Anyone for an Essay?: So now you can write a convincing piece ofwriting ...

Anyone for an Essay?: 

So now you can write a convincing piece of  writing – be it essay, exam, blogpost or comment.

Do not be afraid to scroll down and see how this blog works.
There really is quite enough on it already to provide real diversity.

Most people just stick to one boring old way of commenting.
Lots of this:
“Well you would say that wouldn't you. You are a Fascist pig!” (ad hominem)
or
“Have you read Robert Rattlesnake on the subject of Brexit? Until you do, you ought to shut up.” (Appeal to Authority).



Very few people use the boring start – except in exams. Why not give it a whirl?
And very few people use the nice approach. Try it! It can transform an entire conversation if you set out to be nice. Use one of the suggestions below to start your paragraphs too. 

Here are a couple of nice quotations to help you on your way:

Writing in 1711, Joseph Addison stated that “Zeal...is a great ease to the malicious man., by making him believe he does God service while he is gratifying the bent of a perverse revengeful temper. For this reason we find that most massacres and devastations which have taken place in the world have taken their rise from a furious pretended zeal.”

and

“Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone.” - Paul of Tarsus.

Anyone for an Essay?: Repeat the arguments.This is the nice, safe, borin...

Anyone for an Essay?:

Repeat the arguments.

This is the nice, safe, boring way to finish.

This technique works really well in exams where the examiner simply wants an answer to a definite question. Just repeat each of the three paragraphs (or perhaps four?) of your answer – one at a time.

Question: What were the causes of the First World War?

Your finish:

There were therefore three causes of the First World War. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered. Then there was the impulsive order by the Kaiser to mobilize. Finally there was the general attitude of the Europeans that the war would be over by Christmas.

Question: How do you start up your own business?
Today we have heard how starting your own business can be fun. We have heard how to draw up a simple business plan. And we have learned that pivoting makes a huge difference.

Here is how one of the greatest orators of all time used this trick. 

On November 19, 1863, Edward Everett, the chief speaker at the Gettysburg cemetery dedication, spoke for about an hour. The President rose to his feet and everyone's heart sank – another hour's speechifying!


This is how President Lincoln started:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

And this is how he finished, just a few minutes later:

...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Used well, summarising what you have written and repeating the first sentences of your piece will make a nicely rounded essay. Like throwing a boomerang, the words fly away and then gently return to your hand as you finish to a very appreciative audience.



And this technique works very well in exams.

Anyone for an Essay?: Ending a blogpost, a speech, an essay.As Max Beer...

Anyone for an Essay?:

Ending a blogpost, a speech, an essay.

As Max Beerbohm never said: “Public speaking is like making love. It has to end in a climax!”

You can end a speech with a toast: “Let us raise our glasses to Mr and Mrs...”

Or at a funeral: 

“Let us rest assured that our long suffering mother is enjoying, at this very moment, her heavenly reward in the presence of God and His angels whom she so earnestly served for her entire life.”

Play on those emotions!

If you want people to feel pity, then ask how people can possibly sleep at night, knowing that babies are starving in Africa? What about the homeless man, recently released from prison for a crime he did not commit, a man who is even now sleeping rough on the streets of London?

Or indignation: “When my own children grow up, I want to live in a world where Polar Bears can walk freely among the icebergs. I want to live in a world where cars do not pollute the streets. Where babies do not cough up the fumes from diesel exhausts!”

Or you can end with sheer anger.

Everyone believes in equality. Everyone believes in fair play. And every single person wants to rob the rich and pretend we are poor! So appeal to that.
Here is the proudly Socialist Canary ending a piece on Private education:
This follows a clip which shows two men being ejected when they have jumped the queue for a ride on a roller coaster.

“But why should Brits treat the private education system any differently to the person above? They’re both unfair queue jumpers, are they not?And if there’s one thing British people should be good at, it’s queuing fairly.”

Peroration

The end is called the peroration. That means it is the time for decision. You have got the audience to listen and pay attention throughout the speech, the article, the blogpost, the comment. Now is the time for them to take action, to react and, we hope to leave a comment.
Just like you are going to now!

Anyone for an Essay?: What's next?Finishing your blog post, your essa...

Anyone for an Essay?:
I welcome all comments. And I would like very much to know how I can help with this excellent website.

What's next?

Finishing your blog post, your essay, your speech, your comment.
So far, on this blog, you can find out how to start a piece of writing on your blogpost, your speech, your essay or your comment. You can also find out how to start off your paragraphs and some helpful hints on what to put into those paragraphs.

