The purpose of the Verbal Processing Strategies is to provide a variety of ways to organize information using words. Most students are familiar with outlining and writing summaries. You should learn to use these more effectively and try using other strategies.
In addition to helping you organize information for study, you can use these strategies to write outstanding papers and prepare for tests. In fact, applying these strategies regularly should improve your writing skills. Essay tests will be easy for you when you have written many summaries or other discussions of the material.
Do you hate doing outlines? Check them out again. Outlines may be just as helpful as concept maps – and for some purposes, much more helpful. When you were practicing the skill of outlining because a teacher told you to, when you weren’t interested in the information, of course they were boring. I hated them too. But, when you are writing an outline to help you organize and understand the material you are studying, they are more interesting and very helpful
Do you dread writing summaries? You might find writing summaries an extremely helpful strategy that will help you understand important topics. Again, writing a summary for a teacher can be boring. You are only trying to write what you think the teachers wants. But when you are writing a summary just for yourself, you might enjoy the process, and you will discover how much better you understand the information.
No student will find all strategies equally helpful, but everyone should be able to find several that are useful. A combination of verbal and visual strategies will generally be most helpful.
Do not expect to find a 1:1 relationship. You can usually outline and summarize almost everything you read or hear in lectures. Other strategies are used less often..
When you begin with reading your book or listening to a lecture, you can use READING NOTES as you read and Taking Notes during the lecture. You might continue to use QUESTIONS, and identifying the THESIS statements to understand the material and JOURNALING to reflect on it. This can lead to organizing the information visually or with an OUTLINE, SUMMARY, EVIDENCE AND EXAMPLES, and CRITIQUE and EVALUATE.
The visuals can either be those you created, yourself, or those from your book or other sources. You might begin with a math formula or problem. You might analyze graphs of statistical data. You might also begin with a concept map, timeline, compare and contrast chart, matrix chart, webbing or other visuals.
You can DESCRIBE, SUMMARIZE, OUTLINE, EXPLAIN, DISCUSS/DEBATE or CRITIQUE and EVALUATE the information to understand the information and assess its importance and implications.
After you read
To interpret
To evaluate