Does this move smack of desperation? Panic? Insanity? Yes. But what else could they have done? The great fear among Mariners fans was that Lincoln was so disconnected from reality, he wouldn't recognize that recklessness was the absolute minimum requirement.
As Otter said to his frat-house faithful in "Animal House": "I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!"
Bluto: "We're just the guys to do it!"
Think of Lincoln in a new way: A twin, separated at birth from John Belushi.
And on the Chris Peterson hire:
Petersen has been asked to dance more than a drunken Kate Upton. Everyone wants him. His record at Boise State, 92-12, looks like a Harlem Globetrotters score. Yes, the caliber of the Broncos' opponents was weaker. Tell that to Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, when the plucky Spuds slipped a figurative stiletto into the Sooners, who had to see the blood on their jerseys before they knew they had been stabbed.
Thiel is so good because, first, he has something to say. Thiel is one of the smartest, most perceptive sports writers alive. Second, he uses rhetorical tactics--humor, analogy, and metaphor--to deliver insights in a memorable way.
The stiletto metaphor in the last sentence in particularly apt. If there have been any doubters about the Peterson hire, they've been people who think he's not a dynamic, extroverted personality type necessary to succeed in the big time: He's not Jim Mora or Pete Carroll. The stiletto metaphor suggests that Peterson may not be flashy, but that's not a bug, it's a feature. He delivers in a way that no one expects him to before his opponents know what happened to them.
This rule is fine for when you have a who or whom that begins a sentence, but you have to use my three-step rule when a who or who is a relative pronoun introducing a subordinate clause. You might otherwise be misled to think that it would be ok to say "Give the prize to whomever you think deservers it." Give the prize to him, right? No.It's not right.
I can explain why, but you probably don't want to know. The best way to be sure is simply (1) to bracket the dependent clause that follows the who or whom: "Give the prize to whomever [you think deservers it]." (2) insert a he or him (or she or her) to make the dependent clause stand on its own two feet as a complete sentence: "Give the prize to whomever [you think he deserves it]." Since 'he' is nominative, so must the relative pronoun, which means it must be 'who'.
Notice how Godin starts
his talk with a commonplace and a story about
the guy who invented sliced bread. He takes a cliche--"this
is the best thing since the invention of sliced bread"--and uses it
to make a point that sets up the development for the core idea of his talk.
Godin's script is geared toward delivering insights by the development of memorable liines. Ideas that spread win" ; "Pay Attention"; "It's remarkable" (in the TED version). Look for places in your own scripts to highlight in that way. Find ways to make it into a bumper sticker idea. Repeat it, play with it.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Some interesting groundbreaking slide show styles:
Last Minute Change to Office Hours: I sent an email out about this earlier to alert you all that I have to change office hours today. I will be in the office from 12-1.30 and 3.30-4. I have a meeting with a group at 4 and can meet someone after that around 5, but email me to let me know you're coming at 5.
Chiasmus of the Day
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." Albert Einstein
The 'Anadiplosis' as a type of 'Climax'
In JH on p. 220 he uses the term "climax" for for the figure of speech that uses the AB, BC, CD structure, which I identified asthe 'anadiplosis' after watching the courtroom scene from Animal House Here's another example to refresh your memory:
Watch your thoughts, they
become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
The anadiplosis is a type of climax. A climax would be any sequence of words or ideas that are organized in order of asceniding importance. I found the following passage that makes the point niclely:
"There are only three things I really care about," [Arthur Merivale] added, with the air of one who is half in jest.
"They are?"
"Cricket--and a career--and--and you"' . . .
[Muriel] picked another plum and continued chaffing him.
"It's really nice to know for certain that you approve of me. Still you are dreadfully, painfully honest. Just think where I come in the scale of your affections! First the bat, then the bar, and then--poor me!"
She laughed brightly at his discomfiture.
"But the scale was crescendo," he pleaded. "'You' was a rhetorical climax."
(Cecil Headlam, The Marriage of Mr. Merivale. Knickerbocker Press, 1901.)
Another type of 'climax' is is the 'auxesis':
It's a well hit ball, it's a long drive, it might be, it could be, it IS . . . a home run."
(American baseball broadcaster Harry Carey)
"Jeans that can lengthen legs, hug hips, & turn heads"
(Advertisement for Rider Jeans)
Remember we use figures of speech to make our key insights more emphatic and memorable. They need to serve a rhetorical purpose, and 'building to a climax' is a very effective way to do that.
