How to do sentence completions.
The essence of the sentence completion technique is to elicit responses
from an individual or group of individuals by prompting them with incomplete
sentences. Users are asked to provide 6 to 10 different endings to these
"sentence stems", with the sole requirement being that each ending be a grammatical
completion of the sentence. A sentence completion "program" typically consists of
4 to 7 carefully constructed sentence stems.
Here is a sample stem. "If I learn to take pride in my ability to find my
way around roadblocks..."
Here are some sample completions. "I would focus more on what needs to be
done." "I'd be easier on myself when I make mistakes." "I would not let other
people's non cooperation rattle me as much." "I'd think about how I successfully surmounted
obstacles in the past." "I'd work smarter." And so on.
Specific Instructions
- Without pausing for reflection, write as many endings for the sentence stem as you can - never less than six, and ten is enough. The only criteria being - does it make grammatical sense?
- Empty your mind of any expectations or anticipations concerning what will happen or what is "supposed" to happen.
- The trick is to work as rapidly as possible, not pausing to "think," inventing if you get stuck, without worrying if any particular ending is true, reasonable, significant or profound.
- If your mind goes absolutely empty. Write anything, but write something and keep going.
- Do not allow yourself to stop with the thought that you cannot do this exercise.
- An average session should not take longer than twelve minutes. If it takes much longer, you are
"thinking" (rehearsing, calculating) too much. More on how the site works.
- How to get the most out of viewing your completions.
|