WRITING BETTER ENGLISH, WEEK 9

 

WRITING BETTER ENGLISH – PERSUASION:

ETHOS – AUTHORITY, REPUTATION, ACHIEVEMENT, INSIGHT

LOGOS – EVIDENCE, REASON

PATHOS – EMOTION

 

RESOURCES

- STRUNK AND WHITE, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

- Macbeth book

 

 

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, CONTINUED

IV. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED

Nice (best use: precise: “a nice distinction”)

Split infinitive (only to emphasize the adverb) “to quietly go”

Than (often ambiguous) “I am closer to my father than (to) my mother.”

 

That vs which: “that” is restrictive,

 “The plow that is broken is in the garage.”

“which” is not restrictive,

The plow, which is broken, is in the garage.”

 

 

ESSAY, "SELF-RELIANCE," RALPH WALDO EMERSON

TENTH TO FOURTEENTH PARAGRAPHS

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.

But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this monstrous corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place?

Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand eyed present, and live ever in a new day.

Trust your emotion. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity, yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.

Out upon your guarded lips! Sew them up with packthread, do. Else if you would be a man speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.

Ah, then, exclaim the aged ladies, you shall be sure to be misunderstood! Misunderstood! It is a right fool’s word. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood?

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.

 

 

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:

Macbeth book choice

 

REVIEW: The Evolution of Everything

 

customer Review

Douglas Winslow Cooper

5.0 out of 5 stars Evolution's Invisible Hand Made Visible

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2022

Verified Purchase

Years ago, I liked Ridley's THE RATIONAL OPTIMIST, 

and this book is even better, making the case for 

largely accidental trial-and-error advancement in biology 

and, more broadly, in economics and politics and other human endeavors, 

where Great Man theories might have ascribed certain outcomes to 

exceptional individuals, when in fact the time was right, 

and the conditions aligned for the almost-spontaneous outcomes.

The writing is clear and persuasive and well-documented.

For books I have helped finish and publish, see Write Your Book with Me

LEO COOPER CHIANG AT 13 MONTHS

 

SUPER GRANDSON:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNHzMgaQUP1Klbk--L0pRd4r5NIPAATrwH67aDsxUxcSvvZER5cJ2T88Dt5z9_lyA/photo/AF1QipPV_DNF2l3nJMswetNLBYRCJruVORYj71il_zeT?key=ZnhxZDZtSWY2THBvZHpiU1VMaXNmRmpzZlp3aGZR

WRITING BETTER ENGLISH, WEEK 8

PERSUASION KEYS:

ETHOS – AUTHORITY, REPUTATION, ACHIEVEMENT, INSIGHT

LOGOS - REASON

PATHOS – EMOTION

 SOURCES:

- STRUNK AND WHITE, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

- EMERSON, “SELF-RELIANCE”

- FROST, POETRY, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

- THIS WEEK’S WRITING ASSIGNMENT: 150-250 WORDS ON FROST’S ”STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING.”

LAST WEEK’S WRITING ASSIGNMENT: 150-250 WORDS ON FROST’S “Paul’s Wife”

 

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, CONTINUED

IV. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED

Leave, let: "Let it alone."

Less, fewer: "More or less; many or fewer."

Like, as: prepositional phrase, clause

Loan (n), lend (v)

Partly, partially: a part of a whole, to a certain degree

Firstly, first; secondly, second…

I or we shall, you will, he or she will (1^st person future, 2^nd, 3^rd)

 

ESSAY, "SELF-RELIANCE," RALPH WALDO EMERSON

PENULTIMATE LINES from EIGHTH PARAGRAPH

There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean “the foolish face of praise,” the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease, in answer to conversation which does not interest us.

NINTH PARAGRAPH

For non-conformity, the world whips you with its displeasure.

And therefore a man must know how to estimate a sour face.

The bystanders look askance on him in the public street or in the friend’s parlor.

If this aversion had its origin in contempt and resistance like his own he might well go home with a sad countenance; but the sour faces of the multitude, like their sweet faces, have no deep cause—disguise no god, but are put on and off as the wind blows and a newspaper directs.