To become a writer, you have to follow a few rules: Show, don’t tell. Avoid clichés. Be specific. Try not to repeat yourself.
These rules work for me whether I’m writing an essay like this or an ad at the agency where I work as a writer and creative director. I’ve learned that people don’t love to be told things. But they don’t mind being shown things. When you demonstrate an idea for a reader or viewer, you let him participate in the process.
I try to teach this to the copywriters who work for me. Find the story. Make it matter. No one wants to be lectured to. And that’s true if you’re creating a mobile app, a TV spot or even a PowerPoint.
And the toughest lesson: learn to love doing the same assignment again and again. Writing, like building furniture or making jewelry, is “Groundhog Day.” How many ways can you write a headline that says, “Here’s a dollar off coupon”? The answer turns out to be almost infinite.
I agree with his advice about cliches, but don't obsess over not using them, especially when they are shorthand and communicate your ideas with an ethos appropriate to your audience. But also read JH in the chapter on "Instant Cleverness" where he talks about giving cliches or famous quotes a twist. Some examples.
"Centrism in accommodation
of nihilism is no virtue" takes a famous quote by Barry Goldwater
and fllips it. Goldwater's quote: "Extremism in the
defense of liberty is no vice."
Another example of cleverly
taking a cliche or adage and flipping it is the famous quip by Dorothy
Parker:
The adage: You can lead
a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Parker's quip when asked to use the word 'horticulture' in a sentence: You can
lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.
***
Can you pass this 8th Grade Grammar test from 1912 in Kentucky. You should at least be able to answer question 5. Right? (Source)
Anybody hear the "synathroesmus" in
ths clip by Colbert?
Here's another one from Salon writer Alex Parene: "At this point TED is a massive, money-soaked orgy of self-congratulatory futurism."
***
Epistrophe of the Day: “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” — Elie Wiesel
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Simon Sinek's Golden Circle
Signal vs. Noise: Microsoft redesigns the iPod packaging:
Here is another commercial using rhetorical questions. Which one is it?
***
EQ Tip of the Day: Remember 'perception checking'? You might have a hunch about what's on some one else's mind, but it's always good to check. Ask questions like, "It looks like you're feeling down about something. Did something happen?" If someone says something, and it seems as though he expects you to read between the lines, don't be afraid to ask a question to get some clarification.
***
Two Drafts. Last October I testified before the Seattle School Board. I don't think you need to understand the technical issues or the background. I offer these examples to give you some sense for how a first draft becomes a final draft.
My first draft is basicallly my organization of a freewrite, and its goal is to clarify for myself what I want to say. Several drafts ensued before getting to the final draft, but my revision goal was not to get too fancy, but to sound reasonable while emphasizingthe basic points I wanted my audience--the school board--to understand and remember. So you will see rhetorical questions and repetitions, nothing more elaborate than that.
This speech had to be delivered in under three minutes, so it's shorter than the five-minute speech I'm asking you to write.
Iain McGilchrist on the whole-brain theme and how humans make meaning--or don't:
Jonah Lehrer on the "outsider mind".
Quiz 4 postponed until next Tuesday.
Monday, July 29, 2013
David Rose in a TED talk on pitching to venture capitalists like him. The whole thing is worth watching, but you can start at the five- minute mark if you want to save some time (h/t Billy Rex):
EQ Tip of the Day:Take control of your Self Talk. Research suggest the average person has about 50,000 thought every day. Every time one of those thoughts takes place, chemicals are produced in your brain that trigger reactions felt throught your body.
There is a strong relationship between what you think and how you feel, both physically and emotionally. Because you are always thinking (much like breathing), you tend to forget that you are doing it. So if you have some self-talk bad habits, it might help to change them. For instance, instead of I always or I never, say this time (I screw up); instead of "I'm an idiot, say "I made a mistake".
***
Terms to be familiar with:
Identity Strategy: deployment of rhetorical strategy that focuses on building trust and credibility with your audience. You want your audience to identify with you because you identify with them. You know its language--its code, its insider jokes, etc. Goal is to make the audience feel comfortable with you because you feel comfortable with audience.
Denotation & Connotation. Denotaton is the dictionary definition of a word; connotation are the ideas and feelings that are associated with a word. 'Fortuitous' denotes by chance or accident, but it connotes good fortune. Don't use a word to convey its denotative meaning if it's likely to be understood by its connotative meaning.
