Writing Today

by Karon Thackston © 2005 .copywritingcourse.com I do site reviews. Needless to say, I see a lot of Web copy. One thing that always befuddles me is the lack of focus many site pages have. It’s as if the writer assumes the site visitor will read the copy and automatically know what to do next. The fact is you have to know what action you want visitors to take before you get them to take that action. That means knowing what the preferred action you want visitors to take is, before you write the copy. Think About It Before you pen one word (for the Web or any other marketing medium), stop and think. “After reading this copy, what - specifically - do I want my site visitors to do?” Maybe you want them to click deeper into the site. Perhaps you want them to buy right then and there. It could be that you’d like them to call to discuss your product or service. Make a donation. Subscribe. Download. There are thousands of possible actions. Give some consideration to the question above and choose the action you most want your visitors to take. Signposts Point the Way The next step is to include signposts along the way so your visitors understand what they’re supposed to do once they’ve read your copy. Leaving verbal clues helps prepare your visitors to take action once the time comes. For instance, if you run a software site that offers a free trial download, you can prepare your visitors to get the trial version all throughout your copy by mentioning “free download” or “free trial.” Your copy might read: Email Lock software allows you to send emails and attachments securely through encrypted channels. With the free download, you’ll discover just how easy it is to protect your messages and attachments from spying eyes. It’s ultra-easy to use. You’ll send emails just as you always have, and your recipients won’t know anything has changed, either. The free trial version is fully functional and allows you to experience all the flexibility and simplicity of sending safe and encrypted emails and attachments. What’s happening as your site visitors read? They see phrases like, “With the free download, you’ll discover…” OK, where’s the download button? Then they read, “The free trial version is fully functional…” Wonderful! I want it! How do I download the free trial? They begin looking for ways to take the action you want them to take. So tell them how! Ready? And… Action! Your job is just like a movie director’s job. The director has to motivate and encourage his actors. He tells them why their characters are so important to the film. The director helps the actors understand the emotions involved with the parts they are playing. Then, once he has them all primed, he calls for action. That’s what you should do in your copy. Guide your visitors. Lead and nudge them in the right direction. Show them signposts that point to the action you want them to take. Then call for them to take that action. Once you give your copy focus, once you define a goal for the copy and an action for your visitors, you’ll find it easier to write copy that converts. Karon Thackston is a veteran copywriting pro who specializes in SEO copy. If your copy isn’t getting results, let Karon teach you how to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at .copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to check out Karon’s latest ebook “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at .copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Term Paper , Custom Essays and Project Outsourcing service. “>Introduction “Rhetoric is the art of discovering, in a particular case, the available means of persuasion.” –Aristotle Every single human requires the art of persuasion at some point in their lives. As a child, one might use persuasion for the attainment of a toy or as an adult for the acquiring of other objects. A person here might whine, throw tantrums, but this behavior never seems to attain what is wanted by the person and just makes things worst. What one needs here is persuasion as it is the only method that can be sued by one to achieve what he wants. According to definition, “Persuasion is a form of influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not only logical) means. It is a problem-solving strategy and relies on “appeals” rather than force” (Persuasion, p.1). Techniques It is to be noted here that when writing an essay, a person needs to use persuasion so as to make people conform to the ideas that he or she presents in his essay. To write a persuasive essay, first of all the writer needs to have an argument. The argument has to be one-sided and the other side of the argument or the opposite answer is disregarded, but another fact is that a persuasive essay is never related to the pros and cons of the topic, but general facts related to its factuality. According to sources, “It can’t be a fact. If you were to choose as your topic, “Vipers are dangerous,” you wouldn’t have to persuade anyone of that. However, if your topic was, “Vipers should be eliminated from the animal kingdom,” then you would have presented an opinion that could be debated. Your persuasive essay will focus on only one side