Yet is the discontent of the multitude more formidable than that of the senate and the college.

It is easy enough for a firm man who knows the world to brook the rage of the cultivated classes.

Their rage is decorous and prudent, for they are timid, as being very vulnerable themselves.

But when to their feminine rage the indignation of the people is added, when the ignorant and the poor are aroused, when the unintelligent brute force that lies at the bottom of society is made to growl and mow, it needs the habit of magnanimity and religion to treat it godlike as a trifle of no concernment.

 

 

Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

 

 

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 ASSIGNMENTS:

150-250 WORDS ON FROST’S ”STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING.”

douglas@tingandi.com

WriteYourBookWithMe.com

WRITING BETTER ENGLISH, WEEK 7

PERSUASION: 

ETHOS – AUTHORITY, REPUTATION, ACHIEVEMENT, INSIGHT

LOGOS - REASON

PATHOS – EMOTION

 

- STRUNK AND WHITE, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

- EMERSON, “SELF-RELIANCE”

- FROST, POETRY, “Paul’s Wife” Excerpt

- WEEKLY SHORT ASSIGNMENT: Discuss “Paul’s Wife” Excerpt

 

LAST WEEK’S WRITING ASSIGNMENT: 150-250 WORDS ON: KIPLING’S “IF”

 

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, CONTINUED

IV. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED

Fact vs. opinion

Farther (distance) vs. further (time or amount)

Folks (too colloquial)

He is [a man who]

Imply (suggest) vs. infer (deduce)

Interesting [show rather than claim this]

 

 

ESSAY, "SELF-RELIANCE," RALPH WALDO EMERSON

LAST LINES from SEVENTH PARAGRAPH

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

EIGHTH PARAGRAPH (Broken into sentences):

The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is that it scatters your force.

It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character.

If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible Society, vote with a great party either for the Government or against it, spread your table like base housekeepers,—under all these screens I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are.

And of course so much force is withdrawn from your proper life.

But do your thing, and I shall know you.

Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself.

A man must consider what a blindman’s-buff is this game of conformity.

If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument.

I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church.

Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word?

Do I not know that with all this ostentation of examining the grounds of the institution he will do no such thing?

Do I not know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side, the permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish minister?

He is a retained attorney, and these airs of the bench are the emptiest affectation.

Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion.

This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four: so that every word they say chagrins us and we know not where to begin to set them right.

Meantime nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere.

We come to wear one cut of face and figure, and acquire by degrees the gentlest asinine expression.

There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean “the foolish face of praise,” the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease, in answer to conversation which does not interest us.

The muscles, not spontaneously moved but moved by a low usurping willfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face, and make the most disagreeable sensation; a sensation of rebuke and warning which no brave young man will suffer twice.

 

Excerpt from Frost’s “Paul’s Wife”

To drive Paul out of any lumber camp
All that was needed was to say to him,
"How is the wife, Paul?"--and he'd disappear.

 

[The lumberjacks discuss whether Paul has a wife and later some see them together….]

 

Next evening Murphy and some other fellows
Got drunk, and tracked the pair up Catamount,
From the bare top of which there is a view
To other hills across a kettle valley.
And there, well after dark, let Murphy tell it,
They saw Paul and his creature keeping house.
It was the only glimpse that anyone
Has had of Paul and her since Murphy saw them
Falling in love across the twilight millpond.
More than a mile across the wilderness
They sat together halfway up a cliff
In a small niche let into it, the girl
Brightly, as if a star played on the place,
Paul darkly, like her shadow. All the light
Was from the girl herself, though, not from a star,
As was apparent from what happened next.
All those great ruffians put their throats together,
And let out a loud yell, and threw a bottle,
As a brute tribute of respect to beauty.
Of course the bottle fell short by a mile,
But the shout reached the girl and put her light out.
She went out like a firefly, and that was all.

