Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech

Great speeches have always been one of the mediums that disseminate information, provide guidance, and mark seminal moments in history. Histories of ancient cultures often provide speeches to help understand the issues in wars and other significant events. Think of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' most important description of Christian [...]

By |2023-09-22T22:59:18+00:00September 22, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

Drowning in a Sea of Words

I consider three mistakes of writing to be my unholy trinity: incorrect grammar, clumsy sentence structure, and verbosity. Don't criticize my title for this last mistake; I'm making a point. Bad writers as well as bad speakers clutter their communication with too many words. Redundancies and Extraneous Words “Killed dead” [...]

By |2023-09-16T00:38:00+00:00September 16, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

Speeches: Gateways to History

Speeches, we dread listening to boring ones; we are inspired by good ones; we even take action by persuasive ones. For those of you who fear standing before an audience, perhaps you should consider the importance of speeches in determining or at least depicting the course of history. Most of [...]

By |2023-07-21T21:59:40+00:00July 21, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

Assertions without Evidence

Several writing classes I've taught required the students to compose an argument paper. I made them choose from a list of famous quotes and defend or deny one of them. I always introduced the project by lecturing on the difference between an assertion and an argument. Too many students don't [...]

By |2023-07-07T20:54:41+00:00July 7, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

Aristotle, Stephen Covey, and the Means of Influence

I am indebted to my friend Ron Deffenbaugh for sharing this information with me. Recently Ron taught some of us about Stephen Covey's 30 Methods of Influence (30 Methods of Influence By Stephen Covey (lifeisinlife1.blogspot.com). Because these ideas reflect some Aristotelian ideas, they fit in with my fourth week post [...]

By |2023-07-01T20:09:17+00:00July 1, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

Great Quotes Reflect and Reinforce Great Ideas

It's quote week on Words Done Right LLC blog. My wife loves quotes. She keeps a book to record inspirational ones and displays them on her artwork (see her web address and email at the bottom of this page). Don't you love Taylor Swift's quote? Like this one, quotes are [...]

By |2023-06-23T21:30:46+00:00June 23, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

We Need the Right Words

Mark Twain understood the importance of words. He said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” The nuances between some words makes this particularly significant. Understanding words facilitates meaning. Funny Words Think about the words for [...]

By |2023-06-16T15:52:24+00:00June 16, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

Wisdom and Eloquence

Wisdom is to eloquence as Robin is to Batman. By himself Batman was a crusader for justice, but with the boy wonder beside him, together they became the dynamic duo. Cicero was an early Roman orator who believed that eloquence was of great benefit to man but that wisdom must [...]

By |2023-06-10T18:52:53+00:00June 10, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

Persuasion: Power or Personality

Rhetoric is not a word used in everyday speech, and some have suggested that with the advent of ChatGPT, composition and rhetoric may become lost arts. I think otherwise. Because we are created with an innate need to communicate and because, unlike the animal kingdom, we have developed language, rhetoric [...]

By |2023-05-25T21:42:26+00:00May 25, 2023|Blog, Words Dr Blog|0 Comments

Title

Go to Top