Category: good writing

A good vocabulary increases successful communication. It makes it more efficient and sophisticated. Picking the right word cuts down on wordiness. It is thus economical. Things read more authoritatively and thereby it psychologically adds persuasive ethos to your writings. It adds precision and depth.

How, though, do we increase our vocabulary?

Without having a sufficient size, we don’t have much to draw from. My answer is to write down unfamiliar words in a notebook. I’m admittedly not always consistent, but I have begun to do this while reading. When I see a word I don’t know, I look it up, and then write it down. It doesn’t have to be a word I don’t know, actually, just something unfamiliar or unusual. Such a word sometimes gives the air of familiarity when an expert writer places it into a flawless context, yet alone it is actually unfamiliar or unusual. So look it up and write it down.

A thesaurus is a useful tool, though it’s inadequate. Like randomly searching a dictionary, a thesaurus unlikely will help you find a word that represents a complex idea you want to convey but which you cannot simplify to a specific word. That’s why you need to build your mind’s vocabulary.

A benefit of studying traditional logic is that it can improve our writing skills.

Peter Kreeft, in his excellent textbook Socratic Logic, mentions this. But more than logic is required. We need to develop rhetorical skills!

An argumentative essay which happens to be beautifully written needs to be balanced with its “scientific” rigor. It shouldn’t go to either extreme. You want a lively and well-reasoned essay. A good essay needs a “personal” touch to it.

Give the essay some artistic flare. Man is an emotional animal, not only a rational one. Indeed, we are stirred on by the contrary emotions of desire and aversion. We are not Vulcans from Star Trek. It is just to get angry at injustice! But don’t substitute feelings for reason.

Heated polemics are not necessary to arguments, though.

All I’m driving at is that you want to add some of your own emotional flavor to the essay to get an emotional reaction. Cold logic usually is not enough. The syllogism you’re using might not be your own creation, but the wording of it is. Present it artfully. Appeal both to the intellect and emotions.

Aristotle talked about ethos, pathos, and logos. He knew that we appeal to an audience with more than just raw reason. Logos is only a part of the formula. We have to show them that we are competent and ethical; that’s ethos. We need to appeal to their emotions; that’s pathos.

Read great essayists! Read someone like Peter Kreeft. Study his prose with its logos, ethos, and pathos. Or read social theorist Thomas Sowell. He wastes no words. We learn by example; I know I do!

The best writers can write with subtleties, nuances, distinctions.

And this brings me to something that, for whatever reason, blew up on YouTube’s algorithm. (It has around 1,000 views! How does that happen?)

That’s my video on the LOGIC OF WORDS:

There are several benefits of having a journal. That goes without saying. It allows for reflection. You gather your thoughts in a semi-organized way. This can produce a springboard to take your observations and experiences, help you find good and bad patters in them through reflection, and then be a means to produce better wanted results.

For example, if I want to write well, I can write about writing. It would force me to think about writing and how I personally do that activity. Don’t psychologists tell you to talk about your problems? They want you to confront them! Talking about them to someone (or yourself) helps to clarify what they are. It helps you find solutions. Instead of a jumbled up mess of emotions and thoughts, you can organize them. You can set goals and parameters. You can reflect on success and failure.

So that’s what, in small part, I will do here in this journal. I will write about writing. I’ll talk about my own writing, in a personal way, and other times about writing in the abstract.

Yes, I’ll give updates about Amateur Logician content. And, yes, I’ll add information on the trivium, quadrivium, etc. Maybe I’ll sometimes talk about the news. Someone could make a living just pointing out the logical fallacies that media pundits and politicians engage in! Doing that too much, though, would become stale. There’s more to life than politics.

In any case. . .

One of the best ways to intellectually and morally grow is through writing.

@amateurlogician

Writing, Thinking, Classical Education

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