1. Count the words in the poem:
| Mary had a little lamb, |
| Little lamb, |
| Little lamb. |
| Mary had a little lamb, |
| Its fleas were white as snow. |
(At least, that's how my sister recited it when she was 5.) This example has 20 words.
2. Draw a line of boxes, one box for each word of the poem.
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3. Identify an important word in the poem. Pollard-Gott calls this word the root. This choice is the delicate part of the method.
| * The word should represent an idea, action, object, or person central to the poem. |
| *The word should occur several times in the poem. A word that occurs only twice will reveal no pattern. |
For this example, we select the word lamb
4. Shade the boxes corresponding to each occurrence of the selected word.
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Return to Pollard-Gott.