March.
Action Items:
- Jane to revise Chapter 1 and submit by 15th October.
- Begin drafting survey questions for Methodology section.
- Research ethical approval process and prepare application.
This example shows how to summarise key points and decisions concisely, while noting who is responsible for follow-up actions.
Conclusion
Mastering how to write meeting notes as a PhD student is crucial to your academic success. Your notes help track feedback, guide research, and ensure you don’t miss important tasks or deadlines. By developing a consistent note-taking process, staying organised, and focusing on the key outcomes of each meeting, you’ll create a valuable resource that can be referenced throughout your doctoral journey.
If you’re a PhD student looking for additional support with your research, writing, or viva preparation, we can help. Our services range from thesis editing and tutoring to guidance on how to structure your work and prepare for your viva. Contact us today to learn more about how we can assist you at every stage of your PhD journey.
