Verbal Success Vocabulary® eCourse
LESSON 5 OF 7

Hello and Welcome Back!

In your last lesson, you learned that all words are not created equal. You learned the importance of using Power Words to help communicate your ideas with clarity, confidence, and impact. You also learned how to identify Personal Power Words to help you achieve greater success in school, in your career, and in life.

In this fifth lesson, you’ll learn how to capture the new words you encounter each day. Here is what you will learn:

• How to use your vocabulary journal to capture every Power Word you encounter
• Tips on how to fully integrate your vocabulary journal into your life

This lesson is short and simple. In this lesson, we will explore the best way of capturing new words that we read or hear every day. This lesson will involve your vocabulary journal. It’s important for you to start carrying your vocabulary journal everywhere you go. Although this may seem cumbersome, I want you to think back to our first lesson and remember all of the benefits that an improved vocabulary will bring to your life: increased income, improved intelligence, faster reading and learning speed, greater comprehension of information and much, much more!

As you hear new words, you will need to document them in your vocabulary journal. For maximum retention, please do the following:

To the best of your ability, write down the word and the complete sentence in which the word was used. Provide as much context as possible.

Document who used the word and when.

That’s all you have to do. Each time you hear a new word, simply write down the sentence and/or context in which it was used, who used the word, and when it was used. We’ll discuss looking up and defining your new words later, but for now, it’s most important to become aware of the new words you hear and to document them in your journal as soon as possible.

As we mentioned in our third lesson, the workplace is an ideal verbal environment. However, if you think it will be awkward for you to carry your vocabulary journal at work, do what I do: I reserve the last page of my office notebook to write down words that I hear at the office or during business conversations. Then, at the end of each day, I transfer the new words to my journal.

I suggest you also have your journal nearby while watching TV. If you are watching T.V. on an exercise machine or during some other activity that prohibits you from having your journal with you, be sure to document the new words you hear as soon as possible.

If you are listening to the radio in your car, please do NOT attempt to document words while driving, because that would obviously be very dangerous. But do keep your journal in the car, so that when you get to your destination, you can write down new words that you heard along the way.

Finally, when speaking with friends and family, it’s also a good idea to have your vocabulary journal handy. Again, the more people you get involved in this process, the more fun you’ll have and the quicker and easier it will be to learn new words. Don’t be afraid to tell your friends and family that you’re working on improving your vocabulary. Encourage them to sign up for Verbal Success too. That way you can all work as a team to improve your overall vocabularies and your overall success!

Your Assignment:

Your assignment is to simply start using your vocabulary journal to document new words that you encounter in various verbal environments. Try to do the following:

• To the best of your ability, write down the word and the complete sentence in which the word was used. Provide as much context as possible.
• Document who used the word and when.

This concludes your fifth lesson. In your next lesson, we’ll discuss the best way to assimilate new words into your active vocabulary. You’ll learn about techniques that have proven to help people quickly and easily improve their vocabularies.

I look forward to continuing your vocabulary advancement!