A writer’s or a presenter’s first job –besides writing or presenting – should be to structure what they are telling us into a logical and readily graspable format. Unfortunately, when they fail to do so, our interpretive devices – our minds – try to structure the sequence from the given informational chaos, which causes chaotic conclusions.
It is very important to be precise in communication to project a clear point of view. This is the rule not only for writers but also the business executives. To persuade others to your point of view, you should deploy three elements: logos, ethos, and pathos in constructing and presenting a script or an argument. These elements were proposed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle – the most famous of ancient philosophers.
To decipher simply,
Logos: with logic
Ethos: with ethics and expressing character
Pathos: with emotions
How easy Aristotle has made it for us but unfortunately most people do not have any clue about how to put things straight in words. I am not talking about professional writers; of course their format is very comprehensive. The general people, even those who have high college degrees, cannot communicate with clarity. There is always a confusion.
I am a victim. Yes, indeed.
I am a businesswoman, and I communicate to people through emails on daily basis. Sounds simple but it isn’t. Not only in Pakistan where English is a second language but people from around the world including English speakers as first language, have no idea what is coming out through their fingers. I try really hard to understand their correspondence, and then I reply. Unfortunately, it mostly ends in a vacuum where my ‘point of view’ suffocates to death. Murderers. My words usually feel the same pain as the vulnerable people in gas chambers did.
On the other hand, my mind is always clambering on un-punctuated, ill expressed, auxiliary-ly deprived, conceptually constipated, meaninglessly blind, incoherent passages of words. I am not only talking about emails from pseudo-business executives; I am also mentioning new generation young writers in newspapers, magazines and on websites. One has to be really smart in order to get a gist of their prattle. I don’t think anyone can be better than them in torturing people. Collins should make a separate dictionary to make people understand to this language.
Fifty two percent of world’s population is under age 30. Seventy five percent of population in Pakistan is under thirty five years. That swept me closer to extinction because I have gained some wisdom and no longer belong to that slot of age. Out of seven billion plus people in the world how many are professional English writers? May be a million only. Or may be more. I haven’t Googled the statistics yet. Still not enough to keep a language alive for next generations. We, who belong to the least percentage, are the only ones who have a chance for survival of sensible English language.
When we were growing up, we read the literature of famous authors and learned from them. There were libraries, not DOT COM. Libraries contained and preserved the content from authenticity. We read, learned and carried it to our generation – the generation of the young at present. This is how language has survived so far. It has definitely altered with additions over centuries but doesn’t need more alterations because it is now simple and comprehensible by all. But the young 21st century techno-sapiens do not follow our footsteps like we did of our ancestors. They follow the only MOST authentic, immortal, never wrong GOOGLE. Everything that Google says is worshiped. It is a new religion – it is called Digital Prophecy. It went gangnam style in 1997 and puppet-ed every young soul.
Now, everyone who could never get published, get uploaded online. Mostly young adults with incredible content of inexperienced wisdom presented in mostly slang script and crippled contextual sentence formation. Young techno-sapiens absorb this surging death of English language as they have been encouraged by their schools to research online rather than going to libraries to update their knowledge with classics.
Parental control is only imposed on inappropriate sites of physical exposure caring nada for desertion of the only language, which is mostly a second language in every non English speaking country.
I recently searched online for some good articles or columns to keep the pace with others in my field. It was the most tormenting experience of reading I ever had. Thousands of websites claiming writers from colleges and else where with mind-blogging blast of monkey language. These people think writing with the style of speaking is something they can make career out of. Articles were full of profanity and contained lack of expression visible by the use of general phrases of word deprivation such as ‘you know’ and ‘it is like..’
Banging head on wall burns 150 calories per hour. This should be the official exercise of 21stcentury.
Well, I burned 300, I am quite sure.
Thank you ALexander for your comment.
It is great to know that you keep your standard up and write intelligently. A writer should always do that. I even mentioned it in my post that professional writer's work is very comprehensive. This is what makes them good writers.
I am reading your web page, and I am really enjoying it. Very focused work.
Please forward me some nice links to read but not novels or stories. I prefer articles.
Stephen Covey's work is my most favourite reading material.
Very much appreciated this post.
Two comments:
Even with an author's "structuring" each reader will "translate" a text according to their own "mental models" (which can be quite different from the author's mental models…).
And, as far as writing in "proper" English—it's my first language (I have no second language)—I've worked hard to keep even my most "informal" writing up to an intelligent standard…
I was talking to someone yesterday who began reading my short novel. They said they were sorry but it was too "hard" for them…
I didn't press them for more information but suspect the difficulty was that I write intelligently 🙂