You Can Learn to Remember: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

finding the right word
T
he international network of readers on the Oxford World Reading Programme
collect around 18,000 new words and idioms every month – in English alone.
Add this to the existing words and phrases in the English language, and is it any
wonder that sometimes we feel unable to come up with the description for
something?
There are various techniques aimed at bringing to mind a word, but one of
the simplest is to work from the beginning of the alphabet, trying each letter in
turn, until you feel that you have hit upon the right one to start the word. Once
you think that you may have found the letter, roll it around your tongue,
speaking it out loud. See if the word naturally unfurls. If it does not and if the
word begins with a consonant, try each vowel after the letter to try to tempt out
the rest of the word. If it begins with a vowel, your task of experimenting with
all the consonants will, of course, be more laborious.
Another way to recall a word might be to start off, aloud, a number of
different sentences which need for you to express the required meaning. As you
begin each sentence, have faith that your buried knowledge of the word will
resurface.
It helps if we know the etymology or derivation – the units of sense from
which historically words are built up. How ever, our own, invented key
etymology can be just as useful. Often a key syllable will conjure up the word’s
meaning. For example, when committing to memory the word “amortize”
(meaning to recover the cost of investment), we might think of mort (the French
for “death”) as a murdered or eliminated cost.
crossword heaven
EXERCISE SIXTEEN
A quick crossword can be a frustrating pastime if the answers to those last few

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clues lie just beyond reach. Try using the ideas below to fill in the gaps and
complete your puzzle – without referring to a dictionary!
1. When you have some letters filled in already, write them out in order on a
clean piece of paper, leaving spaces for blanks (don’t draw lines to indicate
blanks). Look at the part-complete word. Try not to stare: soften your focus and
imagine looking “through” it to the other side of the paper. Then, as you bring
your gaze back into focus, bear the clue in mind, as your view becomes sharp, to
fill in the blanks. Does the word appear?
2. Alternatively, try using a system of placement to bring an answer to mind.
Think about the clue. Have you ever talked to anyone about the subject? For
example, if the clue is “Stick passed in relay race (5),” think back to a
conversation you had about, say, the Olympics. Who was the conversation with?
Where were you? Hopefully, thinking around the subject will reveal the word you
need (in this example, “baton”).
3. Or, a solution’s elusiveness could mean that you are attributing the wrong
structure to it. For example, the syllable “sy” might have a consonant in the
middle (sly) rather than a vowel (say). Try alternative structures to see if the
word springs into being.