Early on in my writing career, I took on a couple of articles covering project management. To put it mildly, I didn’t know a Gantt chart from a PERT chart. Worse, I didn’t even know where to start. I had already learned, though, that vocabulary is the fastest way to become an expert on any subject — even if you don’t really know that much about a topic, at least you can talk the talk. I knew that in order to write these articles, I needed to learn the jargon that every project manager uses without even thinking.

我刚开始写作的时候，写一些项目管理类的文章。说得好听点，我不知道甘特图和网络图有什么区别；其实，我连怎么开始都不知道。不过我知道，词汇是精通任何一门学科最快捷的方法。——即使你对一个话题了解甚少，至少还能就话题本身谈上一阵。我很清楚，要写出这方面的文章，我就得先学会每个项目经理都能脱口而出的那些专业术语。

So I fired up my web browser, and headed to Wikipedia…

所以，我打开浏览器，直奔“维基”……

1. Wikipedia
That’s right. My first stop is Wikipedia. I’ll be the first to admit that Wikipedia is never guaranteed to be the gospel truth, but I’ve found that for any learning project, whether I’m doing research for a school paper or trying to find the right words to talk about a particular topic, Wikipedia is guaranteed to be a good starting point. It’s because good Wikipedia articles link to fairly expert sources, the kind that are both a good source for an introductory-level encyclopedia article and for a crash course in the subject.

So, I’ll go to Wikipedia and skim the article on whatever my subject is. I’ll open up links and try to get an idea of related terms and important names. The names of people and companies can be as important to a conversation on a given topic as the actual vocabulary. It’s doubtful, after all, that anyone would have a conversation on productivity and entirely ignore David Allen and GTD.

1、访维基

没错，我的第一步，去“维基”。我很清楚维基上的内容并不可能全是真理，但我发觉，不管学习什么，写论文做调查也好、为了一个话题寻找精辟的用词也罢，维基是一个非常有用处的地方。维基上好的文章会链接到一些权威资源，无论是编写入门百科，还是进行短期训练，这些资源都非常好用。

所以不管我在写什么，我都要先去维基转一圈。我打开很多链接，对一些相关术语和重要名称有个大概的印象。在进行特定的话题讨论的时候，人名、公司名和专业词汇一样重要。就像说到“产出率”这个话题，谁能不谈起David Allen和GTD理论呢？

2. Taking Notes
While I take notes primarily in conjunction with what I read online, you can take notes from any source you find useful. The actual act of transcribing information, preferably interpreting it into your one style of writing is incredibly helpful. When possible, I like to actually write things down by hand, but in this cut and paste world, even actually typing out words and definitions can help. The acts of writing and interpreting make it easier to remember and use a word later on that just copying it into your notes will. If you’ve got a little time, actually writing out a few paragraphs using your new words can really cement their meanings in your mind.

If you’re working on a written project, you may even come out ahead on your notes. You may be able to write them in such a way that you can use them in part or in whole for that research project or article or speech you’re preparing for. If that’s the case, consider trying to take your notes with that end in mind: structure your notes to match whatever product you’re in the process of creating.

2、做笔记

我主要是把我在网上阅读的内容整理一份笔记，你也可以把你从任何渠道收集的资源整理在一起。抄录这些信息，尤其是把它们按照你自己的写作习惯编辑起来是一件非常有用的事情。一有时间，我就喜欢用笔写东西。不过我们处在一个“粘贴复制”的时代里，把你的笔记敲进电脑当然也一样有效。抄录和编译的过程，能够简单而长久地帮助你记忆这些词条。如果你时间比较充裕，不妨还可以用你学到的新词写上一小段文字，它们的意思会深深刻进你脑子里。

如果你正在准备写些什么，你甚至可能在记笔记的时候就把文章构思好。你可以在你写的报告、文章或者演讲稿中运用上一些甚至全部笔记中的内容。如果你想一举多得，不妨在做笔记的时候脑子里有一份规划，按照你要撰写的文章的架构去构思你的笔记。

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