and quickest way. It is often said of
teachers that they do not actually feel that they _know_ a subject
until they have tried to teach it to others.

Taking Notes. Another kind of mind recalls or remembers material it
has read when some note or hint suggests all of it. This kind of mind
depends upon the inestimably valuable art of note-taking, a method
quite as worthy as the two just considered if its results justify its
employment. Note-taking does not mean a helter-skelter series of
exclamatory jottings. It means a well-planned, regularly organized
series of entries so arranged that reference to any portion recalls
vividly and exactly the full material of the original. Books and
speeches are well planned. They follow a certain order. Notes based
upon them should reproduce that plan and show the relative value of
parts.

When completed, such notes, arranged in outline form, should enable
the maker to reproduce the extended material from which they were
made. If he cannot do that, his reading and his note-taking were to
little purpose. A speaker who has carefully written out his full
speech and delivers it form the manuscript can use that speech over
and over again. But that does not indicate that he really _knows_ much
about the topic he is discussing. He did know about it once. But the
man who from a series of notes can reconstruct material worked up long
before proves that he has retained his knowledge of it. Besides, this
method gives him the chance to adapt his presentation to the changing
conditions and the new audience.

In using this method, when a particularly important bit of information
is met, it should be set down very carefully, usually verbatim, as it
may be quoted exactly in the speech. This copy may be made upon the
paper where the regular notes are being entered so that it may be
found later embodied in the material it supports. Or it may later be
cut from this sheet to be shifted about and finally fixed when
planning the speech, or preparing the outline (discussed in the next
two chapters). Many practised speech-makers copy such material upon
the regularly sized library catalog cards (3 by 5 inches), some
distinguishing by the colors of cards the various kinds of material,
such as arguments supporting a position, opposite arguments,
refutation, statistics, court judgments, etc. The beginner will find
for himself what methods he can use best. Of course he must never let
his discriminating system b