Remembering the Bill of Rights' Fifth Amendment

The goal of Struggling Student's Memory Guide is to develop ways to quit using rote memorization and use association instead to quickly remember useful educational information for a lifetime.

The fifth amendment protects us against government abuse in a legal procedure. It's pretty extensive but the keywords are: Grand Jury, Double Jeopardy, Self-Incrimination, Due Process of Law, and Eminent Domain.
Frankly the fifth amendment is pretty tough and when things get tough in association and mnemonics one of the best things we can do is take a walk. A mental walk that is and we're going to do ours in your local neighborhood park.

The memory story that follows includes a Loci (location) or a mental walk through a place you're familiar with and where you've made visual connections to things in advance. So read through the memory story and then go to the park to make your visual connections. (Yes, I know it sounds crazy but you have to go to the park because we want to remember this for a lifetime. Everytime you go by that park this memory story will get remembered.)

We're going to substitute "hive" for "five" and for those who know the Link/Peg/Phonetic System we'll use "owl".

Memory Story: You're walking through your park and spot a hive flowing over with honey. You break into it to scoop some honey out when all the animals yell and you're immediately arrested by a couple of bears bearing arms. They take you to the wise old owl who realizes you're scared because you don't how the legal system works in this park. The owl wants you to know you won't be legally abused but will have a fair trial here in this park.

He shows you the Grand Jury, a jury of animals in a grand piano (over on top of that picnic table maybe). Thankfully there's no bees in the grand jury because they want you tried as a terrorist and sent to a military court because in their opinion what you did to them was an act of war.

Then there's Alex Trabech from tv's Jeopardy (over by the swings maybe) who will make sure you won't be tried twice for the same hive destruction.

The owl points to the empty witness chair (the slide maybe) you don't have to sit in and the microphone you don't have to talk into.

Then he shows you his DiPLoma (due process of law) (over on that big tree maybe) that insures he knows all the ins and outs of making sure you get a fair trial.

Finally he shows you the M&M doughman (eminent domain). A gargantuan doughman covered with M&M's going around and taking trees, tables, and what have you, but pays the animals and humans with M&M's and dough for their property. It's okay because the M&M doughman always does it legally the owl assures you. (Hopefully the M&M doughman won't grab up your park or he'll make your Loci just a memory.)

Remembering the fourth amendment

The fourth amendment guards us against unreasonable search and seizures. For association purposes we're going to substitute "door" for "four" and use "rye" for those who know the LinkPegPhonetic memory technique in this memory story.

Memory story: You are Jean Valjean from Voltaire's Les Miserables and policemen break down your "door" and they ruffly search you and your house for the loaf of "rye" bread you've pilfered from the local bakery to keep you and your family from starving to death. Off to the galleys you go.

Memorizing word root -ac- and the Bill of Right's third amendment

Word root -ac- occurs in many Greek and Latin word parts: -acid-, -acerb-, -acri-, acet-, acetabul-, -acu-, -acanth-, etc. meaning "sharp, spine, spiney, thorny, acid, bitter, needle, sour". -ac- also occurs in medical and scientific word parts -acme-, acro-, and acromio-. (Yes, we're going to cover all these word parts in the near future.) [acid, from L. acere, to be sour, acerbic, lit. sharp, fig. sour or bitter in taste, acetic, lit. to be sour, fig. relating to vinegar, acrid, fig. harsh or bitterly pungent, acuity, fig. sharpness, acumen, acuteness of mind, acescence, lit. the state of becoming sour, acetabulum, lit. a shallow vinegar bowl, acanthesthesia, lit. feeling a thorn condition, acicular, lit. a small pin, acidosis, lit. acid condition, state, or process, aculeate, lit. having small spines, Acuaria spiralis, lit. needle animal group - spiraled]

blue emboldened words are common or college terms we can use for word association. reddish brown emboldened words are medical terms and should be looked up in a medical dicitionary for their figurative meanings.

Memory story: [Using the -ac- common to all the word parts listed:] "Ach" (-ac-) would be the sound you would make during numerous SS STABbiNgS (sharp, spine, spiney, thorny, acid, bitter, needle, sour) and also being made to drink acid and bitter solutions. [This memory story is a bit different then the one in my book. I think it's better.]

Now let's do the Bill of Rights' third amendment which is in regards to the quartering of soldiers. We're going to substitute the word "tree" for "three" in this memory story and for those who know Mnemonics' Link/Phonetic system the word "ma" is used.

Memory story: There's a bunch of British soldiers in your "tree" house and your "ma" is telling them to get out it. Of course, being the ever enterprising lady that she is, your ma tells them they can stay if they each come up with a quarter. Which is about ten cents more than you have invested in the place with all the found lumber and nails you used to build your tree house.

[This amendment doesn't seem that relevant today but prior to the Revolutionary War the British Army could come into your house, search it to insure all your documents and papers were stamped with the hated Stamp Act stamps, quarter their soldiers, make you feed them and their horses, and even throw you out of your house and use it for their own purposes. That's why it was felt important enough to be number three.]

