I is for Impression

Here's another way to phrase statements that will help you get past the automatic defenses we all raise when we hear something we don't like.  The technique is to leave room for you listeners to disagree with you and still be right.  Leave them the opportunity to contradict you without feeling they are creating a confrontation.  There is a straightforward way to do this:  Make a statement that presents your point of view and your reasons, rather than a flat pronouncement.  You can utilize a form of the "I" statement for this.

There are times when I observe a student in my classroom who makes very little eye contact, frequently looks at the door, and fidgets quite a lot.  One way to sum up the situation in speaking with the student could be to say "You're not paying attention."  You can imagine the replies I would get - anything from "Yes I am" to "I already know this stuff."

This is usually my approach:  "I get the impression you have other things on your mind."  If the student asks for a reason I can mention the behaviors I observed.  In the case of at least one student I was dealing with a case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but I found this out because the student was willing to open up to me.  I doubt I would have reached that point by verbally slapping him at our first meeting.

The pattern to follow is to allow part of your statement to be subjective.  Rather than state that such-and-such is a fact, you state why you think is true.  The listener can then bring other facts to light, or correct your reasoning without thinking they are flatly contradicting  you.  You have practically invited them to respond.  The lines of communication remain open.

Give them Space

You're about to make a very important point.  You're sure you're right.  You're expecting some opposition.  Use my third principle to get a fair hearing.  It's the principle of the Tentative Statement.

Before I explain, I want to make clear that I am not asking you to ignore facts or compromise principles.  I am suggesting that you avoid statements that will allow for no retreat. Use phrases like "because of x I think y."  Your listeners can then bring other facts to your attention, or offer another interpretation of your facts.  This will avoid some of the raised voices and flat contradictions you might otherwise encounter.

You've worded things in such a way that you are not making pronouncements from on high.  You've created a dialog.  If someone doesn't like something you say they are bound to talk about it.  They may as well say their piece directly to you.

Easier to Say is Easier to Remember

I'd like to help you step away from a tendency that is common among beginning speakers.  This is the tendency to go too far.  When you say too much you make it hard for listeners to rememmber.

I have a lot of chances to visit the classrooms of new college instructors.  They've got large textbooks and short quarters.  They often feel pressured to talk about everything in the textbook during a lecture to make sure they've "covered" everything.  This would be an admirable goal if it weren't based on a fallacy.
  

The underlying assumption of a long lecture is that if the teacher has said a thing the students know it.  I doubt that more than one percent of us could repeat a 20-minute lecture word-for-word 10 minutes after we have heard it.  So we clearly don't fully know what was said, let alone how to understand or apply it.

The solution makes life easier for you as the presenter and for the listener.  You take big ideas you want to communicate and explore them, leaving out some details or related ideas that are lower priority.  Spend more of your presentation time building meaning for your listeners.  You do this by helping them to apply the concept they have just learned through questions and examples.

Let's use Maslow's hierarchy as an example.  You could show a Powerpoint slide with all the levels of Maslow's hierarchy and their definitions, reading each to your listeners, then explaining further, helping them catch up on some much-needed sleep.  Or, you could ask, "How many of you ever gave up trying to make dinner because you were so tired, and didn't eat anything until breakfast the next day?  Some needs outweigh others and must be satisfied first.  Abraham Maslow described types of needs and which order they must be satisfied in."   You could then ask them to contribute to a list of needs and rank them.  Once they've got the general idea they will easily understand Maslow's work and can assimilate the details.

To apply my own principle here:  Just remember to give the big ideas in a simple way.  This makes them easy to remember.  Details come in time.

New World Errors

I'm really surprised by the amount of people who make these common errors:

Using apostrophes to form plurals.  That would make this last sentence read "Use apostrophe's for their plural's."  I am amazed that seeing a few other people make this mistake sways them from everything they were taught for years in school.  This seems to arise from the fact that we have seen a lot of advertising material in the last few years that use the abbreviations CD's and MP3's among others, but the apostrophe only applies to plurals of abbreviations like these initials, and it is OPTIONAL.  So it is really not even need there.

Trying to extend a word by multiplying the last letter of the word, instead of the last letter of a word that is pronounced.  If you have decided to marry someone you might write "She is the ONNNNNNNE!" but not "She is the ONEEEEEEE!"  Better yet, stop trying to write like you are speaking.  Writing has its own virtues.  Exploit them.  And yes, in this context its should have no apostrophe.