Now it is time to talk about how to finish your work off nicely.

The happy finish:

Look at this remark from Dr Richard North:

A little while ago, I wrote a piece which referred to the "naming of parts", stressing the importance of clarity and precision in the use of words, remarking that sloppy use of vocabulary leads to confusion and muddle.

But it isn't just the avoidance of confusion and muddle that is at stake. Clarity and precision also goes to credibility. I used for my example the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) rifle and one can imagine the reception which might be given to a self-proclaimed expert on the rifle who referred to the magazine as, say, "the bullet container".

You have to show that you know what you are talking about, that your remarks are reliable and true and that you know what you are talking about.
Keep smiling as you write.
Be cheerful. Everyone likes that.
And ending with a question is often a good idea too.

Here are some nice endings for you:

This one is from Muslim Girl website:

Overall, there’s a long list of anime and a variety of genres to pick from. I recommend finding the genre that will be mesmerizing to you. It’s okay if anime isn’t for you, but, as I mentioned earlier, if you ever loved watching “Pokemon” or “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” then anime might spark an interest you never even realized was there.

Author’s note: many of these shows can be watched on YouTube or Crunchyroll. - Muslim Girl


A nice, short end – the best of all!

In this time of Islamophobia and racism, Love From A to Z delivers the unapologetic heroine we need. And S.K. Ali is just the writer to provide it.

And here is a good longer one:

Chris Saltmarsh, co-founder of campaign group Labour for a Green New Deal, commented: “The questions of climate justice and green jobs will define our politics in the years to come, so it is great to see that Labour is appointing a frontbench role to engage with popular movements to build socialist and democratic solutions.
“We hope the leadership also listen to the popular movement within the party calling for a Green New Deal, which would be the best means of guaranteeing green jobs and genuine climate justice. We look forward to meeting Danielle Rowley to discuss how to take this proposal forward.”

If you leave the blogpost, comment, speech with a nice taste in your mouth, then you are much more likely to have a nice day putting what you have heard into practice.

What is going on here?

To write an essay, a speech, a post, you have got to have three things.

• The first is a start. 
• The second is the body composed of a number of paragraphs. 
• The third is the end.

This helpful (I trust) blog has already shown you how to start and how to write good, trenchant paragraphs.


Now we come on the all important bit: how to stop writing or talking!

Read on over the next few days to find out…

Here is a list of ways to start your paragraphs:

Just click and read. Most people just have a couple of tricks up their sleeve and they fall back on them all the time. If you use these you will have a vast number of ways of attacking your question, of putting your thoughts out therefor a wider public.
Please don't use them all at once. Treat them like alcohol - one G&T is nice. Ten different cocktails is different…

1. President Trump/Karl Marx/Heinrich Himmler would agree with all of that. But it would be much more civilized to…
2. I think this is really a bit sexist/ racist/ Islamophobic/ unacceptable (etc) myself. Here's why...
3. Everyone does it. Come on! It is quite normal to…
4. How out of date all this is! We need to move on a bit. And here's how...
5. How would you like it if someone did that to you? There are victims here...
6. Let's just define what we are talking about...
7. Actually the facts don't support this argument. The most recent figures are these...
8. I think there are three separate things going on here. The first is...
9. Everyone knows that stealing is wrong/ hitting women is wrong/ people should be treated fairly (etc). This means…
10. I believe that Shakespeare/Confucius/Winston Churchill (or pick your own: Madonna? ) once said...
11. This is a very complicated subject. Let's just break it up into its separate parts shall we. First...
12. OK. So if we do this, what will be the probable result?...
13. True or false? Helpful or dangerous? Which one are we talking about? Let's look at the alternatives...
14. (Pick a celebrity who holds opposite views to your own.)Well he/she would say that! Let's take a sneaky peak into their lives, shall we? Let us, for example, take a look at...
15. Fair's fair! The same rules should apply across the board. So is this a fair discussion? I don't think so...
16. OK. So something is not quite right. Who is to blame?...
17. People should support... And here's why...
18. A funny thing about this topic is... (Pick something unusual).
19. Everyone thinks that... Actually this is not the case at all. Here's why...
20. Oh yes! (Name a public celebrity who is on the other side of the argument.) That is rich coming from her/him! (Now put the boot in).
21. Let's not play the blame game. There is nothing wrong in...
22. It would have been better, looking back, if...
23. I think that... is rather like marmite/spaghetti/minestrone (or something completely ridiculous like a...) ...
24. It would have been a mistake if we had...
25. Think of a nickname for a famous personality who is interested in what you are discussing. Now talk about their views using the nickname.
26. Post hoc, propter hoc: just because things happen after other things, that does not imply cause.

