Who Benefits?

• Anyone who writes or thinks in English and anyone who works with people who think in more than one way. 
• Anyone who values mastery of thought.  Anyone who wants to match thought to wording. 
• Anyone who uses thought and wording to reveal new perspectives.
• Anyone who would like to think in more than one way.
• Anyone who would like to improve relationships with others. 
• Anyone needing to close the collaboration gap
• Anyone wanting to close the achievement gap for first and multi-language students alike

See All Boats Rise –A Documentary Work-In-Progress to witness how teachers, students, principals, and a parent describe their Exact Word experiences.

Adults in the workplace all gain better communications skills, from organizational leadership, entry-level staff, to managers, division chiefs, vice-presidents, technical and professional personnel.  Better skills reduce both time spent in meetings and redoing tasks in new ways.  Editing documents in the chain of correspondence has reduced from as much as 80% to 20% work-time with revision becoming substantive, not an exercise in revising style.

Parents see children excel and overcome struggling.  Children at every level see themselves as newly capable.  Students through PhD candidacy increase writing proficiency and objectivity. Second- or multiple-language speakers see logic in English.  Many second-language speakers learn vocabulary and grammar in their home countries, but routinely do not write in English. Who has benefited? Twenty years of track records testify outcomes. 

Track Records

Beginning in the second quarter of 2015, we will periodically post anonymous aggregate Pre/Post Inventory outcomes from schools, executives, workplaces, citizens.  The anecdotal will accompany raw data.  The forthcoming book You Should Just Know, How Perception Turns to Reality, Volume-1 will offer you stories such as those we've listed below:

Benefit Examples: Schools

In the All Boats Rise-Work-In-Progress  documentary filming, a kindergarten boy cried because he couldn’t write more than a paragraph about what the bird in his essay would do next until he made the dazzling discovery that if he were the bird, he’d know exactly what he would do next.  The word “if” is a Conditional Trigger which helped him write more, as did the Triggers help his kindergarten classmates who all wrote one to three page stories.

This same kindergarten teacher:  conducted an exercise using “that” or “who” to extend an “I am” thought:

Student K: (This kindergartener could neither speak nor write in English in February. With theExact Word’s BOS Method, she wrote this and other sentences by May.):

I’m the kangaroo who is jumping.

Student TT :

I am a seagull that’s in the blue lake swimming. 

Student J:

I am the wind that rushes over the steps.

Student A:

I am the hat that stays on people’s heads.

In a second grade classroom, students wrote a paragraph in response to a coloring book picture.  Then using theExact Word’s Trigger words, they wrote a second version starting with a Conditional Trigger, “What if?” from a Shel Silverstein poem.

The four samples here include those from two girls and two boys; one of the four children is a functioning autistic child, and one of them is dyslexic.  All their parents endorsed theExact Word’s showcasing of their children’s writing saying they felt honored and excited to be asked. 

Student #1:

BEFORE TRIGGERS:   I like to go to Independence Park.  The park has two swings.  The park has three slides.  The park is cool.

AFTER TRIGGERS:   What if I became a river?  After the rainfall, I became a river. I would travel to places. When I traveled to the beach, I would turn into an ocean.  Whenever people would go to the beach, they would swim in the ocean.  I would go into animals’ bodies and see what they look like and go back out. I would travel over mountains which would be rocky, and then I would go into canyons which would be calm.  The rocks on the bottom would feel like a massage.  To flow like a river would be magical.

Student #2:

BEFORE TRIGGERS: I go to the park.  I play on the monkey bars.  I slide down the slide.  I play in the sandbox.

AFTER TRIGGERS:  What if I was a flower?  I want to be a flower so butterflies can drink my nectar.  Once I see lots of kids feet, I am afraid the kids will step on me. So I got picked.  Then Layla took me home and she put me in water.  She looked at me. She was still.  And one day, deciding to take a walk, Layla started to have a normal day.  She ate dinner.  She had dessert.  After she took a shower, then she went to bed.  She woke up and ate breakfast. She went to school.  She cooked dinner.  She set the table. She had fun.  She was home.  It was bed time.  It was breakfast time.  It was school time.  Then it was playtime.  Walking on the grass, Layla saw a flower.  She picked it up after she cooked dinner.

Student #3:

BEFORE TRIGGERS:   I like Independence Park. It is very fun.  When I get there I get very excited.  I like the slide and the swings.  I like it because it is fun.