Online essay is a piece of writing which needs to be organized to give it a professional look and attitude. It stands for creating a space for the topics to flourish and throw light at the certain implications which it tries to establish and makes a statement. It can be of various topics and generally the art of experts. It serves as a great help for people with urgent requirements which would affect their success and decision making abilities. Under pressure, here is none who can perform at the level best. These papers are tailor made to suit ones requirements and can be amended at will to make it appropriate. The primary element would be to get a good topic for proceeding with the paper. Ones general interest comes in the picture which can be further accelerated with joint sessions and brainstorming abilities of one. Once the topic is finalized by taking into consideration the merits and demerits of a particular subject, it is taken up for further enhancement and compliance. The introduction of the paper must discuss the primary elements which the topic is destined to discuss and the flow of the main elements of the play. It must clearly set out the scene for the efficient delivery of the topic and the ultimate goal of the paper. The intention of the paper must directly be reflected so that there is enough generation of interest for one to take it up. The body of the paper must establish all the instances drawn and all the concepts which one desires to establish throughout the paper. It must be divided into sections and subsections so that the essential components are made a walkthrough and given enough importance to its creation. The essential components must be evaluated at this stage and must be represented appropriately with facts and figures so that it gets really a concrete ground for making a decision. Inclusion of figures, graphs and pictorial elements are solely important in getting the understanding and inner meaning of the topic clear. It adds the visual ratio to any topic and communication gets quite effective and efficient. Pictures speak a lot about itself and do not entail one to integrate deeply into the text for understanding of the desired outcome. It also stands for effective delivery and better knowledge transition. The conclusion must grasp the points to be made quite uniquely and would stand for all the statements made in the very arena of thoughts and ideas established in the paper. The primary objective of the paper must be to serve the crucial elements and variables of the topic and the appropriate statements. Some of the thoughts and ideas must be strongly stated at the end of the paper to achieve the goals. Once the paper is completed it must be submitted with an html application and can be given access by having a security mechanism in the websites. One can enter the sites using their login credentials and access the pages. Online essay can be composed for clients with all requirements so that they stand at par with the best among them and make a good use of their time and effort. Their schedules can be managed by us in creating excellent papers to suit all their requirements. Gabriel Rise is an expert writer at essay writing and a writing counseling department expert at online essay writing. The assistance of their writers is an invaluable input in your future professional growth.EssayCapital.com is dedicated to providing a English essay writing service that is both top-quality and affordable.

When I entered Weepasa’s room the next morning, he asked me to sit down and immediately began talking about insight, “Insight results from a concentrated mind that is aware of everything it comes in contact with, but it clings to nothing. Insight is not a focused concentration centered the breath in the nose or the breath in the solar plexus. Insight is an open awareness that is bright and expansive, where you will notice everything that enters your consciousness, but you will hold onto nothing. Insight is an intense, open concentration of the sense fields where you will wait in eager anticipation of anything that might appear. When something does make contact, your awareness will be so refined that whatever emerges is immediately reflected back to where it arose, as if your mind is a clear looking glass retaining nothing. Nothing, absolutely nothing is held in the mind. Pay close attention to these instructions, because without insight, you will be as defenseless as a rabbit when you meet the dragon.” “But why have I spent years concentrating on my nose and solar plexus,” I asked, confused. “Why didn’t I just start with this open awareness you talk about in the beginning?” “Because the breath is one of only a handful of special concentration objects that lead to the mastering of the Great Calms,” he replied. “Concentrating on a tree, a candle, or the moon will never develop the Calms, and if your goal is the key, these Calms must be mastered first before going on to investigation and insight practice. You could never maintain your mind as a clear mirror without them, and if the calms are not mastered, then the investigation and insight will be weak instead of profound, and total liberation will be impossible.” I had to admit that exceptional changes had occurred within me that could have never taken place without the calms. The calms, as well as investigation, were incredibly powerful. “Therefore,” he continued, “the training you will receive here is a refinement of the preliminary powers of concentration and investigation which had to be developed first. Now I will move you to insight where your object of concentration will be whatever freely comes into your consciousness. Here, you will open your mind and let everything and anything flow in, not choosing, rejecting or desiring anything. Can you see the difference between insight and concentration?” “I am a bit confused,” I admitted. “Yes, I know.” Weepasa responded, Allow me put it this way; Concentration involves focusing your mind on a narrow, single object. Insight involves an expansion of your mind. When practicing insight, your mind will remain a