Please notice that you can click on each suggestion for a fuller explanation of the idea. I would like to thank the great Aristotle for inspiring this idea in his Rhetoric. He was the personal teacher and coach, of course, of Alexander the Great.

How do you start your post, comment, tweet, speech?

Here are seven different approaches. Why not try a different one for a change?

1. Attack the question, position the blame, go for the jugular from the start.
2. Help the reader/audience with some timely advice.
3. Explain succinctly what you are going to say.
4. Start with a story.
5. Explain exactly what the opposition are on about.
6. Tell a joke.
7. What do the audience want from you? Meet their need.
   
   

   Scroll down for the articles on each of the above - in that order.

   Most people use their favourite couple of arguments all the time. And they have their favourite ways of starting off too. And we don't realise we are doing it.
   It's summer!
   Change into something fresh for a change!
   

   

Your Audience

Let's start with that essay shall we?

The Examiner is your audience. Maybe in college it is your lecturer. In school, perhaps your teacher.

So what does she/he want from you?

50 pages of copy from that website? Half a reluctant page of guesswork?

Probably not…

She/He wants to see that you have understood the question and that you can answer it simply and backed up with facts.

Do it and watch your marks soar!

For speeches:

Aristotle says that the audience are “morally weak”. They would much rather be reading something more interesting, listening to someone better, going shopping on e bay...
So think about what they want.

What really interests them? What affects their lives? Their pleasures? What do they find strange and unusual?
“How much tax do you pay at the moment?”
“Does school really have to be compulsory after, say, 14?”
“Yesterday I watched someone die.”
And after the first shock, you have to keep the audience on their toes. Keep their attention.
Tony Blair was a good orator. He used the chummy “Yer know”. Funny speakers like to remind people “to keep up at the back.”

Boring speakers say, “Now I am coming on to the interesting bit...”
But words like “Actually...”, “This is not always the case...”, “You might not know this but...”
-all useful.

Boris Johnson, a superb communicator, always treats his interviewer like a slightly backward old friend. He deliberately stumbles over his words as he thinks. Then he darts in with a rapier flourish.

So always keep the audience – at weddings, at funerals, when commenting, when tweeting (?) - in mind. Especially in examinations...Just answer the question. Nothing else. That is what the examiner (your audience) wants.

Sales people and Advertisers:

You need a quick attention grabbing moment. "Wow!" Or suddenly produce the product. Or both. If you want a good sentence to start off, look here.

Keep 'em laughing.

Boris Johnson thought it was hilariously funny to say that he didn't care what women wore – even if they dressed up in a burka that made them look like a letter box.
Jo Brand made her remark about exchanging throwing a milk shake for something much more harmful.
The people in France, who published the hilariously funny cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed (SAWS) in Charlie Hebdo, soon regretted their joke too.
Nowadays when serious and utterly humourless people rule over us, the best way to make a joke is to shut it.
Here are some ancient jokes which you might like:
In a feminist conference in Cambridge, a male Don appeared and politely asked if there was anyone present who could sew on a button.
A farmer friend of mine told me this story:

He has an elderly father who went to see the doctor about a very swollen leg. He was given a prescription. After a week, he went back to the doctor's as he had been asked to do.“Ah”, said the doctor, “I can see the pills I gave you have done a lot of good.” 

Silence.

“He weren't taking the boogers!”

You see, nowadays even that is enough to get you kicked out of any professional organisation.

So the judgement must be:
Never start your essay with a joke. And that goes for speeches, comments and indeed tweets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEAvb8k7EnY

Remedies.

The very best articles/speeches/comments/exam essays rehearse the arguments of the opposition carefully and truthfully before going on to say why they don't work.
If you have understood the opposition and can explain, simply, what they think, then people will listen whichever side they are on as you go on to explain where you yourself stand.
One of the very best online news sources does this regularly. Here Spiked Online speaks about Boris Johnson:

Is it right to record a couple’s private conversations, through the walls of their home, and then publish their words verbatim in a national newspaper? Most people would say no. Most people would consider that a grotesque invasion of privacy. Most people would think it profoundly morally wrong to spy on a couple’s most intimate moments and then salaciously expose those moments to readers hungry for scandal.The Guardian clearly thinks differently. Its publication of the literal words spoken by Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds in a late-night row in their own home, which it got from a recording made by a neighbour, suggests it cares little for privacy.

