WEEK 4
WRITING BETTER ENGLISH
CLASSIC ELEMENTS OF PERSUASIVE WRITING:
ETHOS - AUTHORITY, CREDIBILITY
LOGOS - EVIDENCE, REASON, LOGIC
PATHOS - EMOTION
RESOURCES
- STRUNK AND WHITE, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE
- EMERSON, "SELF-RELIANCE"
- KIPLING, POETRY, “IF”
LAST WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT: WHY STUDY WRITING FROM OTHER TIMES AND PLACES? (150-200 WORDS)
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, CONTINUED
V. AN APPROACH TO STYLE
6. Do not overwrite. (Keep it simple.)
7. Do not overstate.
8. Avoid the use of qualifiers.
9. Do not affect a breezy manner.
10. Use orthodox spelling.
ESSAY EXCERPT, "SELF-RELIANCE," RALPH WALDO
EMERSON
FIRST LINE OF THIRD PARAGRAPH
Trust thyself: every
heart vibrates to that iron string.
LAST LINES FROM THIRD
PARAGRAPH:
Bashful or bold then,
he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.
NEXT PARAGRAPH FROM
EMERSON’S “SELF-RELIANCE”
The nonchalance of
boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as much as a lord to do or say
aught to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature.
How is a boy the
master of society; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on
such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits,
in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent,
troublesome.
He cumbers himself
never about consequences, about interests; he gives an independent, genuine
verdict.
You must court him; he
does not court you.
But the man is as it
were clapped into jail by his consciousness.
As soon as he has once
acted or spoken with eclat he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or
the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account.
There is no Lethe for
this.
Ah, that he could pass
again into his neutral, godlike independence!
Who can thus lose all
pledge and, having observed, observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased,
unbribable, unaffrighted innocence, must always be formidable, must always
engage the poet’s and the man’s regards.
Of such an immortal
youth the force would be felt.
He would utter
opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be not private but
necessary, would sink like darts into the ear of men and put them in fear.
POEM: RUDYARD
KIPLING’S “IF
Rudyard Kipling - 1865-1936
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your
master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your
virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
REMINDER
/ REVIEW
Chapter Titles from THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be
Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
150-250 WORDS ON: KIPLING’S “IF”
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