Remembering word parts ab-, abs-, apo-, and the Second Amendment

ab-, abs- and apo- like many common word parts, have been bandied about for centuries and consequently they have more than one meaning. To keep from using rote memorization, any more than we have to, I like to use acronyms. Especially if I can back up their meanings like we do in the memory stories below. Yes, acronyms require a bit of rote but it isn't mindless but mindful repetition with a back up, which will help us recall information for a lifetime.

[blue emboldened words are common or college terms, reddish brown words are medical terms that should be looked up in a medical dictionary]

ab-, abs- from L. ab-, off means "separation, off, from, away". [abductor, lit. one who or that which leads away, fig. a kidnapper; a muscle, absolve, lit. to loose from, fig. to set free or release from debt, responsibility, or guilt, ablate, lit. carry or take away, abscess, lit. a going away, abstract, lit. to draw away]

Memory story: You're Abe (ab-, abs-) Lincoln lying on a SOFA (separation, off, from, away) in the White House and have a dream about looking off into an abyss (abs-). Upon waking you have a strange feeling of separation or going away when your wife asks you to get up and get ready to go to the theater.

apo- from Gr. apo, away from, off, means "separation, off, from, away". [apostate, lit. stand away, fig. one who has left their religion, apobiosis, lit. away from life condition, apocrine, lit. separate from, Apocynum, lit. from dog, apophysis, lit. growing off process]

Memory story: You've gone off to write a poem (apo-). Lying on your SOFA (separation, off, from, away) you've managed to get away from everybody so you can think.

Now let's do the Bill of Rights' second amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. We're going to substitute the word "zoo" for "two" in this memory story.

Memory story: You're looking over the "zoo" that Noah has on his ark and notice that the two bears are walking around the deck bearing arms.

[Note to advanced memory students.: If you know Mnemonic's link/phonetic system (which I'll cover in upcoming blogs) I'm sure you've noticed that I've placed "Noah" in today's Bill of Rights memory story and "tea" in yesterdays. The reason why is I don't want people to have to go back and start over if they decide to use the Link system later on. Which I hope they will.]

On Monday, Jan. 18th, we're going to do -ac-. -ac- is a very popular word root that has been used to create numerous word parts. Consequently, it too has at least eight meanings but we're going to breeze through it and the Bill of Right's third amendment.

High Speed Memory Techniques for Medical Terminology

Introduction to Associative Memory Techniques

Struggling Student's Memory Guide is to help students find ways to use associative memory techniques and quit using rote memorization as much as possible. One of the many ways I think this can be done is by using special memory stories created by instructors and/or their students, and/or people like me who enjoy dabbling with this creative memory technique. I will not bore you with the details of how I believe associative memory techniques work or should be created here, but will allow these details to arise from postings, comments, and questions in the future as I post examples of memory stories and other associative techniques on a daily basis. My examples will be from numerous subjects but mostly they'll be about medical and scientific word parts because: (1) Pragmatically that's what I have the greatest number of associative memory techniques for (my book) and (2) I believe it is possible for every high school student to have a medical or scientific vocabulary by using association to remember medical and scientific word part meanings for a lifetime. So let's get started from the beginning with parts a- and an-.

blue words are common or college terms. reddish brown words are medical terms which should be looked up in a medical dictionary for their figurative meanings.

a-, an- from Gr. means "not, without". [amoral, lit. without morals, atom, lit. uncut, fig. ultimate particle of an element once believed indivisible, anarchy, lit. without rule state, fig. a state of lawlessness or political disorder, anonymous, lit. without a name, fig. bearing no name, identity, or source, acormus, lit. without a trunk, Agamofilaria, lit. an unmarried thread, agenesis, lit. without production, anaerobe, lit. life without air, anaphia, lit. without touch condition, anemia, lit. without blood condition, hemiacardius, lit. without half a heart, prosopoagnasia, lit. without knowledge of faces condition]

Memory story: "Not without an (an-) A (a-) average", taunts your parents by jingling the keys in front of you to that little red sports car parked out in the driveway. [This memory story includes the four words "not without an A" placed in a logical order making it much easier to remember than the original definition. Yes, they require a few repetitions unless you've heard those four words most of your life already.]

Now let's do the USA's Bill of Rights' first amendment. We're going to use the word "run" to remind us of the word "one" and we're going to use the acronym RASP Pie to help us remember freedom of religion, right to assemble, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to petition.

Memory story: The jailers in a foreign country in Southeast Asia have allowed you to have tea with your five friends who have been incarcerated for violating each one of the rights and freedoms in the first amendment. You have surreptitiously brought your friends a RASP Pie or a pie with five rasps in it to cut through the bamboo bars that holds them. Once they've cut through you all run for your lives. [Acronyms are one of my favorite ways to remember a list of things. A perfect acronym is rare so we have to get a bit creative sometimes. Acronyms are a short-term memory technique that requires some repetition but unlike this one we can sometimes do a memory backup with details from the story. See ab- tomorrow for an example.]