The world's only forensic lexicologist draws unfavorable conclusions about linguistic abilities when he sees these errors.

You Don't Say So

I've noticed a new trend in extemporaneous speech.  It's the habit of start a statement or conversation with the word so.  I've noticed myself doing it, and I am making a conscious effort to stop, just as if I were saying "uh" frequently.  My technique for now is simply to pause half a beat before speaking, to give myself time to filter the word out if I was about to use it.
  
The problem is that so is a conjunction, and should usually be used to join.  When you start out with it there is nothing to join, unless you are building your sentence on something someone else just said.

Yes, if you pick up this habit you will sound trendy, but you will also sound shallow.  Do not let the crowd or a habit control your speech.  While I was writing this little entry I found myself ready to type "so" at least four times, but quick reflection helped me make other choices.  It didn't take long to edit my phrasing, but it helped me stop going to my default.  Now I've got a reflective practice I can use for other areas of my writing and speaking.  I hope you will try it too.

On Plagiarism

Due to the nature of my work and personal life I often come across plagiarism, usually because I am the one responsible for documenting and responding to it.  Yesterday it came to my attention in two ways.  I found the substance of a pastor’s Sunday sermon point-for-point in a commentary, and Melania Trump is accused of copying parts of her speech from Michelle Obama.  One article about the Trump situation lists all the accusations of plagiarism against the current crop of politicians, and I found a news article about a college professor who committed massive amounts of plagiarism.  He had a very lucrative contract teaching police officers how to do their jobs.

Academics will tell you that the main reason students plagiarize is to save time, so they encourage students to start their work well in advance of due dates.  I estimate that about half of the students in my classes who plagiarize are not rushed, they are intellectually lazy and, of course, dishonest.

Just to get a definition out of the way, I’m not referring to a botched citation format.  I am using the term plagiarism to mean deliberately representing the ideas or work of another as your own, or at the very least knowing they are not your own and failing to give credit where it is due.

The first thing that comes to my mind when realizing our politicians are comfortable stealing the work of others is what that tells us about the taxes we can expect.  The next is that these people do not have a lot to offer us.  They are either not smart enough, not ambitious enough, or not visionary enough to craft their own messages.  They are not secure enough to let others get some of the credit for their speech.   And they certainly are not highly scrupulous or careful of details.

Now we come to the case of the pastor.  Following the practice of forensic lexicology, I determined that his sermon material was not original.  A quick search on the Internet took me to his source, where I found that with the exception of adding one example from a movie and one from his personal life (or was that really someone else’s story, too?) he was paraphrasing every point, examples included, from a commentary on Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi.  There are three problems with this.

First, the work in question is copyright protected.  Yes, I checked.  It would have been bad enough if this was a book of sermons for sale but it was not.

Second, this is a symptom of a spiritual problem.  I have suspected for some time that most of his sermons were not original.  Since the preaching duties rotate at our church, he only has to preach about twenty sermons per year.  As lead pastor, I expect him to be a man close to God.  He should be learning and growing every day, and have things that he wants to convey to his congregation.  If he cannot do this a handful of times per year I wonder about his faith.

Third, there is deception involved.  Because the actual authors referred to the original language texts, cultural situations, and related quotes from church history, this message created the appearance of great scholarship where there was none.  To get ready for the sermon series, the pastor also had some members of the congregation produce a study guide to the book of Philippians.  This is a great aid, to be sure, but it implies that there has been some massive study underway, when in reality this man only needed to recite a few pages from someone else’s book.

So much for “Provide things honest in the sight of all men”. (Romans 12:17)

That's What Mr. Lincoln Said

 Since this post is being published on President's Day I wanted to reflect on one particular speech. I had to memorize it in elementary school and deliver in front of a crowd. It was considered a required part of curriculum, at least back then.

I am referring the Lincoln's Gettysburg address. It was delivered at the dedication of the cemetary at the site of the battle at Gettysburg. He was preceded by another speaker, former President of Harvard and United States Senator Edward Everett. Everett spoke for around two hours, which was not as unusual as it might sound today. Think of the friend you know who tunes in to their favorite talk show for three hours a day. 

But Lincoln only spoke for about two minutes. He summed up the point of the conflict, but he also pointed out that the Declaration of Independence was written with the premise that "all men are created equal", at at time when the Constitution but not the Declaration was referred to in arguments over slavery. 

What Lincoln thought would be a set of forgettable remarks became an immortal message.

For more on the Gettysburg Address see the article on History.com .