Language in Thought and Action

By S.I. Hayakawa

The most interesting section of this book is the author's description of writing to report, and the ways that you can slant your writing to tell whichever story suits you.

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• A reason that so many students have trouble writing lengthy papers is that they assert so many judgments in the early paragraphs that afterwards there is little left to be said. If you start with giving just the observable facts, and avoid stating your conclusions, you'll never have a word count problem.
• There is still the problem of knowing which facts to relate. You need to be able to distinguish between the important and the trivial.
• If you start out with a judgment, that becomes the frame from which you have to operate. You have to make all of your later statements consistent with your original judgment. Early judgments can induce blindness.
• Just because you're reporting facts doesn't mean you're avoiding judgment. You can slant your writing by choosing to include or exclude certain facts. Implied judgments always try to sneak in. If you want to avoid slanting you need to include facts that are both favorable and unfavorable. Show both sides of the story.
• How little do we see of the world, since out of necessity we see it from our own point of view?
• Words have different meanings to different people and we need expect and accept that.
• With words we are very often trying to influence and control future events.

Reference

Hayakawa, A. R., Hayakawa, S. I. (1990). Language in thought and action. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.