Thursday, June 23, 2005

Another profiling strategy: category headings with pre-listing

When information about a subject is listed what are the main categories that any listed facts will belong to? I use the following category headings:

Time (duration) Place (area) Thing (object) Person Doing (Activity) Being (Is) Having (Has) Saying (utterance) Knowledge

These category headings can be used to list key information. So, if the subject is 'Wimbledon tournament' I can choose the category heading 'place' and form a directive:

"Name Wimbledon people"

and then list people involved in the Wimbledon tournament:

Players, spectators, umpires, TV presenters, ticket sellers, refreshment providers, cleaners, ballboys/girls, judges, royals, photographers etc.

Or I could have set the directives "Name Wimbledon time", "Name Wimbledon place", "Name Wimbledon object" etc.

Use of pre-listing

I can fine-tune my search by using pre-listing. I will choose a word using pangram trigger - 'bank' - for example then choose one of the category headings - 'place' - for example and then state a directive: "Name Wimbledon bank-place". Which could suggest:

1) Henman Hill
2) The place where the trophies are stored
3) Cashpoints available for spectators

More examples

With pangram trigger word 'wit' and category heading 'time'
Directive = "Name a wit-time at Wimbledon"

1) When players make jokes
2) Exhibition/practice matches
3) Laughter in the crowd (Mexican wave?)

Trigger: 'crew'. Category: 'person'
Directive = 'Name a crew-person at Wimbledon'

1) The boss of the ballboys/girls
2) Coach parties
3) Head of refreshments

Trigger: 'see'. Category: Utterance
Directive = 'Name a see-utterance at Wimbledon'

1) "Did you see that great shot"
2) "What players did you see at Wimbledon today?"
3) "You can't see the ball because the serve is so fast"

My prefered method

I prefer to choose one category heading and list a number of words generated by pangram trigger.

So with category heading 'place' and a list of words:

big, at, chip, clot, see, ma, rent

I will use the directive template "Name X-place at Wimbledon" and choose the first random word to complete the directive "Name big-place at Wimbledon" and attempt to list three facts:

1) Big-place = centre court
2) The whole venue
3) The bar (apparently a big priority for some visitors)

Then set the next directive: "Name at-place at Wimbledon" etc.

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