AFTER TRIGGERS:   I asked my mom if I could go to the dock of the ocean.  She said "yes," I set off.  When I got there I saw a fish staring at me.  All of a sudden the fish turned me into a great white shark. I looked exactly like a great white shark.  Right away I started eating fish because I was hungry.  After I ate I got caught in the mouth by a fisherman.  I got mad and bit the man and jumped back into the sea.  Deciding to swim down to the bottom of the ocean, I escaped so nobody could catch me.  The fish that turned him into a shark felt bad and turned me back into a human.  I was happy to be a human again.

Student #4:

BEFORE TRIGGERS:  I like to go to Davis Park.  The kids are doing fun stuff.  The park has one swing set.  The park is close to my house.  The park is fun and you can feel comfortable. 

AFTER TRIGGERS:  What if I became air? I would sneak behind people and scar them.  I would walk through people and give people air.  After that I would get hungry for dessert.  But I guess I still have to look for a wishing rock.  What if I found a wishing rock?  I would wish to become air and do whatever air can do like make thunder or a tornado.  Then, by pushing them up, I would make people fly.  Swirling around the trees would make me feel clean and I would eat more air to get stronger.  When I would go into a park, I would find a child with ice cream.  I would go inside of it, and when the sun melted the ice cream, I would feel the sticky liquid.  To turn into air to do all these things, I need a wishing rock. 

A seventh-grade boy abandoned a baseball story after a few sentences.  It wasn’t until he “Conditionalized” his thinking that he discovered life in his story that he had pictured but could not find words to express. theExact Word’s Trigger Lists sparked  his ability to write what he had originally envisioned. 

BEFORE TRIGGERS:  This summer I went to Fenway Park and we saw the Boston Red Sox play the Minnesota Twins.  The Sox were losing and xxx Manny was up.  There were two people on the bases.  Many [sic] hit the pitch and it was a homerun over the Green Monster.  The crowd went wild, the Red Sox won by one point and the game was over.

AFTER TRIGGERS:  Where did I go this summer?  I went to one of the most important places in U.S. History.  I went to Boston, Massachusetts.  While I was in Boston, I went to Fenway Park.  While I was there it felt as if it were a dream.  The Red Sox played and the game I went to was amazing.  The Sox were losing and we were worried they would lose.  When Manny came to the plate everybody hoped for a homerun because two people were on base and that would give the Sox the lead.  Manny went to the plate and he hit it.  It went far above the Green Monster and it was gone.  Because of the home run the crowd went crazy.  We loved the game.

After highlighting his own work, this student used theExact Word’s Triggers and Patterns to extend his thinking to ideas he didn’t know he had.  He said at his teacher’s suggestion to rewrite, “But that’s all I got, dude.”  Not hardly.

These images clearly illustrate the difference between bottom-line thinking versus more complexly related ideas.  He does not complicate the picture, he enriches it.

A ninth-grade student, using theExact Word’s patterns, arranged in a checklist to guide him, rewrote a first draft and uncovered thoughts he didn’t know he had:

BEFORE: The second game was a blowout and we took home the championship.

AFTER: I remember crying on the sidelines, screaming words to my team-mates, words that were lost in celebration. 

This physiology MD/PhD candidate used theExact Word’s Patterns to clarify a central point:

The exact mechanism of transport is highly debatable. Since 1966, Jardetzky’s alternating access model has been most favorable in the transporter studies [18]. According to this model and many years of research data, DAT binds 1DA, 2Na+, and 1Cl- in the extracellular space and undergoes a major conformational change to then release the cargo inside the cell which leads to its rate-limiting step: the return of the empty carrier to the extracellular space. Other studies have shown transporters can elicit large currents which cannot be accounted for using the former model knowing transporter density and turnover rate (Figure 3- uptake=transport, PSC=post-synaptic current) [5, 14, 19-21]. This indicates that although many transporter characteristics have been explained with the alternating access model, there is a much more complex structure/function relationship that is yet to be fully characterized. A new pool of data strongly supports a channel mode of the dopamine transporter [3, 22]. In 2011 Rodriguez et al. hypothesized a transporter channel that has two binding sites for AMPH and two gates that regulate the channel activity of the dopamine transporter [3] somewhat consistent with Javitch’s model and agreeable with the recorded large currents.

