[A] After a host of experiments and years of testing they have found out: That it your vocabulary is limited your chances of success are limited. That one of the easiest and quickest ways to get a- head is by consciously building up your knowledge of words. That the vocabulary of the average person almost stops growing by the middle twenties. And that from then on it is necessary to have an intelligent plan if progress is to be made. No haphazard hit-or-miss methods will do.
[B] Similarly it has been found by Professor Lewis M. Terman, of Stanford University, that a vocabulary test is as accurate a measure of intelligence as any three units of the standard and accepted Stanford-Binet I. Q. tests. The study of words is not merely something that has to do with literature. Words are your tools of thought. You can’t even think at all without them. Try it. If you are planning to go down town this afternoon you will find that you are saying to your- self: "I think I will go down town this afternoon." You can’t make such a simple decision as this without using words.
[C] Two classes in a high school were selected for an experiment. Their ages and their environment were the same. Each class represented an identical cross-section of the community. One, the control class, took the normal courses. The other class was given special vocabulary training. At the end of the period the marks of the latter class surpassed those of the control group, not only in English, but in every subject, including mathematics and the sciences.
[D] You see, there are certain factors in success that can be measured as scientifically as the con- tents of a test-tube, and it has been discovered that the most common characteristic of out- standing success is "an extensive knowledge of the exact meaning of English words". The ex- tent of your vocabulary indicates the degree of your intelligence. Your brain power will increase as you learn to know more words. Here’s the proof.
[E] It has long since been satisfactorily established that a high executive does not have a large vocabulary merely because of the opportunities of his position. That would be putting the cart be- fore the horse. Quite the reverse is true. His skill in words was a tremendous help in getting him his job. Dr. Johnson O’Connor of the Human Engineering Laboratory of Boston and of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, gave a vocabulary test to 100 young men who were studying to be industrial executives. Five years later those who had passed in the upper ten percent all, without exception, had executive positions, while not a single young man of the lower twenty-five percent had become an executive.
[F] Without words you could make no decisions and form no judgments whatsoever. A pianist may have the most beautiful tunes in his head, but if he had only five keys on his piano he would never get more than a fraction of these tunes out. Your words are your keys for your thoughts. And the more words you have at your command the deeper, clearer and more accurate will be your thinking. A command of English will not only improve the processes of your mind. It will give you assurance; build your self-confidence; lend color to your personality; increase your popularity.
[G] Your boss has a bigger vocabulary than you have. That’s one good reason why he’s your boss. This discovery has been made in the word laboratories of the world. Not by theoretical English professors, but by practical, hard-headed scholars who have been searching for the secrets of Success.
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