Memorization Project- Michelle Wolff

            Memorizing an excerpt from Andre Breton’s Nadja was a difficult task. In the past, I have usually been good at memorizing assignments but this proved me different. This took intense concentration in order to memorize it word for word. I think what was difficult about this task was that Breton tends to use fairly long sentences in his pieces as well as dense language, making it difficult to memorize.

I thought about how I usually memorize things, such as songs, but I later came to the conclusion that I couldn’t apply those same techniques to this. I used to be able to take a song, listen to it a few times and have the lyrics memorized instantly. This proved to be very different.  I wasn’t able to apply the same strategies to this assignment. I used a few different techniques to aid me in this process. I broke up the paragraph sentences or phrases into pieces so that I could memorize them in smaller bits. This strategy helped me tremendously. One strategy that proved to be helpful for me was that I would memorize a phrase, usually separated by commas, and then say it out loud, over and over again until I got it. Then I would go back to the text and memorize the next phrase and then say it all together. I would repeat the now two phrases over and over again until I could say both of them without any hesitation, and so on and so on until I had the whole paragraph down.

I realized repetition is key in this process. The more I repeated the passage, the better I knew it. I began to understand that there are really never too many times to repeat something when trying to memorize it.

Also, I ended up writing the passage down over and over again to help with the memorization process. This seriously helped a lot. Even though I wasn’t writing it down for my presentation; I was saying it, it still helped tremendously. I think this was because writing is an excellent method to help with memorization. When I began saying the excerpt out loud, I could instantly picture where on the page the words were, and that ultimately helped me to figure out what the next part was to say.

I think that memorizing is a hard task but I know that because I get nervous speaking in front of people, that that definitely contributes to the difficulty.

The experience is a tough but rewarding experience. After I recited my excerpt, I felt so accomplished and relieved. When I was reciting my piece and listening to others recite their pieces, I really felt as though everything we had learned this semester was shown in a whole new light. There is something about performing something out loud that is special; something one cannot get from just simply reading a text in silent.  It was very cool to see everyone recite different texts. Also, everyone memorizes their texts individually with their own style.