clear, bright mirror with no agenda, there is no choosing of what to narrowly consider; everything is welcomed. You will be aware of what you are thinking and know every thought, but beyond that, you will know the knower who is watching all the thoughts, emotions, and feelings. You will sense the slightest movement of mind - each and every thought, and the depth of every emotion, but you won’t hold them. “A delicate balance is involved here, for the mind must think, just as the heart must beat, but now you will see every moment of the mind. Likewise, all physical feelings of emotion - the pain, the joy, the contentment - these will be permitted to continue until they exhaust themselves as they always will, but they will be monitored as well. Watch them dispassionately, with no judgment against or desire for. You are now free to allow the mind and emotions to drift where they may, but you will be aware of every little tug and pull. Make no analyses of the thoughts or emotions that appear, merely watch and wait, and if nothing is there, just abide in that silent place that occurs between all the activity; the place from which everything arises. Don’t make the beginner’s mistake of thinking; ‘What am I feeling right now?” Questioning yourself like this involves conscious thinking and is incorrect practice. Concentration and investigation practice involved ‘somebody’ doing something; somebody going to an object and staying concentrated on it, or somebody investigating something. In insight practice, that somebody disappears. There is no going or looking, there is only what arises. There is just ‘being.’ What was he saying? “That I shouldn’t try to think nor try not to think? Just sit?” This seemed too simple, not much different from normal thinking, but was it really the same? No, as I thought about it, it wasn’t. I could now see that it was far beyond that. “What I am explaining is sustained, uninterrupted, and non-discriminatory mindfulness,” said the master. “If the mindfulness is broken, you will never attain insight. Only this sustained, unbroken awareness will bring about the penetrating, non-discriminating concentration required to reveal the ‘no self,’ or the emptiness of the mental and physical processes. This is what we do here. Unfortunately, the things of which I speak are unintelligible to those who have not experienced the inner work. How could they begin to understand the immensity of the Great Source within us?” He was certainly correct. If someone would have stopped me in the streets of my kingdom before the wars and said, “You are not mindful!” I would have called them a fool and thrown them in the dungeons. I of course always thought that I was extremely mindful. But that kind of mindfulness was different, entirely a product of my intellect, and now I understood the difference. For some reason, it had taken me a long time to grasp all of this, for I could never comprehend spiritual things quickly and had to plod along. Fortunately, I was endowed with a certain amount of stubbornness that apparently is required in the beginning of this work for people like me, that saw me through, but I could already see that at some point, surrender was inevitable and the stubbornness had to go. (To be continued) (hr) E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, .SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-nine years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit .AYearToEnlightenment.com

We work in a global environment - one that changes every day. Miscommunication and unclear business writing can cost your company business or create misunderstandings among coworkers around the globe. The following tips and guidelines can help you avoid common errors in communication. 1. Avoid references to time of day or year, as coworkers around the globe will be in different time zones and different seasons. Rather than saying “this evening”, say “at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time”. Rather than saying “next winter”, say “January 25th.” 2. If many of your coworkers are in English-speaking countries, or have been greatly influenced by British culture, consider adopting English spelling (i.e., “colour” vs. “color”, or “metre” vs. “meter”). 3. Become familiar with the holiday and vacation schedules of the group you communicate with. For example, many countries have an informal expectation of two weeks’ holiday in August. Be careful in requesting responses or action during these times. 4. Avoid jargon and slang in communications. If you reference information from pop culture, be sure the reference is understandable to all. 5. Use simplified language and common words. 6. Many cultures have high expectations for following the rules of etiquette. Err on the side of politeness, and be cautious with written confrontation. 7. When videoconferencing or talking on the phone, talk clearly and slowly. Look for verbal and physical clues to ensure you are being understood. Ask questions to be sure your message is heard. 8. Learn other cultures’ business terms and jargon, and use them properly in communications. 9. For complex communications, consider hiring a professional consultant, communicator, or business writer, such as Pearl Writing Services. With a little extra effort, your communications will shine, and will be clear and understandable to all. Copyright 2007 Pearl Writing Services Pearl Writing Services is a freelance writing company specializing in web content and articles, communications, press releases, and creative writing. Our official blog is .pearlwriting.blogspot.com Contact us at .pearlwriting.com or awdueasbcglobal.net.