A college senior applied her new knowledge from theExact Word to her ability to read in ancient Greek.  This combination created for a completely new insight:

As I studied Odysseus’ words, I found him to be extremely versatile to using the different colors in different situations.  For example, in the first example, while he is explaining his past, his text is overrun by blues and oranges – it tells what heroic events happened and how Odysseus himself prevailed.  In the second example, Odysseus is trying to make a point and convince the suitors that they are in the wrong.  As he takes on a more rationalizing role, more pinks emerge in his writing.  These pinks are not so much Conditionalizing Odysseus as a hero as they are acting as rhetoric for arguing – to convince people,   Odysseus tries to use if/then statements of a sort.  This is interesting because one of the words often used to describe Odysseus is “POlurOPOn.”  Literally, this translates as “many” (pOlu)  “turns”  (TrOPOV).  This epithet has historically been used to describe Odysseus’ ability to think on his feet, his many travels, or even his knack for tricking people. Through use of the B.O.S. system, a new interpretation of the word is applicable – Odysseus offers many turns of phrase or, rather, many turns of patterns.  He was [has] more ability than any of the other characters to utilize all four different patterns in order to fit the situation at hand.  It was this discovery that drove the voice I wrote for Odysseus in the hero panel scene [of the cartoon and action figures Amy created].

The Workplace – Benefit Examples

An executive at the highest managerial level in the Federal Government spent eight hours every Saturday writing performance reviews so no one would see his struggle.  After a ThoughtPrint Gateway to Mastery executive workshop, he regained Saturdays for his personal life by confidently writing the reviews in the workplace.

An equally accomplished bi-lingual executive had planned to retire from her leadership position because she felt inadequate in her ability to think and communicate in English.  After theExact Word’’s executive course, she came to see that she had double intelligence because she could think and communicate almost simultaneously in two languages, plus instantly translate, where before she had felt incapable.  Once she saw how her brain operated differently in each language, she gained new respect for her own mind and abilities to lead with superior communications skills in both languages.

Case Study:  C.B.

“Before” Version

ABSTRACT:  Utilize NXXX engineering, production and quality assurance personnel to assist NXXX (Agency A) in evaluating a contractor’s producibility and quality efforts during the E&MD and production phases of a program.

MECHANISM:  For contracts issued out of Headquarters, … for manufacturing and quality.  NXXX will then request, via an airtask assistance from the perspective CFA, to assess the contractor’s producibility and quality programs and to monitor the manufacturing/assembly process.  In this instance the CFA refers to the NXXX with repair and/or overhaul responsibility for the weapon system or major subsystem.

BACKGROUND:  NXXX’s responsibilities include assessment of a contractor’s design for producibility and review of the contractor’s manufacturing assembly plan. Once manufacturing begins, NXXX monitor’s [sic] the process for cost, schedule and quality.  Typically progress assessment occurs at design design [sic] reviews (…(review procedures named)) at major milestone decision points using Production Readiness Reviews and Product Oriented Surveys, and other process reviews such as Production Assessment Reviews and Quality surveys.  Manpower to support NXXX at these points in time is provided by design engineers in the NXXX matrix, their representatives in the field or support contractors.  To date, support from engineers at NXXX facilities has been limited to support of the AMPL and has been associated with maintenance procedures and technical data packages.

DISCUSSION: The present approach relies on taking snapshots of a contractor at prescribed milestones.  This practice has proven inadequate in alerting the government to potential problem areas.  Between major milestones we have relied on CDRL’s and the on-site DCAS to alert to potential trouble spots.  Failed manufacturing efforts litter the acquisition landscape.  DCAS has reduced its on site [sic] presence.  The projected manpower in NXXX and specifically in NXXX-A makes even the above flawed approach impossible to continue.

While fellow engineers, and subsequent engineering workshop participants, felt his “Before” version had been “perfectly clear,” his actual audience included decision-makers at very high levels who did not have engineering backgrounds or had expertise in other engineering areas.  His audience, despite background similarities or “

“After” Version

ABSTRACT:  Because our present system of reviewing the production process has proven ineffective, we must develop alternatives.  Because the manning level at headquarters allocated to oversight of the production process declines over the next five years, we need to address alternate sources of support while we work to improve the process.  This paper outlines the form the oversight can take and a source of supply for the requisite manpower.

GOAL:  Develop a process whereby NXXX can provide timely evaluation of a contractor’s manufacturing and quality efforts, and then be able to articulate that evaluation in terms of the effect on projected cost, schedule, and performance.

BACKGROUND:   The Product Integrity Division (NXXX-A) has a part of its mission the responsibility to review proposed designs for producibility, to monitor the manufacturer’s production efforts, and to ensure the end item meets the quality standards established in the contract.

