I’d like to conclude Level 5 with an important reminder on the subject of review.
In his years of testing the aptitudes and vocabularies of thousands of Americans, Johnson O’Connor discovered three general principles, or laws, of vocabulary development. O’Connor’s first law states that it is possible to arrange the words of the language in order of difficulty. The second law posits that people know all or most of the words of the language in order of difficulty up to a certain point, or degree of difficulty, beyond which they recognize few or no words at all. The third law is that your rate of learning—your ability to absorb and retain new words—is greatest at the borderline, or boundary, of your vocabulary.
Therefore, if you wish to extend the boundary of your vocabulary with maximum efficiency and permanent results, you must spend at least as much time reviewing what you have learned as you spend learning it. As with any other subject, in vocabulary building, review is the key to retention.
Consider the modus operandi (MOH-dus AHP-uh-RAN-dy or -dee) —a Latin phrase meaning “the method of operation”—of the athlete in training. Most of it is review, going over the basics again and again so they become ingrained and automatic. The tennis player hits a thousand routine groundstrokes before attempting to perfect a lob or refine a topspin on a serve. The baseball player takes batting practice every day to review the fundamentals of hitting. And before the weightlifter can raise five hundred pounds, he must develop the muscle tone and stamina to do it by hefting four hundred and ninety pounds over and over again.
So it is with raising the level of your vocabulary. Practice—routine and methodical practice—makes perfect.
As you proceed through Verbal Advantage and beyond into a regular schedule of reading and vocabulary building, be sure to review what you have learned at every step of the way—not just once, but as many times as it takes for the knowledge to become instinctive.
If you’ve assimilated all the keywords, synonyms, antonyms, and related words that I’ve discussed up to this point, then you can give yourself a hearty pat on the back, because you have raised your vocabulary level to at least the 75th percentile—the top quarter of all educated adults. And if you’ve absorbed all the additional information on usage, pronunciation, grammar, connotation, and synonym distinctions that I’ve presented so far, then your level of verbal awareness has probably surpassed that of many of your friends and coworkers.
As you continue reading the program, I hope you will keep this in mind: The difference between having verbal skills and having a verbal advantage is like the difference between the layperson and the expert, or the amateur and the professional. It is the difference between competence and excellence. In my experience, the person who cares about using language precisely is also the person who strives—at all times and in every endeavor—for excellence.
Whatever your occupation, if you wish to succeed in it you must study and practice it seriously. But practical knowledge is only one-half of a complete, well-rounded professional development. By now I’m sure you know what the other half is: knowledge of words and the ability to use them wisely and well.
In the remaining challenging levels of Verbal Advantage, I will present a great deal more pragmatic information and introduce you to hundreds more useful words. You’ve made it this far with flying colors, so don’t stop here. Join me as we take the next exciting step on the path to becoming a confident and conscientious user of the language.
