Let’s do a little word for word memorization. Actors need to remember their lines, musicians their music, sales people their presentations . Students are requested to know things “by heart” and students of the Bible are asked to keep “the word” in their hearts. Although we are not often called on to know things word for word, it is a very useful ability. It separates you from the mass of humanity called . . . . “Nins.” Here are some tips on doing it.

First, get a photocopy of the data, and, if necessary, have it reduced so that there is some blank space on the page for your notes. Next, break the “material” down into bite sized “CHUNKS” such as chapters, pages,paragraphs, sentences, phrases, concepts or words. Now, read aloud and pay special attention to the start of each chunk. For instance: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address begins: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

You would nearly have this memorized if you would just peg the seven key words to your house list.

Let’s take another example of verbatim (word- for-word) memorization. The way this is done is through a combination of pegging, chaining, and natural memory.

In order to remember something word- for-word, one MUST choose key words out of sentences (at least one per sentence, frequently two or three). By key words, I mean words that are descriptive and will remind YOU what the rest of the sentence said. These key words are for you to decide, and no one else. Once you have some key words, then, using your house list, peg the key word on each place (you might need to expand your house list or create some new lists for this) while chaining the rest of the sentence on “top of it”. For example, if you were trying to remember the following sentence verbatim, “Objects in motion tend to stay in motion,” then you would:

Taken From; Mega Memory Workbook