 Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. | |
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Today's Issue
March 9, 2013 | | |
Hello again, subscriber friend!
Converse Like a Journalist, not a Novelist
If you like this issue, please forward it to a friend.
loren@conversationmatters.com
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| Today's Contents | | |
This Week's Contents, March 8, 2013
Words this issue: 1,048 Est. Reading Time: 4 minutes
- Conversation Quotation
- Girl Scout Cookie Sales
- Jest Words
- Resourceville
- Word-a-Week
- Words of Inspiration
- This Week's Article
- Please Post in Social Media
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1. Conversation Quotation
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"I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who."
--Rudyard Kipling |
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2. Girl Scout Cookie Sales | |
I'm guessing that at least a few hundred of my readers know a Girl Scout who is selling cookies at this time of year.
Here's how she can sell more cookies:
Instead of a girl saying "Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?" (It's easy to say, "No, thanks" to that question.) use this approach: "We're raising money to go to summer camp. Would you help me go to camp by buying some of our delicious cookies?" (Much harder to say NO. Why? You're helping out this kid and you can feel good about helping. You're not just buying cookies. You're buying part of a ticket to a wonderful
activity for a young girl.)
I have suggested this simple approach to the adult women supervising the sales outside of stores and supermarkets. When I checked back a few days later, they told me sale had increased by 50% to 100%! |
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3. Jest Words | | |
"Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry." -Bill Cosby |
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4. Resourceville: "Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week" | | |
"A WEEKLY CELEBRATION OF GREAT QUOTES IN HISTORY (AND THE HISTORY BEHIND THE QUOTES)"
Many of you subscribers have told me you enjoy my quotation features like "Conversation Quotation," "Jest Words," and "Words of Inspiration." You might also enjoy this weekly newsletter by my friend, Dr. Mardy Grothe, author of many books on word-play such as "I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like."
To subscribe, send a blank message to drmardy-on@mail-list.com |
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5. Word-a-Week: ad hominem | | |
During heated political campaigns, some candidates rely heavily on this rhetorical device to label their opponent with ugly terms. That's the ad hominem logical fallacy.
Translated from Latin to English, "Ad Hominem" means "against the man" or "against the person."
An ad hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument.
Typically, this fallacy involves two steps. First, an attack against the character of person making the claim, her circumstances, or her actions is made (or the character, circumstances, or actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or presenting). This type of "argument" has the following form:
- Person A makes claim X.
- Person B makes an attack on person A.
- Therefore A's claim is false. The reason why an Ad Hominem (of any kind) is a fallacy is that the character, circumstances, or actions of a person do not (in most cases) have a bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim being made (or the quality of the argument being made).
Bill: "I believe that abortion is morally wrong."
Dave: "Of course you would say that, you're a priest."
Bill: "What about the arguments I gave to support my position?"
Dave: "Those don't count. Like I said, you're a priest, so you have to say that abortion is wrong. Further, you are just a lackey to the Pope, so I can't believe what you say."
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6. Words of Inspiration
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"The great Western disease is, 'I'll be happy when... When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job.' Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now."
-- Marshall Goldsmith |
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7. Converse Like a Journalist, not a Novelist | | |
Trained journalists have clear procedures, both to get the details of a story from a respondent and later to write the story.
To get the story they rely on "the five W" questions:
- Who is it about?
- What happened?
- When did it take place?
- Where did it take place?
- Why did it happen?
They ask these questions to get the facts and take notes. Actually, they are leading the direction of the conversation as their respondent gives answers.
Later, when they write their story, they usually start with the main point and then give the big details until finally the small details. The reader can immediately get their gist of their column. (This is sometimes referred to as an "upside-down pyramid format.")
Novelists, on the other hand, tell a story at great length and with many details. The reader sometimes doesn't learn the main point of their story until hundreds of pages later in the final chapter. Popular novelists have huge numbers of readers who enjoy all the details described so intriguingly by a gifted writer. If a reader wishes, she can read a novel a few pages at a time over many days or weeks.
However, conversation is different from reading. Most conversers want you to get to the point if you're the one sharing. And if it's their turn, they want you to support them in telling their story while you listen attentively. (The "5 Ws" give that support.) To be effective, a conversation must be relatively brief.
If your tendency is to go on and on with every detail, or to preface the point you wish to make at great length, the probability is that you'll lose your listener.
In most conversations, being brief and to the point is most effective.
For excellent examples of how to converse like a journalist, listen to Dick Gordon, ("The Story"), Krista Tippett ("On Being"), or Terry Gross ("Fresh Air"), all on National Public Radio. These are archived online
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5. Please Post on Social Media
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Just above the header "Better Conversations Newsletter" at the top of this issue, you'll see icons for Facebook and Twitter. Clicking on the F icon will take you to your Facebook page. The link to this issue will also appear. You can add a comment and post it so your friends can access this newsletter.
Your assistance will help smart people Raise their standard of conversation. Many thanks!
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Loren Ekroth ©2013, all rights reserved
Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. is a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life.
Contact at Loren@conversationmatters.com
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