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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

C. S. LEWIS on writing, FROM ME TO WE

C. S. Lewis once wrote to an American boy with advice on clear writing.  Interesting comments:

1.  Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

2.  Always prefer the clean direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

3.  Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”

4.  In writing, don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please, will you do my job for me.”

5.  Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

(From: Letters to Children, Dorsett & Mead, editors, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1985)
 

FROM ME TO WE by John Maxwell - Watched this 13 minute video while on the treadmill today and found it really interesting.  This is the first in a series of videos which come with free worksheets.  John said it is important to move from management to leadership.  Why? Management assumes everything is going to stay the same; leadership assumes everything is going to change.  A good leader will be able to stay ahead of change.  This is critical considering how fast things are moving in our world today.

Leaders need to carefully assemble a team.  He said carefully because it is important to have  a group of people around you that will not compete but will complete you. How do we decide who should be on our team? Critical attributes of each person should include: Compatibility, Experience, Like Values and Loyalty.  Good stuff!  Click HERE to view.

Who is John Maxwell anyway?  Click HERE for his bio.

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