Book marketing is something is something that many authors do not get. Being an author is more than putting words on paper in an organized manner. Being an an author is about selling books too. If you do not sell books, then being an author becomes nothing more than journaling. A good book marketer is not shy or afraid of telling people about their book. Book marketing is something that many authors just do not get. Others, the rich ones, know that being an author is more than putting words on paper in an organized manner. Being an author is about selling books too. If you do not sell books, then being an author becomes nothing more than journaling. Sorry if that sounds harsh but it is true. So what does being a good book marketer entail? First and foremost a good book marketer is not shy or afraid of telling people about their book. Telling people about your book does not have to mean standing on center stage at the local fair and holding it up like a prize. It can be a bit more subtle. Here are some tools you can use to successfully market your book and become one of those ‘rich authors.’ Website. A website is a great place to direct folks to when you are talking to them. Now you are not ’selling’ your book, you are sending them to a place where they can learn more about your book, your information, and even about you. Article writing. You already know that writing a book makes you the expert however writing article not only enhances your credibility; it sends people in search of your book. Place your website address in your article bio and you will sell tons of books. Press releases. There are many opportunities to send a press release; when you are having a book signing, when a notable expert provides a review for your book, when you release your book to the general public. Send, at a minimum, a press release when your book is released and available for sale. Associations and organizations. Online and offline networking can be a huge business boost. Online you can network by joining a few forums that are relevant to your books topic and offering helpful advice. You can also host a forum on your own website. Offline, you can join organizations relevant to your books topic. These organizations not only offer you a chance to promote your book in their publications, you may have the opportunity to host seminars, lectures, workshops or just network with people that may not only be interested in purchasing your book but may turn into valuable partners. Do not forget to market your book to bookstores, book catalogs, tradeshows, and libraries. After all…where else do people find books? Okay, the truth is we find our books in all sorts of places and the majority of books are purchased online so do not forget about Amazon.com but also do not forget about that specialty store in town that may end up selling thousands of copies of your book. For Your FREE MP3 (Value $97.00) How To Make A 6 Figure Income Writing & Publishing Your Own BookGo To: Become A Writer Bob Burnham Entrepreneur, Consultant and Author of “101 Reasons Why You Must Write A Book” For Information on How to Write and Publish your Own Book go to Expert Author : .expertauthorpublishing.com Read More On: Book Marketing

Just like Ida Simpson of Las Vegas, Nevada, you just purchased a set of PLR articles from PLR articles dot com. However, when you did a search on Google, you found that there were 494 other articles on the web that were identicle! What do you do? As you undoubtedly know, PLR articles are one of the quickest ways to get lots of content. In fact, it is so easy a caveman could do it (now where have I heard that before?). However, just like Ida you will soon find that if you use those articles right out of the box, they will actually harm your business. The search engines will soon recognize that your content is the same as many other sites. You will then be close to last in the search engine listings. You might even be banned. So, are all those PLR articles worth anything? Yes, because… Here are three things that can nearly instantly make your article unique according to the search engines: 1) Add an Introductory Paragraph Make up a problem scenario. Look at the scenario in the first paragraph of this article. It was just off the top of my head. But, it made you read the rest (at least up to here). 2) Add a Quote Pick a pertinent and interesting quote that you can insert somewhere in your article like this: ================= You are WHAT you are, You are WHERE you are, because of what you put in your mind. You can CHANGE what you are, You can CHANGE where you are, by changing what you put in your mind. ================= The quote can add interest to your article and the search engines like Ixquick will consider it more unique. You may wish to put the quote at different places in your article if you use it in different places. 3) Change the Ending to the Article Changing the article ending is not quite as vital as the changing the beginning. The reason is, that you normally will also be adding a resource box. And the search engines seem to put more weight on the unique qualitites of the first part of the article. However, it will help you to change the last paragraph to some degree. You can either easily accomplish that by adding another paragraph if that is appropriate. Or you can change the last paragraph. Change the wording of the conclusion. You can make it a better fit with your blog. And you can make it more fitting for the purpose of your website. Whether you are trying to promote a certain product line or your own membership site, the ending is often important to get the response you want. If this sounds too complicated, I would urge you to check out endlessfreeplr.com for unique content on demand. See a unique version of this article at: endlessfreeplr.com/Three_Ways_to_Quickly_Make_Your_PLR_Articles_Unique.php

