Tony Buzan - The Power of Verbal Intelligence - 10 ways to tap into your verbal genius

The Power of

Verbal Intelligence

Tony Buzan

Copyright

Thorsons

An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

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London, SE1 9GF

The website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk

and Thorsons are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

First published 2002

© Tony Buzan 2002

Tony Buzan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Mind Maps ®is a registered trade mark of The Buzan Group

Original Mind Map concept © Tony Buzan

Plate section illustrations by Alan Burton

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication .

Source ISBN 9780722540497

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2018 ISBN: 9780007386055

Version: 2018-11-05

Dedication

The Power of Verbal Intelligence is dedicated to my dear Mum, Jean Buzan, who guided me to a love of words and to a deep understanding of their beauty and power; to ‘Master Mind Mapper’, and phenomenal friend, Vanda North, for her dedication to communicating the message of Mind Mapping; and to Dr Wilfred Funk, whose books on developing word power and his regular column in the Reader’s Digest inspired me to develop my own Verbal Intelligence.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

List of Mind Maps ®

Summary Mind Maps ®

The Last, Last Word

Recommended Reading – Tony Buzan’s ‘Top 10’

Answers

Acknowledgements

Other Books By

Keep Reading

About the Publisher

List of Mind Maps ®

Summary Mind Map ®of Chapter 2– Learning a Language – children’s verbal learning tricks – mimicking; play; making mistakes; persistence and curiosity.

Summary Mind Map ®of Chapter 3– Word Power (Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes) power of words; opportunities R,P,S give to expand Verbal IQ; using dictionaries and thesaurus.

Summary Mind Map ®of Chapter 4– Writing an Essay – more prefixes, suffixes; expanding vocabulary.

Summary Mind Map ®of Chapter 5– Improving Your Vocabulary – memory and recall; left and right brains and multi-ordinate nature of words.

Summary Mind Map ®of Chapter 6– Body Language – posture and demeanour; gesturing and memory; voice tone and strength.

Summary Mind Map ®of Chapters 7and 9– Preparing for a Job Interview – speaking in public; speaking so people remember; giving directions and animal communications.

Summary Mind Map ®of Chapter 8– Reading – best approaches to texts; reading faster and knowledge files.

Summary Mind Map ®of Chapter 10– Verbal and other intelligences

– how they interact – creative, spatial; social and physical.

Fore-word! Your Journey to Verbal Power Begins

Chapter One

‘“The pen is mightier than the sword” only if the brain behind it knows how to wield the word!’

Tony Buzan

what is ‘verbal intelligence’?

Verbal Intelligence is the ability to ‘juggle’ with the alphabet of letters: to combine them into words and sentences. Your Verbal IQ tends to be measured by the size and range of your vocabulary, and by your ability to see relationships between words.

why does verbal intelligence matter?

At the beginning of the 20th century, psychologists observed that there was a direct correlation between vocabulary size and strength, and life-success. In other words, the bigger and better your vocabulary and your Verbal Intelligence, the more successful and confident you will be in your life in general – in your work, in your social and personal life, and in your studies.

Words have tremendous power. Those people who harness the strength of words give themselves the power to persuade, to inspire, to mesmerize, and to influence in all manner of ways the human brain. It is not surprising, then, that words and their power have become one of the most important currencies in the ‘Knowledge Revolution’ of the 21st century.

how will the power of verbal intelligence help me?

The really good news is that it is easy to improve and expand your verbal skills, and to increase immeasurably your Verbal IQ, and this book will show you how. Barry McGuigan, whom you can read about in Chapter 7, deliberately set about raising his Verbal IQ when he turned to TV commentating after his retirement from the boxing ring, and has since become as adept mentally as he was physically as a fighter.

The Power of Verbal Intelligence is about to take you on one of the most exciting journeys of your life. It is a journey on which you will:

discover and explore new worlds

feast your imagination on new concepts and ideas

learn more about your amazing brain and how to use it