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Use Mnemonics to make your Presentation Memorable

by Charles P. Howes

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Make your audience remember your presentation by using this simple memory technique.

Every speaker hopes the audience walks out of their presentation with more knowledge than they walked in with. Participants gauge the success of a presentation on the amount of new knowledge that they acquire. Satisfying members of the audience is vitally important because word-of-mouth is the speaker's primary marketing tool. Participants who learn something the first time will often tell a friend, or return themselves for a second time.

One way to ensure that you leave an indelible lesson with your audience is to use mnemonics. A mnemonic is a word or sentence clue devised to assist memory.

For instance, need to memorize the prefixes for the metric system? Remember this sentence: Every person that gave me kisses had dentures.

Exta = 10 18
Peta = 10 15
Tera = 10 12
Giga = 10 9
Mega = 10 6
Kilo = 10 3
Hecto = 10 2
Deca = 10 1

The first letter of every word in the sentence correlates to the name of the prefix in the metric system.

If you need to memorize the major bones of the hand, you can use this mnemonic:

She looks too prissy, try clobbering her.

The first letters of the words in this sentence would be a memory aid for: Scaphoid, Lunate, Triquetrum, Pisiform, Trapezium, Capetate, and Hamat.

Mnemonics can be complete sentences, or as simple as a single word. Remember the names of the Great Lakes by remembering the word: HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior).

My personal favorite mnemonic is for teaching the order of the planets from the Sun outwards:

My very educated mother just sent us nine pizzas.

The first letters of these words stand for: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

There is even a mnemonic for developing a mnemonic: FIRST

1. Find a word that incorporates the individual letters of the learning shill (e.g., HOMES for the names of the Great Lakes)

2. Insert extra letters to form the mnemonic word if needed (e.g., BrACE for remembering scientific objects that have never been seen, such as black holes, anti-matter, cosmic rays, and earth's core).

3. Rearrange letters to form a mnemonic word when word order is not important.

4. Shape a sentence to form a mnemonic (example, "Every good boy does fine" is a mnemonic for remembering the music notes on the treble clef from bottom to top).

5. Try combinations of the first steps to create a mnemonic.

Mnemonics are powerful learning tools. Work one or two mnemonics into your presentation to make it memorable by your audience.

Charles P. Howes is a security professional, freelance writer, corporate trainer and Adjunct Instructor of Technical Writing. He can be reached at www.charleshowes.com.

Article Source: www.homehighlight.org

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