themselves. Write down these ideas as they occur, and you will find
that when you start to compose the theme formally, it almost writes
itself, requiring for the most part only expansion and arrangement of
ideas. While thus organizing the theme you will reap even more benefits
from your early start, for, as you are composing it, you will find new
ideas crowding in upon you which you did not know you possessed, but
which had been associating themselves in your mind with this topic even
when you were unaware of the fact.
In writing themes, the principle of distribution of time may also be
profitably employed. After you have once written a theme, lay it aside
for a while--perhaps a week. Then when you take it up, read it in a
detached manner and you will note many places where it may be improved.
These benefits are to be enjoyed only when a theme is planned a long
time ahead. Hence the rule to start as early as possible.
Before leaving the subject of theme-writing, which was called up by the
discussion of unconscious memory, another suggestion will be given that
may be of service to you. When correcting a theme, employ more than one
sense avenue. Do not simply glance over it with your eye. Read it
aloud, either to yourself or, better still, to someone else. When you
do this you will be amazed to discover how different it sounds and what
a new view you secure of it. When you thus change your method of
composition, you will find a new group of ideas thronging into your
mind. In the auditory rendition of a theme you will discover faults of
syntax which escaped you in silent reading. You will note duplication
of words, split infinitives, mixed tenses, poorly balanced sentences.
Moreover, if your mind has certain peculiarities, you may find even
more advantages accruing from such a practice. The author, for example,
has a slightly different set of ideas at his disposal according to the
medium of expression employed. When writing with a pencil, one set of
ideas comes to mind; with a typewriter slightly different ideas arise;
when talking to an audience, still different ideas. Three sets of ideas
and three vocabularies are thus available for use on any subject. In
adopting this device of composing through several mediums, you should
combine with it the principle of distributing time already discussed in
connection with repetition of impressions. Write a theme one day,
then lay it aside for a few days and go back to it with a fresh mind.
The rests will be found very beneficial in helping you to get a new
viewpoint of the subject.
Reverting to our discussion of memory, we come upon another question:
In memorizing material like the poem of our example, should one impress
the entire poem at once, or break it up into parts, impressing a stanza
each day? Most people would respond, without thought, the latter, and,
as a matter of fact, most memorizing takes place in this way.
Experimental psychology, however, has discovered that this is
uneconomical. The selection, if of moderate length, should be impressed
as a whole. If too long for this, it should be broken up as little as
possible. In order to see the necessity for this let us examine your
experiences with the memorization of poems in your early school days.
You probably proceeded as follows: After school one day, you learned
the first stanza, then went out to play. The next day you learned the
second one, and so on. You thought at the end of a week that you had
memorized it because, at the end of each day's sitting, you were able
to recite perfectly the stanza learned that day. On "speaking day" you
started out bravely and recited the first stanza without mishap. When
you started to think of the second one, however, it would not come. The
memory balked. Now what was the matter? How can we explain this