Or Sir John Redwood:

The Governor of the Bank of England tells us we cannot escape tariffs by offering to negotiate a free  trade agreement. If the EU agrees to free trade talks as we leave the EU then we can.

This way of arguing goes back centuries, of course. It is by far the most thorough way to discuss anything at all.
The problem is that because it demands an audience with the patience to wade through paragraphs before getting to the nitty gritty, people who do not rehearse the opposition's case fairly before dismissing it, often assume they know what it is. And that leads to danger.
If you do not know what you are talking about, then you are in deep trouble. Here is Guido Fawkes quoting John McDonnell doing exactly that.

In 2011, John “Lynch The B*tch” (Mrs May?) McDonnell spoke about his desire to use physical violence against Tory and Lib Dem MPs “getting worse.” He told a Unison audience:“I’m getting worse. I sit in Parliament opposite a group of multi-millionaires, who are cutting these services with alacrity. My problem is I’m beginning to feel physical towards them. These people need a good slapping.My McAliskey moment is coming to me, and I’ve already been thrown out for grabbing the mace once.”

There can be no doubt at all that very few MPs on the front bench on either side (including Labour) are multi-millionaires. He just got it wrong.

On Brexit, too, the “divorce settlement” (the billions to be paid out when we leave), the “Single Market” (The EEA has two parts: the EU and the Efta columns), the “Irish Backstop” (why backstop? What does that mean? Who knows? How does it tie in with the EEA?) - these are all grossly misleading terms. If people had been careful and, before shrugging them off, had been able to describe them simply, we might not perhaps be in the current mess.

Start with a story.

A dentist is getting out of his car. He takes his case and carries it carefully to the door of his practice.
As he is opening the door, he turns round and spots two men opening the boot of his car. He runs over to the car shouting at them to leave it alone.
One of the men turns and shoots him dead.
Courage, says Lee Child means that man died. Jack Reacher retreats – and lives.
Me, I can open any of Lee Child's books, read a couple of pages and remember them. So I do not need to buy that book! And I am delighted if I can find one where the opening story is new to me. The picture on this page is not the one with the dentist in it, by the way.
Starting with a story works every time. Which must be why Lee Child starts with a story every time.

Here's an idea for a funeral speech:

A young woman is walking along a road. She trips over a loose paving slab. A man crosses the road to help her to her feet. She smiles at him. Then he takes her by the shoulders and plants a huge kiss on her lips.
That is how my mother and father met...

The dreaded best man's speech at a wedding: put the awful memory of what the bride did at the start and restrict yourself to that one embarrassing incident. Oh – and although there are several fascinating stories about the stag night, remember that what is done in Prague stays in Prague. Or the Bride might be seriously cross. - Oh and the same goes for the hen night too.

People like stories, so start with your most attractive selling point: a good laugh.

In any form of speech, this is perhaps the strongest start. Advertisers use it a lot.

Two classics: the Bisto Ad where the Mum stirs the gravy as her family excitedly wait for their dinner.

The man – remember him – from Del Monte?

In Comments too, stories go down very well.

In one religious blog people were sounding off about child abuse.
One very brave man told how he himself had been abused as a young teenager by a much older man. He described how gentle the man was and how much he enjoyed the experience.
This was riveting stuff. Never to be forgotten. Peregrine Worsthorne in the Daily Telegraph, then aged 90 did the same thing.
Why not try telling a story instead of being horrid?

Otherwise?

Tweets? You tell me.

Oh – I nearly forgot – in Examinations DO NOT START WITH A STORY EVER.

Saying what you are going to talk about.

The old saying is the safe option: 

Tell them what you are going to say, say it, then tell them what you have said.

Works every time.

Copywriters?

Describe the unique selling points of your product. Just give the facts (not all of them…) 

Sell the sizzle not the sausage…

NB This is just one way of starting off your presentation. Don;t like it? Click again. If you want the full sales technique you need to look elsewhere!

Examinations:

The examiner is paid (usually) by the number of papers he has marked. The examiner does not want to be entertained. He wants to get through it as quickly and painlessly as possible. The easiest way to please the examiner is therefore to use this approach:
First of all copy out their question, word for word, as a heading.
Then in a new paragraph, copy out the same question again. If there are any controversial words in the question, mention them. If there are any hidden snags in the question, point them out. Then begin your second paragraph…
Method: careful compliance with the question set.
This is from the A Level Sociology (AQA) instructions:

A ‘Safe’ Strategy for Answering Methods in Context (‘MIC’) QuestionsPlanning:Spend about five minutes planning the essay first:Highlight the ‘hooks’ in the question.Jot down the theoretical, ethical and practical strengths/ limitations of the method.

