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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
I am all about good communication skills. For my regular posting schedule, I use a 5-week schedule by counting the number of Wednesdays in the month. May had five so this is number five, and I consider different topics for each of the five weeks. Here are my weekly topics. [...]
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 [...]
Facts Are Stubborn Things We live in an age when feelings trump facts. Said in another way: my personal truth trumps reality. John Adams, the second president of the United States, made a bolder claim. Ronald Reagan used to quote him, “Facts are stubborn things.” Adams quote gets more specific, [...]
If you've ever been in an argument that ended with name-calling or character assassination, then you have experienced the “ad hominem” attack, a particular fallacy used to end and allegedly win an argument. From my childhood, I knew people who, in jest, often finished a argument they couldn't win by [...]
