WRITING BETTER ENGLISH, WEEK 10

Persuasion:

ETHOS – AUTHORITY, REPUTATION, ACHIEVEMENT, INSIGHT

LOGOS - REASON

PATHOS – EMOTION

 

- STRUNK AND WHITE, from THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

- EMERSON, from “SELF-RELIANCE”

-BROWNING, POETRY, ”My Last Duchess”

 

LAST WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT, 150-250 WORDS ON FROST’S “A TIME TO TALK” OR ON A PARAGRAPH FROM EMERSON:

 

NEXT WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT, 150-250 W0RDS ON BROWNING’S “My Last Duchess”

 

My Last Duchess 

 

BY ROBERT BROWNING

 

FERRARA

 

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not

Her husband’s presence only, called that spot

Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps

Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps

Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint

Must never hope to reproduce the faint

Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

For calling up that spot of joy. She had

A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terrace—all and each

Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked

Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame

This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech—which I have not—to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—

E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet

The company below, then. I repeat,

The Count your master’s known munificence

Is ample warrant that no just pretense

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

 

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, CONTINUED

IV. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED

“The truth is…,” “The fact is…, “Honestly…”  Just state it!

“They” Not with “each” “every” nor when it should be singular, “He” or “she.”

“This” often obscures what the reference is.

“Try and mend it” should be “Try to mend it.”
“Unique” does not have degrees of being unique.

“Utilize” is grandiose “use.”

 

 

ESSAY, "SELF-RELIANCE," RALPH WALDO EMERSON

FOURTEENTH PARAGRAPH

Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

 

FIFTEENTH PARAGRAPH

I suppose no man can violate his nature.

All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere.

Nor does it matter how you gauge and try him.

A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza;—read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing.

In this pleasing contrite wood-life which God allows me, let me record day by day my honest thought without prospect or retrospect, and I cannot doubt, it will be found symmetrical, though I mean it not and see it not.

My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects.

The swallow over my window should interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my web also.

We pass for what we are.

Character teaches above our wills.

Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.

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 W0RDS ON BROWNING’S “My Last Duchess”

 

 

 

 

Queen or King – As sovereign, the King or Queen outranks everyone

Queen Consort – The Queen Consort is the wife of the King

Apart from the monarch and their spouse, the titles are:

·         Duke or Duchess

·         Marquess or Marchioness

·         Earl or Countess

·         Viscount or Viscountess

·         Baron or Baroness