It’s hard to write a resume. Most of us are not “born salespeople.” Just mentioning the word “sales” usually sends a shiver of fear up our spines. Add to this the fact that we are taught from childhood that it’s not polite to brag about ourselves it’s no wonder that when you’re asked to “sell yourself” on a resume you freeze up like a deer in the headlights. So instead of panicking let’s take a resume apart piece by piece and explain how to write an effective resume. Hopefully this will eliminate some of the fear involved in “selling yourself” on paper. RESUME BASICS (what every resume MUST have) Your name, address and phone number (obviously). But also your email address. Email addresses are where most people tend to go wrong. I have a friend with an email address called “1hottiger” (one hot tiger). While this might be cute among friends, to a prospective employer it shows poor taste, and a lack of maturity (since she’s in her late 40’s). If you don’t have a professional sounding email, create a new one just for your job search. You can get free email addresses on Google, Yahoo or Hotmail. Example of a BAD email address: ImAPartyGirlemail dot com JennysMomemail dot com 2Hot2Handleemail dot com Example of a GOOD email address: MaryMartinemail dot com M.Martinemail dot com Mary.A.Martinemail dot com STYLE When you write a resume avoid using fancy fonts or colored ink. This just makes you look immature. Plus, statistics show that if someone has to struggle to read something they won’t. Which means you’re resume is guaranteed to hit the trash faster than most if you use a script font. Try to make your resume look like a nice letterhead. One thing I do when I write a resume is condense lines by putting my address all on one line and my phone number all the way to the right. Then I separate it all with a nice line to look like professional stationery. Leslie K Phone: (888) 555-0123 123 My Street • Anytown, USA 11223 Email: LeslieKemail dotcom __________________________________________________________________ (hint: If you’ve ever wondered how people put in those dots and long dashes, it’s a simple code. Just hold the ALT key and type a specific number on the number pad (number pad, NOT numbers above the letters) ALT + 0149 for a dot (•) ALT + 0150 makes a dash (-) ALT + 0151 makes a long dash (

by Philip Yaffe If you can tell a joke well, you already possess many of the skills you need to write a persuasive marketing plan, sales letter, financial report, new product proposal, etc. Equally, you already possess many of the skills you need to prepare persuasive speeches and other types of oral presentations. Really? Just think about it. A well-constructed joke perfectly fulfills two critical criteria of persuasive communication: clarity and conciseness. To better understand this, we first need to determine the true meanings of “clarity” and “conciseness”. This can best be done by giving them objective definitions, almost like a mathematical formula. Clarity To achieve clarity - i.e. to ensure that virtually everyone will understand what you are saying - you must do three things. 1. Emphasize what is of key importance. 2. De-emphasize what is of secondary importance. 3. Eliminate what is of no importance. In symbols: CL = EDE To apply the formula, whenever you write you must first decide what really is of key importance, i.e. what are the fundamental ideas you want your audience to take away from your text or discourse? This is not always easy to do. It is far simpler to say that everything is of key importance, so you put in everything you have. But there is a dictum that warns: If everything is important, then nothing is. In other words, unless you first do the work of defining what you really want your audience to know, they won’t do it for you. They will simply get lost in your words and either give up or come out the other end not knowing what it is you were trying to say. What about the second element of the formula, de-emphasize what is of secondary importance? You don’t want key information and ideas to get lost in details. If you clearly emphasize what is of key importance, then whatever is left over is automatically de-emphasized. Finally, you need to eliminate what is of no importance. Why? Because just as you don’t want your key ideas to get lost in details, you certainly don’t want them to get lost in elements that have no business being there in the first place. Conciseness To achieve conciseness, your text or discourse must be as: 1. Long as necessary 2. Short as possible In symbols: CO = LS If you have fulfilled the criteria of “clarity” correctly, you already understand “as long as necessary”. It means covering all the ideas of key importance you have identified, and all the ideas of