Ambivert: Introverts who can work effectively in groups and extroverts who can work alone.
“This lamentably
common use of comprise as a synonym for compose or constitute is a wanton
and indefensible weakening of our vocabulary.”--H.W. Fowler
***
Interesting article here on 'body language'. Learn how to read other people's body language, and to control what you communicate with your own.
EQ Tip of the Day: On a similar note: Is the look that your are projecting to the world one that you have chosen, one that your mood created or one that you tend to lean on by default? What you project reflects how you feel, and it's up to you to understand it.
For instance, what you wear sends a pretty clear message about how you feel. Wearing old sweatpants and ratty T-shirts and having disheveled hair every day tells the world you've given up, while overdressing for every occasion and never missing your weekly haircut lets people know you are trying too hard.
When you meet new people are you aloof and cool, or are you overeager to please? Be aware of how your emotions affect your demeanor, and think about whether they are helping you or undermining you.
***
Terms you should be familiar with:
Irony: Saying something but meaning the opposite. Sarcasm, understatement (said of an amputated limb: it's just a scratch), hyperbole (said of a scratch: OMG--it's a festering pustule of gangrenous infection!)
Reductio ad Absurdum: To make opponent's position or argument look ridiculous by comparing it to something similar that is obviously ridiculous. If it's ridiculous to put a skull & crossbones on cheddar cheese, then it's equally ridiculous to put it on a pack of cigarettes.
Stance: The rhetorical position you take toward your audience. In class today we talked about the usefulness of taking a stance in four ways: taking a stance on the facts, on definition, on quality or seriousness, and on relevancy or technicalities. We discussed it as a sequential check list, but you don't have to go through them all. You can take your stance from the beginning on the one of these four that you think gives you the best chance of succeeding.
If we take the clip on which Nick appears on the Lunden show, Nick's stance comes closest to 'definition'. He takes the initiative to frame the discussion on terms that favor him by adopting a sincere, honest tone intended to communicate that he was hurt to think that anyone should feel badly about him and Big Tobacco. He wanted to define the tobacco industry as equally concerned about preventing kids from smoking as the people in the audience were. And he wanted to define the politician, Ron Goody, as the one who had greater motivation for wanting kids to smoke. In doing so he aligns himself with the values and concerns of the audience and makes it hard for them to disagree with him.
We also spoke today about 'stance' in the context of four possibilities:
Virtually every top M.B.A. program in the country now teaches ethics classes, many of them required. In 2008, a coalition of students started the MBA Oath, a voluntary pledge among students to “create value responsibly and ethically.” So far, more than 6,000 students have signed the pledge.
And yet, the report and other anecdotal evidence suggest that whatever is being done both in the classroom and on the job is not enough. According to a controversial study called “Economics Education and Greed” that was published in 2011 by professors at Harvard and Northwestern, an education in economics surprisingly may be making the problem worse.
“The results show that economics education is consistently associated with positive attitudes towards greed,” the authors wrote. “The uncontested dominance of self-interest maximization as the primary (if not sole) logic of exchange, in business schools and corporate settings alike, may lead people to be more tolerant of what other people see as morally reprehensible.”
***
Quote of the Day
For budding entrepreneurs, the U.S. looks like the king of the hill for years to come. This nation has all the traits new companies need to succeed: top universities; a consistent rule of law; an entrepreneurial culture; a huge market; and a government that is broadly pro-business, regardless of which party is in power, [Andreesen] says.
"China is very entrepreneurial but has no rule of law," Andreessen says. "Europe has rule of law but isn't entrepreneurial. Combine rule of law, entrepreneurialism and a generally pro-business policy, and you have Apple." (Source)
Entrepreneurism is where it's at if you are living in America. It's what business is all about. So this weekend as you think about ideas for your business plan, remember this isn't just an academic exercise.
***
EQ Tip of the Day: Know who and what pushes your buttons. Your buttons are bound to be pushed by a wide range of people and things. It could be certain people, particular situations (like feeling scared or caught offguard), or conditions in the environment (like noisy offices). Make a list of them. Objectify them. Write about them in the journal you're all keeping now.
