Write What You Read

You must write what you read if you are to remember it.

"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." -Sir Francis Bacon

Reading allows you to consume knowledge, but one of the best ways to consolidate this is for you to produce it in a form of your own expression. So how do we remember things once we determine something is important? One of the guides we can look at is the study of classical rhetoric, the art of speaking and persuasion.

Rhetoric can be divided into the follow stages:

1. Invention - Let your ideas ferment and swish around in your brain.
2. Arrangement - Arrange your ideas in a clear and easy to understand manner.
3. Style - Incorporate style to make your message more convincing.
4. Memory - Commit your message to memory.
5. Delivery - Refine your mode of delivery.

While I can go into much detail about these steps, this brief description will suffice for now. Next we will talk about how to determine what is important when you read and how to approach different types of text.