Memletics.com Newsletter - August 2003

Hi everyone! Here's the August 2003 Newsletter from Memletics.com. In this newsletter I:

Let you know what’s been happening at Memletics.com over July
Provide some free highlighting tips from the Memletics Manual
Advise of site updates at Memletics.com
Discuss some coming features for Memletics.com

July at Memletics.com

We've spent a lot of time working on some new site features. We've added an affiliate program and a "tell friends" discount offer. We've also been working on instructor-led training. See below for more information on these.

Nearly 11,000 unique visitors (90,000 hits) visited Memletics.com in July, and the Memletics Manual now has users in 20 countries. Memletics is growing fast - have you joined us yet?

Testimonials for Memletics

Here's some extracts from a reader's review posted to the site in the last week. Takuma is a university student using Memletics for her studies.

"Concerning each chapter, your explanations are really in depth but essential. Most books are made of ambiguous principles, shortcut descriptions, and incidental explanations. In short, they are not enough. Your book gives, in every block, the descriptions and explanations of how, when, where, why etc."

"Some other books deal with a lot of tips, tools etc. But your manual is not a mere collection of them. Memletics is well organized, systematic, integrated and comprehensive. Using the learning style questionnaire, the references, the index etc, I can search for, reflect on and navigate my whole learning more clearly. I have never seen a complete manual like yours."

"Your manual is what I have been asking for. I expect it to help me for my whole life."

You can read the full text of Takuma's review, and other reviews, by going to http://www.memletics.com/manual and then clicking "Testimonials" in the left navigation bar.

Highlighting Tips

Here's a few tips on highlighting from the Memletics Manual:

Many people mistake highlighting for learning. Some study guides recommend you don't do it all, because so many people do it poorly and it can give a false sense of accomplishment. I believe highlighting is an important and useful skill. Treat it as a content collection technique though. Collect the key points, ideas and definitions for use in the next steps-exploring and learning what you've collected.

Here are some specific tips for intelligent highlighting:

Only mark the key points. You can usually find these at the start or end of a paragraph, but not always. Even when marking a key point, only mark at maximum three or four words within that point (if possible).
Highlight after you read. Make sure you read the entire paragraph, or even page, before you go back and highlight the key points.
Only highlight the defined word, not the whole sentence. Use a normal pen and put brackets around the word's definition if you would like to separate them.
Mark unusual, uncommon or questionable items. Perhaps use a different color. Make a point somewhere to come back to it if needed.
Try different colors. Try using different color highlighters for different points. This may work for some people and not others. Don't go too far though. Use a maximum of three colors! If you plan to photocopy or scan notes later, only use a light-colored highlighter. Yellow appears the best. Other colors can come out black!
Still write notes. When you are highlighting, keep a normal pen handy as well. For example, write some notes in the margins on why you've highlighted particular points.
Transfer to other notes or a mind map. If a point is important, don't just highlight it. Transfer it to your main notes or to a mind map (described soon) for your topic. One of my study techniques involves highlighting while I read the material, then transferring the main points to a mind map afterwards.

Use highlighting sparingly otherwise the unmarked text may stand out more. Take care that you don't finish with a book full of colored paper! I know of one flight instructor who hands out a summary of her lessons on bright yellow paper. This saves those with questionable highlighting skills the trouble of creating the notes themselves!

To learn more about the Memletics Manual, visit http://www.memletics.com/manual/default.asp

Site Updates

In the past few weeks, we've added two new features to the site:

An affiliate program. Would you like to receive rewards for recommending the Memletics Manual to others? This is a commission to you for each visitor who buys the manual with your referral ID. Go to http://www.memletics.com and then click "Affiliate Program" on the left navigation bar to learn more.
"Tell Friends" discount offer. If you tell some friends about the Manual before you buy, you'll receive a discount. See more by going to the Memletics store at http://www.memletics.com/store and then clicking on the "20-50% off" link at the top of the page.

We've also added some information on some instructor-led training we've started to prepare. You can see more at http://www.memletics.com/courses

Coming features

Over the next few weeks we'll be focusing on some internal materials for Members. If you have any comments or suggestions for new features, please reply to sean@memletics.com

Next Newsletter

The next newsletter will be published in the first week of September. Until then, take care and learn well!

Kind Regards,

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Sean Whiteley

Author of the Memletics Manual

sean@memletics.com

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