When you have a clear understanding for who and what pushes your buttons makes these a bit less difficult to deal with because they come as less of a surprise, and you can develop a more effective patterned response to them. But then ask yourself--why do these things bother you so much? Is it the situation or is it you? (Adapted from Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Bradberry & Greaves)
***
The Power of Marketing
Agnes Kim sent me an interesting article [scroll down] that explains how it became acceptable to treat the preposition 'like' as a conjunction. It's largely rooted in the widespread proliferation of the Winston cigarette slogan, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should":
Newspapers condemned Winston's slogan, The New Yorker published a poem deriding it, and [TV news anchor] Walter Cronkite refused to read it on the air. Not because he'd be promoting rolled-up lung rot, but because the slogan used the word "like" instead of "as."
You see, the use of the word "like" as it appears in that slogan was seriously frowned upon back in the day. The word "like" had two uses: You could use it as a preposition (to directly compare two nouns) or as a regular old verb. You couldn't use it as a conjunction, as in the joining of two clauses in a sentence. When conjunctionating, you were supposed to use "as," as in: Winston tastes good as a cigarette should.
But Winston didn't give a sh*t about their grammar, or about the public outcry, or about a cranky Cronkite. They gave a sh*t about sales, and in that respect, their advertisements worked like a charm. The more people complained, the more Winston ran the ads, and the more people saw the ads and talked about them, the more they wanted those sweet, sweet Winston cancer sticks. Winston even put out playful commercials poking fun at the grammar controversy.
As for the word "like," it also became more popular. And yeah, it continued to piss off English teachers everywhere. But the biggest slap in the face to stuffy grammarians came in 1961, when Merriam-Webster changed the definition of "like" to also make it a conjunction, and cited Winston's usage in their reasoning.
That's why I never recommend Webster's if someone asks me which dictionary to buy. Get American Heritage or New Oxford American.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Take what Jim Collins says
to heart. It's not just about bosses; it's about the way you run your groups:
EQ Tip of the Day: Self Awareness Strategy--You feel what you feel; it's what you do that matters. So don't judge your emotions as good or bad. Just try to understand them. What is a particular feeling pointing to?
Coordinating Conjunctions: Use the mnemonic FANBOY to remeber the six of them: for, and, nor, but, or, yet. Use them with commas to connect indepdent clauses.
I am an American, and yet I am a citizen of the world.
Grammar Tips
Conjunctive Adverbs:
Use a semicolon between independent clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb
(e.g., nevertheless, however, additionally, moreover, etc.).
INCORRECT:
They browsed carefully
through reference, however, no clear answer appeared.
Heroes have fallen on
hard times; for instance, the men of Dale.
CORRECT:
Spelling bees were her
specialty; nevertheless, she failed to spell “urbiculture” correctly.
J. M. Barrie is most
famous as the author of Peter Pan; however, I prefer his ghost story "Farewell
Miss Julie Logan".
Life is long; the work
of a scholar, however, is never done.
Why is the however in
the first senctence correctly preceded by a comma and not a semicolon?
Life is long; the work
of a scholar, however, is never done.
Why is preceding the however
with a comma in this sentence incorrect?
They browsed carefully
through reference, however, no clear answer appeared.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Hilda Black Tips
Hilda was a client in
the past, but she chose not to use your tax prep services this year. She
tried to save money by preparing her taxes herself.
You have the conversation
in question recorded, so there is no dispute about what actually was discussed
in the phone conversation in April.
A tax-deferred account
is one in which income can be sheltered until retirement. If you put $2000
in an IRA, for instance, you don't pay any tax on that amount in the year
that you shelter it. But you will pay a tax when you withdraw it when you retire. You don't
pay, though, if you move it into another similar shelter.
You need to find a proactive
approach. Don't be defensive or reactive.
Your grade on this assignment
will depend more on the effectiveness of your sentences. Show me you've
learned something from our discussion of sentences in class.
Best way to keep problematic
words correctly in mind is to memorize model sentences like the ones listed below to use as a template.
The dog often lies here
by the fire.
The dog is lying by
the fire.
The dog lay by the fire
for over two hours.
The dog has lain by
the fire since breakfast.
The counselor's advice
affected my thinking about dropping out of school.
The CEO effected significant
changes in budgetary policy within a week of taking office.
His chewing me out had
quite a negative effect on my motivation.
I don't like your affect,
you ill-tempered, surly grump.
The team comprises fifteen
members.
Fifteen members compose
(not comprise) the team.
The team is composed
of (not comprised of) fifteen members.
Terms you should know:
Decorum: Knowing the appropriate way to behave in a particular social situation.
Credibility: The measure of the messenger's believeability. It's the measure of the audience's receptivity to his or her message.
Practical Wisdom: The ability to solve problems and get things done, to be a savvy player.