Traditionally manufacturing and quality assessments occur coincident with major milestones of a program such as design reviews (…[review procedures named]).  A formal Production Readiness Review precedes a decision to enter full rate production.  When problems arise during a program effecting or caused by production or quality, NXXX typically convenes a Production Assessment Review or a Product Oriented survey to analyze the issues and recommend corrective actions.  Support for all of these reviews typically comes from other parts of the NXXX matrix, field activities, and support contractors.

DISCUSSION:  The present approach, while useful, has not proven effective in providing management timely insight into production and quality issues.  Too often the major milestones simply document the schedule, cost and performance damage that has occurred.  Additionally, the reviews take place at points in time in a program while manufacturing and quality efforts continue throughout the design, development, and production of a system.  We see a static look at a moving target.  The only insight we have into the ongoing process comes from the on-site DLA representative(s).  For our purposes, their staff cannot meet our needs now and they too will reduce their manning level.

NXXX directed NXXX-A to reduce the number of people assigned to production engineering and quality assurance from 60 to 40 people.  Similarly many of the activities that have provided support in the past to NXXX-A’s reviews have been instructed to make personnel reductions.  Therefore, increasing the surveillance efforts of headquarters is unrealistic.

The Magic of Seven

Something happens.

From September to October in different schools, school districts, and grades, students: who had used The BOS Method in regular English classes, but not their specialized reading classes, increased from 1-3 years’ proficiency on reading scores in seven months;

Increased AYP proficiency for the entire school at 18% instead of the projected goal of 13% and the Hispanic students by 20% in seven months;

This same school increased in two school years to 100% proficiency with a national Exemplary Rating outscoring the closest district school by 25% in seven months; 

In two writing assignments with one draft and one final for each, seven of a cross-sample of 9 students, from a 153-student class load, increased standardized scores from 2 or 3 points to between 5-6 out of 6 possible points, thus redefining intervention in seven months. 

None of the 153 students scored below 3 points, an accomplishment never before achieved by this veteran teacher.  This overall student progress “created” time for individual student intervention because he reduced intense paper-grading by many hours.  As student scores and confidence increased, his need to “encourage by paper-grading” diminished considerably over the same seven months.

Kindergarten students, by year’s end, write 1-3 page stories in seven months;

Teachers’ professional development follow-up significantly increases confidence in their helping students to master how English really works in seven months.

Teaching Critical Thinking

True education lasts for life.  Learning to think, resolving problems, and critical thinking become part of your mental “DNA,” a generative, seminal energy for facing life.  Generally we feel anxious with change and challenge. Building problem-resolution into education teaches life skills tied to natural language and critical-thinking skills in and beyond the classroom. Vanquishing fears of feeling inadequate and facing solid challenges reaches across the curriculum. For students at every level, including professional adults, “all boats rise.”

With theExact Word’s methods, everyone at every level can gain new power.

For twenty years, 97 – 100% of thousands of theExact Word’s workshop participants, adults and teachers, have indicated in the Post Workshop Inventory that they would improve both their communications and the time they spend communicating.

For students, accomplishing raising their scores, gaining mastery of English, or expressing insightful perspectives to peers in the vulnerable environment of a classroom gives a student new gravitas.  A student will never forget such a moment.  A turning point of confidence changes lives, learning, and real growth. Real education grows from resolving an apparent impossibility.  theExact Word’s paradigm shift and theExact Word Experience create the platform for teachers to safely guide students through the perils of learning critical thinking.  Safe resolution of conundrum leads to confident, well-considered thought, a right in the grand American educational experiment.  theExact Word provides the tools, the safety net, the experience, the solid professional development, and the student tracking to create both substantive problems and their satisfactory resolution in the development of substantive critical thinkers and their ideas for the entirety of their lives.

Closing the Achievement Gap:  School-wide Result:

One teacher, one year, one method…

All Boats Rise.

theExact Word augmented already excellent classroom teaching, ELL programs, and one other initiative in the school system, all of which existed prior to 2009-2010.  theExact Word's  pilot program began with one Treasure Mountain (grades 8 and 9) teacher and two Park City High School teachers (grades 10-12).  theExact Word’s program continued in 2010-2011.  Four additional Park City High School teachers were trained during the summer of 2010, again augmenting their superior teaching with theExact Word's BOS Method.  theExact Word welcomes the opportunity to bring comparable progress to your school, community, or professional workplace.  SINCE THEN:

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