The Secret To Being Memorable And Persuasive

The Secret To Being Memorable And Persuasive:

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Cut the adverbs?

According to Stephen King, The Adverb Is Not [Our] Friend.

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Language: Proper nouns; choice of vocabulary; show, don’t tell

Grammar isn’t the only thing that affects your language grade – between two scripts of similar grammatical competence, there may still be differences in the language mark awarded. With language, there are many features of good writing that you may encounter, and chances are, not all of them will be appropriate to your style of writing – or the style that you’re aiming to achieve. The trick is to read widely, take note of different styles of writing and different techniques used, and most importantly, to try them out and figure out what works best for you.

This post considers three techniques that I find useful – the use of proper nouns, choosing appropriate vocabulary and using imagery.

Consider the following introductory sentence:

Every day, millions of people throw their empty plastic water bottles in the bin, wrecking serious damage on our environment.

Proper nouns

Substitute nouns for proper nouns instead:

Every day, millions of people throw their empty Evian and Fuji bottles in the bin, wrecking serious damage on our environment.

Choice of vocabulary (that you already know)

There’s definitely value in improving your vocabulary – but that’s another issue. This technique involves working within your existing vocabulary, considering synonyms that you already know, and picking the one that best conveys your point.

Every day, millions of people toss their empty Evian and Fuji bottles in the bin, wrecking serious damage on our environment.

Show, don’t tell (general vs. specific)

The idea behind this technique is to paint a picture for your reader, and help your reader really ‘see’ what you’re saying. It often involves being more specific about what big, general ideas mean, and what (in this case) ‘wrecking serious damage on our environment’  looks like.

Every day, millions of people toss their empty Evian and Fuji bottles in the bin. Not only does this fill our limited landfills at an alarming rate, their consumption spurs demand – often in countries thousands of miles (worth of transportation pollutants) away from the producer.

Task

Look at any of your previous essays or any written work that you have done (introductions are good places to start). Edit one paragraph by incorporating the three techniques mentioned above.

Language: Similes

“…meeting new people can feel like trying to solve emotional quadratic equations…”
-Thought Catalogue

Language: Similes

“I know I had some bouts with untreated depression and I was addicted to boys like someone had liquefied them and shot them into my veins […]” – Thought Catalogue

George Orwell, on Writing

In his essay, “Politics and the English Language“,  George Orwell presents us with five rules on writing:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

I think the last rule is crucial. This blog presents many recommendations and “rules”. But we must not fall into the trap of mindless, unthinking rule-following, because that may be our downfall. As in the case of language, when it comes to answering a GP essay question, rules are mere guidelines. We must always ask: is this the exception to the rule? And when we think that it might be, we must be bold enough to break the rules. Because the fact is, there are exceptions to every rule – and that includes this one.

Language: Triplets

Using sets of three is one stylistic feature that we can use in essays:

It is all in the game. The determination in training, the exhilaration of success, the celebration of teamwork.
-Ezra Aik, 2T13

We train so that we can get faster, we train so that we can get stronger, we train do that we can get faster.
-Ezra Aik, 2T13

Note: Here, the sentence stem, “we train so that we can” is repeated (three times) to good effect – triplet repetition is a subset of triplets.

Language: Avoid writing “he/she”

Using “he/she” in your writing looks clumsy and inelegant.

Personally, I use “they” as the gender neutral pronoun, even if I’m using it as a singular (rather than plural) pronoun. Oxford Dictionaries explains it as follows:

The word they (with its counterparts them, their, and themselves) as a singular pronoun to refer to a person of unspecified sex has been used since at least the 16th century. In the late 20th century, as the traditional use of he to refer to a person of either sex came under scrutiny on the grounds of sexism, this use of they became more common. It is now generally accepted in contexts where it follows an indefinite pronoun such as anyone, no one, someone, or a person, as in anyone can join if they are a resident and each to their own. In other contexts, coming after singular nouns, the use of they is now common, though less widely accepted, especially in formal contexts. Sentences such asask a friend if theycould helpare still criticized for being ungrammatical. Nevertheless, in view of the growing acceptance of they and its obvious practical advantages, they is used in this dictionary in many cases where he would have been used formerly.

Language: Personal voice & Essay structure: CA-R structure

This piece illustrates a strong “you’re wrong” personal voice, which works well for the CA-R structure that is adopted. The parts in bold highlight how this strong personal voice is achieved.

Does the modern world place too much reliance on technology? (2003)

It is not true that far too much reliance is on technology in the modern world today. One can only say that we rely on technology too much if this reliance has detrimental effects on us. Two cases come to mind, one, if technology fails, we are helpless. Two, we use technology to do even mundane tasks which we can do by ourselves, and technology can fail us in this aspect.

First, saying that we are helpless if technology fails us, such as being unable to contact people if we lose our phones, is flawed. This is akin to saying that if planes did not exist, we would not be able to travel to other countries [1]. It is merely a cause and effect statement, since in no conceivable way can technology fail us to such an extent that we are truly helpless. Lose a handphone? Ask to borrow someone else’s. In essence, it does not matter since it will not happen.

Next, if people say that we use technology too much because we are using it for mundane tasks, like farming, it is because it is better than us at doing this. Yes, it can fail, but so can humans, often to a larger degree and therefore having larger, more dangerous ramifications than if a machine fails. For example, a combine harvester versus fifty men. It would not be unreasonable to say, the fifty men would tire out way before the harvester breaks down. Therefore, we do not rely too much on technology, instead using it to augment and improve ourselves

– Joel Ng, 2T28

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Additional comments:

[1] The use of an extreme example shows the author’s attitude – that he disagrees strongly with the previous argument. This adds to the strong personal voice.

Language: Common mistakes

It is common to see “As such” at the beginning of a sentence. This is incorrect. The correct usage is given below:

as such

1. as being what is indicated; in that capacity: An officer of the law, as such, is entitled to respect.

2. in itself or in themselves: The position, as such, does not appeal to him, but the salary is a lure.

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