The symbols you use should have some element of mnemonic, that is they should mean something to you by association (for example my chimney stack on page 102). They should create associations in YOUR mind. This means that copying other people's symbols is not always a good idea. However, symbols can be very useful and there are already lots of them around, so don't reinvent the wheel! Use the symbols you know and organify" them.

Look at the very incomplete list of examples halow. I will not suggest any "meaning" for the symbols, but if you immediately recognize a symbol or associate it with a concept then that will be a good symbol for you to use. The rest you can (and will) forget.

How to practise

1. Go through the transcripts of speeches you have worked with in this book or from elsewhere and see which concepts (synonymous words and expressions) come up most often. Make a list and think up or borrow a symbol for the most common ones.

2. Go through the consecutive notepads you have been using so far. Ask yourself, "which long words am I writing out repeatedly?" Can you think up a quick and simple symbol to replace them?

3. Go through your consecutive notepads. Which words are you sometimes noting as symbols, sometimes not? Cross out the words where you have used them and replace them with the symbols you have chosen. (This exercise is not about correcting" the notes, you may never even look at the set of notes again, but the action of crossing something out and replacing it will help anchor that symbol in your memory.) It is important to use symbols consistently and automatically.

Finally, don't worry too much about symbols. There is no right or wrong amount of symbols to use, but sticking to the rules outlined at the beginning of the chapter will make sure that, however many or few you use, they help rather than hinder. In the short term you will try out lots of symbols but in the long run symbols will pretty much choose themselves. The ones that get used, those that represent the most common concepts in speceches, will get remembered and the ones that don't get used will be forgotten. And so it should be.

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