Reluctant Conclusion: When you want another conclusion, but the evidence forces you to accept the one you are presenting.
Strategy: How you organize your resources to accomplish your objectives.
Conciseness: Writing that does not waste your reader's time. (It's not about short vs. long.)
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Memo Punctiilio. Ok, are we ready to get back in the saddle? A few tips about assignment 1: I will be going over it in class on Tuesday, but you might want to check out the material on page 11 in the coursepack, especially regarding openings. I would like the opening you use in your summary to be concise and relate only to background, purpose, and preview. Background relates to the primary issue you identified in your analysis (Your boss asked you to summarize the article), purpose relates to the primary objective (see below), and preview relates to the subtopics that will organize the body or your text. See if you can work with this idea in your opening.
Quiz 1. A reminder to be in class on time, because it will be the first thing we do, and it will take only ten minutes. Know how to do the three steps I taught in class about how to identify who or whom. Be familiar with the terms that are defined on this website. And review the questions in the study guide.
***
Terms to be familiar with:
Social Intelligence: The ability to pick up quickly what the norms and expectations (the decorum) are within a particular group setting.
Emotional Intelligence: The ability to identify and manage your own emotions and those of others.
Primary Audience: the audience for which a message is designed to get a response on a thinking, feeling, or action level.
Secondary Audience: any audience that might be reading your message but from whom you don't expect a response.
Primary Objective: the basic goal to put out the fire, i.e., to deal reactively to a problem that demands your attention. It is stated in your opening paragraph.
Secondary Objective: when a message presents you with an opportunity that goes beyond putting out the fire, the the achievement of that goal would be your secondary objective. It is not always explicitly stated in a message, but when it is, it is almost always done in the close.
***
One of the great American commonplaces is that America is the land of opportunity and social mobility. Is that really true? Here's what Nobel Prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz says about it in a Salon interview. Substitute the word "commonplace" where LP says "myth".
LP: There’s a persistent myth that America is still the “land of opportunity.” Why is that myth so prevalent, even in the face of so much evidence to the contrary?
JS: Well, there are two reasons for this. One of them is that the myth is so much part of our sense of identity as Americans that it is devastating for us to give it up — for us to say we are less of a land of opportunity than old ossified Europe. It was one of the things we were most proud of, and clearly, it’s not true. When you have something that’s so inconsistent with your self image, it’s really, really hard to face the facts.
The second reason has to do with the nature of evidence. Everybody knows examples of people who make it from the bottom or the middle-bottom to the top. And our press talks about them. The media calls attention to the successes. But when they call attention to successes they don’t say this is one of a million or one of a thousand. In fact, the reason they write about it is because they are so unusual. If most people did it, it wouldn’t be an unusual story. So, in a sense that’s how our media works. It encourages us to think of the exceptions as the norm.
Analysis Hints:
Use the Problems, Goals, Audience format I put up on the board and just
fill in the blanks.
When you are trying
to define the issues, look at them in this case as being arranged concentrically,
with some issues more at the periphery influencing the most important
issue in the center.
When defining objectives
think about them in two categories: reactive--what you have to do at
a minimum to put out the metaphorical fires--and proactive--what possibilities
are there to go beyond the status quo ante.
When defining the audience,
the most important element is to define the need, because what you choose
to include in your summary should be determined by its usefulness in
meeting your boss's need.
Outline hints: You
need to have at least two major subtopic headings structuring the body
of your outline. These subtopics should be equal in importance. The biggest
challenge in this part of the assignment is envision how you will make
this document into a useful tool. I'll have more to say about that on Tuesday.
Remember, your goal in
this assignment is to create a document that will be more useful or helpful
for your boss than the original article.
***
Can you find the mistake?
It's certainly possible that there was some other motivation--there
is such a thing as palace intrigue--but for the most part it's safer
to assume that in a crisis a president isn't going to appoint someone whom
he thinks is making things worse.
Is this sentence correct?
In the season 2 opener, a convalescing Carrie and Congressman Brody must reckon with who they really are.
Me,
Myself, and I. "Don't say myself if you mean me or I. Me
is a perfectly good and acceptable word. I think myself is misused so
often because as people are speaking, they become uncertain about whether
the word they want to use is me or I. They retreat into myself because
they think that's correct in every circumstance." Read
more.
