Each intelligence has a core set of capacities which are involved in its actual functioning. These are almost like “sub-intelligences”. If you are wanting to improve, enhance, or otherwise strengthen an intelligence, you must work at the level of developing the full range of its capacities.

Study these capacities and think about how you use them in your life and you’ll gain a fuller sense and understanding of your own WordSmart.

The first task for more fully understanding and enhancing your WordSmart capacities is learning to speak the unique language of this intelligence; that is, learning to decipher its special jargon, to understand its vernacular, and being willing to immerse yourself in its various operating modalities.

The language and operating modality of WordSmart is related to finding and understanding the many patterns that are part of your life, such as number patterns, thought patterns, and word patterns.

Once you understand the different dimensions and aspects of WordSmart it is important that you focus on using them on a fairly regular basis. As with any capacity we have developed in our life, regular, consistent practice makes perfect.

Following is a description of each capacity and a place for you to type your reflections on how each of the capacities tend to show up in your daily life, AND what you can do to exercise it or use is more.

(Just type your thoughts in the boxes provided. At the bottom is a "print button" so you can save your work.)

UNDERSTANDING THE ORDER AND MEANING OF WORDS

The capacity to Understand the Order and Meaning of Words is a very complex process of grasping word meanings in a given context and knowing how to shift both meaning and context by rearranging words.

For example, how many different sentences, each with a different meaning can you create by simply rearranging the ten words in the sentence “The man only wanted to tell the child about this.”?

EXPLAINING, TEACHING, AND LEARNING

This capacity involves the ability to give accurate verbal or written instructions to another and being able to follow such instructions given to you. This capacity involves not only thoroughly understanding what you are trying to explain or teach, but also understanding what another will hear and understand in your instructions.

How many times have you been stumped by the supposedly “easy to follow” instructions in a manual which accompanies a product you have purchased?

LINGUISTICALLY-BASED HUMOR

Linguistically-based Humor deals with such things as the “play on words” (puns) and the “play with words” (the story with the surprise ending, riddles, jokes, which usually involve various “twists” of the language or misunderstood words and phrases, limericks, and double-meaning phrases.

Also involved is an understanding of the setting in which something is funny. The socio-cultural context of humor is important to understand, for something that is funny in one situation may be an insult in another.

CONVINCING OTHERS OF A COURSE OF ACTION

Think about the skill of politicians, ministers, social activists, speakers at a charity fund-raisers, or TV announcers to Convince Others of a Course of Action.

This involves the development of great sensitivity to the subtle meanings of the language, the sounds and rhythms of speech, and an understanding the linguistic context of the listener.

It involves an understanding of emphasis in speaking to underscore the most important parts of your communication. It is the ability to use the spoken and written word to impact and motivate people.

MEMORY AND RECALL

Memory and Recall is the ability to access verbally-stored information from the the brain’s short- and long-term memory. This involves a wide variety of techniques which are specific to an individual.

How do you remember an address or people’s names when you’re in a group? What is your technique to recall information from something you read three weeks ago when you need to produce it in a current conversation? What is your strategy for finding the words needed to complete a crossword puzzle or a word jumble?

META-LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

This is the unique ability of language to investigate itself, using language! Think about times when you are talking with another person and you are confused by what they are saying. How do you gain clarity? You probably use language to ask them about their language; “Do you mean this or do you mean that?”

Persons involved in a debate will use language to destroy the language-based argument of an opponent, or attorneys will use language to further investigate the also verbal testimony of a witness on the stand.