secondary importance needed to support and/or elaborate these key ideas. Note that nothing is said here about the number of words, because it is irrelevant. If it takes 500 words to be “as long as necessary”, then 500 words must be used. If it takes 1500 words, then this is all right too. The important point is that you actually say everything that really needs to be said. Then what is meant by “as short as possible”? Once again, this has nothing do to with the number of words. It is useless to say at the beginning, “I must not use more than 300 words on this subject”, because 500 words may be the minimum necessary. “As short as possible” means staying as close as you can to the minimum. But not because people prefer short texts and presentations; in the abstract the terms “long” and “short” have no meaning. The important point is, all words beyond the minimum tend to reduce clarity. We should not be rigid about this. If being “as long as necessary” can be done in 500 words and you use 520, this is probably a question of individual style. It does no harm. However, if you use 650 words, it is almost certain that the message will not be completely clear - and your audience will become bored, confused, or lost. In sum, conciseness means saying what needs to be said in the minimum number of words. So how does all of this relate to jokes? If a text or oral presentation fails in its purpose, you often don’t know it until a long time later. Feedback is not instantaneous. If you fail with a joke, you know it immediately. To see how this works in practice, here are two versions of the same joke. Version 1 shows what it would look like by ignoring the formulas for clarity and conciseness; Version 2 shows what it would look like with the formulas properly applied. But a word of warning. Version 1 may become rather tedious, so if you are inclined to fall asleep while reading it, jump directly to Version 2. Version 1 Arthur is taking a trip from Dublin to New York. He gets on the plane at Dublin Airport and straps himself into his seat. The plane takes off. About an hour later, the intercom clicks on. A voice is heard saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. The weather across the Atlantic is clear and calm. But I have to report to you that there has been a malfunction in our number 1 engine and for safety reasons I will have to shut it down. However, let me assure you that there is nothing to worry about. This is a superbly designed, superbly engineered aircraft and we can easily fly on three engines. But I will need to reduce our air speed and I estimate that we will be about a 30 minutes late arriving in New York.” After about another hour’s flying time, the sound of the intercom is heard again. Once again, it is the captain. “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. The weather across the Atlantic is still clear and calm. However, I must report to you a malfunction in our number 2 engine and for safety reasons I will have to shut it down. But once again let me assure you that there is nothing to worry about. This is a superbly designed, superbly engineered aircraft and we can easily fly on two engines. But once again I will have to reduce our air speed and I estimate that we will be about one-and-a-hours late arriving in New York.” About an hour later, it happens again. The intercom clicks on and a voice is heard. “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. The weather across the Atlantic remains clear and calm. However, I must report to that we now also have a malfunction in our number 3 engine and for safety reasons I will have to shut it down. But again let me assure you that there is nothing to worry about. This is a superbly designed, superbly engineered aircraft and we can easily fly on one engine. But once again I will have to reduce our air speed and I now estimate that we will now be about three hours late arriving in New York.” At this point, Arthur lets out a groan. “Good grief, I hope the captain doesn’t have to shut down that fourth engine. Otherwise, we could be up here all night!” Version 2 A plane takes off from Dublin heading to New York. After about an hour, the intercom clicks on and a voice is heard. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I have to report that due to a malfunction we have lost the use of our number 1 engine. But let me assure you that there is nothing to worry about. This is a superbly designed, superbly engineered aircraft. We can easily fly on three engines. However, I will have to reduce speed and I estimate we will be about 30 minutes late arriving in New York.” A bit later the intercom again clicks on. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I have to report that we have also lost use of our number 2 engine. But once again, let me assure you that there is nothing to worry about. This is a superbly designed, superbly engineered aircraft and we can easily fly on two engines. However, I will once again have to reduce speed and I now estimate that we will be about one-and-a-half hours late arriving in New York.” Another bit more times goes by. Once again the intercom clicks on. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I have to report that we have now lost use of our number 3 engine. But once again, let me assure you that there is nothing to worry about. This is a superbly designed, superbly engineered aircraft and we can easily fly on one engine. However, I will again have to reduce speed and I estimate that we will now be about three hours late arriving in New York.” At this point, Arthur lets out a groan. “Good grief, I hope we don’t lose that fourth engine. Otherwise, we could be up here all night!” Version 1 contains 406 words, while Version 2 contains only 298. And I think you will agree that the second version is much funnier. Why? Because it fully respects the formulas for clarity and conciseness, as all good jokes do. Here are two more well-constructed stories. They are not jokes of the “ha-ha” variety, but I am certain they will put a smile on your face. All about Penguins A little girl goes into a library and asks the librarian, “Do you have any books about penguins?” The librarian goes to the shelves and gives her four or five books, which she sits down to read. A few minutes later, she comes up to the librarian’s desk and returns them. “What’s the matter, honey?” the librarian asks. “Don’t you like these books about penguins?” “Oh no,” the little girl replies. “They’re great books! They’re wonderful books. But . . . well, they just tell me much more about penguins than I really want to know.” Why Does It Rain? A little girl (not the same one) asks, “Daddy, why does it rain?” Her father takes her on his knee and explains: “Well, it rains to give water so the grass can grow. And it rains to give water so the flowers can grow. And it rains to give water so the shrubs can grow. And it rains to give water so the trees can grow. Now do you understand why it rains?” “Oh yes, Daddy,” she replies. “But . . . why does it rain on the sidewalk?” Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com). For further information, contact: Philip Yaffe 61, avenue des Noisetiers B-1170 Brussels, Belgium Tel : 32 (0)2 660 0405 phil.yaffeyahoo.com

The best way to cheapen anything is to overuse it … I recall a sports clip from many years ago, where a veteran basketball player near the end of his career was reminiscing about his prime and comparing it to the supporting-cast status he was about to assume with his latest team. He made a comment along the lines of “I’ve been a superstar; it’s fine with me if I don’t have that role anymore.” Perhaps he thought he was being humble. For my part, I thought that if I didn’t remember him from a fairly illustrious college career, I wouldn’t have picked him out of a lineup of one. Superstar? This word took flight in the 1970s, as far as I can tell. It was originally intended to draw a distinction between well-known people and really well-known people, usually from the sports or entertainment industries. However, I think most would agree that the term reached its zenith when Andrew Lloyd-Weber and Tim Rice affixed it to the title of their most famous rock opera, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ Admittedly, a reference like that set the bar quite high for anyone else who might want to be affiliated with the designation. But to me, this is the way it should be. For the past decade or so, especially in the USA, ’superstar’ has been so watered down that even pop dictionaries have begun to pull back on its significance. Any notable of the moment seems to qualify. However, for the most part, unless they’re like the basketball player mentioned above and actually believe the hype, they’re not the root of the diluted definition. That distinction is reserved for our contemporary wordsmiths, the writers and broadcasters of our time. There’s a reason such a seemingly innocuous bit of pedantry merits notice. The Longer Life site promotes factors which can improve your quality of living. To me, that implies that certain standards of competence must be maintained. In the bell curve of daily existence, there must be sentinels whose very actions exemplify and maintain quality in their area of expertise. This is how a culture advances. The impact of wordsmiths in any culture is enormous. Not only do they chronicle every aspect of it, they influence its nature and perceptions. The prominence of their vocations ensures they are very aware of these realities. Thus, there should be little or no tolerance for rendering the tools of their trade — words and grammar — in diminishing contexts. Thus, in this instance, a ’star’ is recognized by anyone who follows his profession. A ’superstar’ is recognized by anyone. David Beckham is a superstar. So is Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Maria Callas. So is Ernest Hemingway. His work is proof that it’s not the tools you use, but how you use them. He’s what Hunter S Thompson and Richard Farina almost were. More importantly, he did his part to keep the bar raised high. That Hemingway immersed himself into every aspect of that word is a backhanded tribute to his zeal for both his times and his craft. It’s what we should expect from a superstar. Copyright 2005 - The Longer Life Group J Square Humboldt is the featured columnist at the Longer Life website, which is dedicated to providing information, strategies, analysis and commentary designed to improve the quality of living. His page can be found at longerlifegroup.com/cyberiter.html and his observations are published three times per week.