Six Tips to Help You Produce Accurate Meeting Notes

Gone are the days when you can sit back and procrastinate as the deadline for your academic research project approaches.

Transcribing academic interviews can be tedious. To make the process easier on yourself, you could hire a company specializing in academic interview transcription services. But you might find that a better alternative would be to hire a company that specializes in creating meeting notes from the recordings of your academic research meetings.   To complete a research project successfully, you and your team need to meet, and figure out who is responsible for each part of the project. To deliver the project successfully,  it’s imperative that you produce accurate meeting notes so you don't miss important details that are discussed and agreed on.

Here are six tips  that can help you produce accurate academic meeting notes:

1. Plan ahead

Gather all the basic information before the meeting. What's the agenda? Will you be evaluating some peer-reviewed articles? Are you going to use any handouts or PowerPoint slides? Is everyone from the research team going to be in attendance?

Knowing who the attendees are, the purpose of the meeting, and the desired outcome ahead of time gives you a clear overview of what’s to come. In turn, you can create a template beforehand with specific sections so you can t complete those as you move along in the meeting.

2. Record it

It's challenging to keep up with what is being said when there's a lot of ground to cover.

Ask for everyone’s consent, so you can audio or video record the entire meeting. You could use an audio app that will let you upload your audio recording after the meeting. Or you could use an online webcam platform, enable the record button, then access the recording when your meeting is over.  Then you can listen afterwards to what was spoken and check if certain findings were left out or some accomplishments weren’t written down. Or just send the recording off to your meeting notes transcriber and review the notes later for any missing material that you might want to add.

3. Stick to the essentials

It’s not necessary to write down every little word spoken to understand the full context of the conversation.

Instead of writing everything down in verbatim. fFocus on writing down key points, such as the issues resolved, changes you and the rest of the research team decided to make, plus which tasks are delegated, and to who. You don’t have to capture every single expression, just what’s absolutely relevant.

4. Revise and proofread immediately

You are for sure likely to forget a few things while juggling multiple responsibilities at the same time.

If you can, revise and proofread your notes right away. See if there are any errors or if you have to clear out anything. Your future you will definitely thank you later on.

5. Back it up

Your meeting notes are one of the tools you can use to track the progress of your research and figure out what else is left to do.

Your meeting notes are quite like a roadmap that you wouldn’t want to lose to get you where you need to go. Simply storing them in your personal device might not be enough. It would be wise to always keep a backup in a Google Drive or Dropbox where you and the team have access to them.

6. Ask for help

Having too many things on your plate can be overwhelming. It’s completely understandable to request additional support.

If you find yourself with too many things to handle simultaneously, it’s okay to reach out to someone who really knows how to create quality meeting notes from recordings.  TranscriptionWing™ has helped numerous clients over the years, delivering high-quality meeting notes transcriptions every time. Don’t hesitate to ask them for help. You’ll be impressed with the quality of meeting notes transcribed by a professional team.

It’s an idea that can be easily overlooked, but when meeting notes are prepared professionally, they can undoubtedly lead to the success of your academic research. You’ll be impressed with the quality of meeting notes transcribed by a professional team experienced in delivering meeting notes.