So there were witnesses that Paul was married
And not to anyone to be ashamed of
Everyone had been wrong in judging Paul.
Murphy told me Paul put on all those airs
About his wife to keep her to himself.
Paul was what's called a terrible possessor.
Owning a wife with him meant owning her.
She wasn't anybody else's business,
Either to praise her or much as name her,
And he'd thank people not to think of her.
Murphy's idea was that a man like Paul
Wouldn't be spoken to about a wife
In any way the world knew how to speak.

 

http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/poems/735

 

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 FROST’S “Paul’s Wife”

REVIEW of GROW YOUR BUSINESS WITH SOFTWARE

Months ago, I had the pleasure of being the guest on Luke Jean-Louis’s podcast.

Smart man, very nice. We had an engaging, intelligent conversation on air.

Recently, he sent me a slender paperback book, GROW YOUR BUSINESS WITH SOFTWARE, and I finally got the time to read it. I was impressed! In about 100 pages, Luke Jean-Louis marshaled hundreds of facts to convince business folk that more software use will mean more business, a lot more.

Who is he? Luke Jean-Louis “is an author, entrepreneur, and host of The Deep Voice Man Show podcast. He was born and raised in Manhattan. He received his MBA from Baruch College….” So says the book jacket, and the book’s well-written text demonstrates his English language skills and his comprehensive knowledge of using modern IT methods to expand business impact and profitability.

Topics highlighted include:

-          Review funnels

-          Chat widgets

-          Text message market

-          Missed call text backs

-          Email marketing

-          Virtual phone systems

-          Staying organized

Some examples of the stats he cites (and I am quoting him):

-          88% of online customers trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

-          38% said they were more likely to buy from a firm if it had live chat.

-          According to Twilio, 90% of customers prefer using messaging to communicate with businesses.

-          80% of business conversations occur over the phone.

-           Email continues to have the highest ROI and lowest cost of any marketing method.

-          Tweets with video have 10x more engagement.

Many more facts he presents will get his readers to rethink their marketing methods.

He offers his advice through Luke@BizThunder.com, or text: (646) 373-7105.

One can obtain an autographed copy of his book by visiting his website:

 https://bizthunder.com/product/growyourbusinesswithsoftware/

 and entering the promo code, "FREE22" at checkout.

I recommend this book highly. 

Douglas Winslow Cooper, PhD

Author of WRITE YOUR BOOK WITH ME

 

WRITING BETTER ENGLISH, LESSON 6

KEYS TO PERSUASION:

ETHOS – AUTHORITY

LOGOS - REASON

PATHOS – EMOTION

 

CLASSIC RESOURCES:

- STRUNK AND WHITE, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

- EMERSON, “SELF-RELIANCE”

- FROST, POETRY, “The Road Not Taken”

- WEEKLY SHORT ASSIGNMENT: “The Road Not Taken”

 LAST WEEK’S WRITING ASSIGNMENT: 150-250 WORDS ON: KIPLING’S “IF”

 

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, CONTINUED

IV. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED

Allude vs. elude

Among vs. between

And/or

As yet vs. yet

Can vs. may

Data is plural

Disinterested vs. uninterested

Effect vs. affect

 

ESSAY, "SELF-RELIANCE," RALPH WALDO EMERSON

 

FIRST LINE OF FIFTH PARAGRAPH OF THE ESSAY (BROKEN INTO SENTENCES HERE):

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. 

LAST LINES

—though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar, which by-and-by I shall have the manhood to withhold.

 

SIXTH AND SEVENTH PARAGRAPHS FROM EMERSON’S “SELF-RELIANCE”

Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule.

There is the man and his virtues.

Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade.

Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world,—as invalids and the insane pay a high board.

Their virtues are penances.

I do not wish to expiate, but to live.

My life is not an apology, but a life.

It is for itself and not for a spectacle.

I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.

I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding.

My life should be unique; it should be an alms, a battle, a conquest, a medicine.

I ask primary evidence that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions.

I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent.

I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have intrinsic right.

Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.

This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.

It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

 

 

 

 

POEM: FROST’S “THE ROAD NOT TAKEN”

The Road Not Taken 

Launch Audio in a New Window

BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

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 FROST’S “THE ROAD NOT TAKEN”