Thursday, June 27, 213
If you are enjoying Thank you for Arguing, you will also enjoy this artcle about Jay Heinrich in Fast Company, entitled "Screwing Up Could Be Your Best Career Move." It's an article about flipping problems into opportunities, the role of apologies, and controling the tense--the theme of Chapter 3, which you should be reading now. Check it out.
***
Proactive with
Mr. Goodwin
Dear Mr. Goodwin:
I am writing in response to your August 15 email
questioning the $108.00 in overdraft fees charged against your account.
Upon receiving your email we investigated to learn why, and we learned that an apparent miscommunication between you and the United Oregon Bank led to the imposition of
this fee.
In your email, you mentioned that you had instructed
the United Oregon Bank to transfer $45,000 to your account
here on August 1. It did not, however, make the transfer until August
10--which explains why on August 8 we charged your account for the overdraft.
We value your account with us, Mr. Goodwin. You have been
one of our most reliable and valued customers, and we understand that
miscommunications like this happen from time to time. On this occasion
we are happy to refund to you the $108. But please contact United Oregon
to be sure that they send future transfers on the date you specify.
Perhaps an overdraft line of credit would be appropriate
if you anticipate this kind of miscommunication in the future. You might
also consider consolidating your accounts in such a way as to make these
transfers unnecessary.We’ll have one of our personal bankers contact
you in the next week to see if we can help you to meet your banking needs
in a more streamlined way.
Sincerely,
Note that this revision makes the misunderstanding issue the "crux", and adds a proactive dimension by seeking to flip the problem into an opportunity and move with Mr. Goodwin beyond the status quo ante.
***
Terms You Need to Know:
Tactical Flaw: (Aporia, Dubitatio): Presenting oneself as having weaknesses or peronsal flaws, or being ignorant or in a state of doubt, in order to create a space for your audience to become more engaged or to take more responsibility. Use it to lower expectations or to take a more human, humble stance before your audience, especially if you are perceived by it as arrogant or successful. Clooney Character: "i'm not really the one you would ordinarily talk to about things like this, but . . ." In Al Pacino clip shown in Class 3?
Tactical Concession: In an argument or attempt to persuade, a move to give up a short-term advantage in order to procure one that is long-term. Instead of challenging your opponent's facts or assumptions, you concede
that he is right. This has a disarming effect, and makes him feel that
he has been heard and is well understood. Good example: In Up in the Air, the Clooney character
concedes that his brother-in-law-to-be is right about marriage being pointless.
This allows him to change the subject to focus on a real, concrete choice, which is whether Jim
wants a future in which he is alone and anxious or one in which he will make meaning and memories with a companion he loves.
Commonplace:
values of a community summarized in adages, and cliches. "The
children are our future." "Freedom isn't free." "Everyone
has a right to choose." "Politicians are hypocrites". " Big corporations only care about profit, not people."
Crux: The core energy center of your message. I'll develop what this means in subsequent classes.
Relaxed intensity: The ideal stance any performer takes during a performance. It comprises both a loose, comfortable body posture at the same time as having a mindset that is highly focused and committed to performing the task at hand.
Exposition: presentation of the facts, background information, etc. It's the data dots required to be connected when you want to deliver an insight.
Insight: the experience of "getting it". A common example is getting a joke, but also the experience of understanding, for instance, why you use 'who' in a particular sentence instead of 'whom'. It's also experienced any time you get a satisfying answer to a question or solution for a problem.
Clause: A verbal construction that comprises both a subject and a verb. They come in different varieties. You need to understand the difference between an independent and dependent clause.
Nominative: Case for nouns and pronouns that function as subjects in clauses.
Accusative: Case for nouns and pronouns that function as objects of verbs and prepositions.
Static/dynamic: Polarity defined by spectrum from stable and unchanging to moving and developing.
Analysis/synthesis: Polarity defined by, on the on hand, breaking things down to understand the whole in its parts, and on the other, the process of understanding by assembling the parts into an integrated, functioning whole.
Dan Pink video clip on motivation watched in Class 1:
June 18, 2013
Welcome to Strategic
Communications for Summer Quarter 2013.
I'll be using this space as the quarter progresses
to summarize and amplify points that
I make in class with verbal commentary, video,
and other supplementary materials. Check in at least once a week
to make sure you're up to speed.
It will probably
take me until next week to
get all the relevant links updated, but the ones that are live now
if
you
want
to get
a feel
for the resources available here.
The
assignment links will be activated the class day I introduce the
assignment. Even
if you miss class, you should know what the assignment is.