It really is not rocket science, is it.

Speeches at life changing moments

Why are you making the speech? Is it at a funeral? Is it at a wedding? Is it because someone is leaving or retiring from your organisation? Is it to welcome someone?
Tell the audience why you are speaking. The rest simply flows from that.

We are here today to celebrate the wedding of Tristram and Isolde. I have known them since birth and I remember the time when..

We are met today to mark the tragic death of Grannie Smith. She choked on one of her apples which are known the world over.

Listen up! Time for the presentation to Sir Ronald who has been Chairman of the Trustees for thirty two years. His father, who is well remembered by old codgers like me as Sir Arthur, passed the Company down to him as a teenager….

Easy!

Writing blogs or Commenting:

It works there too.

Anyone for an Essay?

This site is for people who want to write a fascinating Essay. Get a lot of "Likes" when you comment! Why not have a go here too?

Tweets?

I do not tweet, so I do not know.



This way of starting off can be terribly boring. But it is safe and sure. If you want to play it safe, this is the way to set about it. I have explained how to start off simply and clearly.

How to start a speech, an essay, a comment of a tweet: Offer Advice.

You can advise the audience what to expect.

Why not try one of these five alternatives?

Praise:

I always like coming onto this blog because of the quality of the posts. Let me explain….

Friends, Romans, Countrymen! Lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him!

Blame:

I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News is meant for all men...? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved his enemies so fully that He died for them?

...The Vietnamese people proclaimed their independence in 1945...

Martin Luther King, the great American speaker speaking in the Riverside Church, Now York April 1967 on the subject of the Vietnamese War. He went on to blame the US government and “ a far deeper malady within the American Spirit.”

Exhortation:

We are in Seattle arguing for a world trade system that puts basic human rights and the environment at its core. We have the most powerful corporations of the world ranged against us. Tyhey own the media that informs us – or fails to inform us. And they probably own the politicians too. It's enough to make anybody feel a little edgy.
So here's a question for the world trade negotiators...

Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop addressing the International Forum on Globalisation, Seattle 27^th November 1999.

Dissuasion:

In March 1985 Arthur Miller and Harold Pinter made a trip together to Istanbul. At the time, they were perhaps the two most important names in world theatre, but unfortunately it was not a play of literary event that brought them to Istanbul, but the limits being set on freedom of expression in Turkey...

Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist at the World Voices Festival in New York 25th April 2006. He was trying to dissuade the audience from suppressing unpopular ideas.

Appealing to the audience:

General MacArthur had been a colourful and very successful General in the Second World War. After it he had more or less ruled Japan as a military Shogun. When he addressed Congress in 1951, they did not approve of military government. So he was on the back foot. Here is how he started the speech which led to generous applause:

I address you with neither rancour nor bitterness in the fading twilight of life. The issues are global and so interlocked that to consider the problems of one sector, oblivious to those of another, is but to court disaster for the whole.
While Asia is commonly referred to as the Gateway to Europe...

These starts are excellent for speeches – weddings, funerals, politics, presentations.

They do not work for Exam Essays though. And for Tweets which are very short, they waste space. Comments on blogs – don't you always dread it when they go on and on and on? So I don't use them on comments myself.

How to start an Essay, Speech, Comment or Tweet: Attack!

You do not have to be nice. Sometimes it pays to attack instead.
Just do not be like this:

More like this:

Start off a speech like this, for example:

“I am going to say some very controversial things tonight and I very much hope that you will take them on board. These things have to be said and nobody else has had the courage to address them so far. So here goes...”

Here is Sir Ivan Rogers, one of the very few Brexit experts, starting off his speech in June 2019 to about 200 finance professionals at the Fishmongers Hall, near London Bridge:

“Syed very bravely asked me to try and find some upbeat conclusions this morning.
I must confess that, with denial, delusion-mongering and deception still rampant across British politics - on all sides, I might add - I do find this quite a formidable challenge!
I want to remain resolutely optimistic about our country’s long term prospects.”

Or a comment:

Here are a couple of comments from a real blog:

“OGH manages to write clearly and succinctly, as in today's post, to explain the important detail of a complex subject. So why do our serving politicians have such difficulties in understanding what the result of No-Deal will be?”

or (from the same blog)

“And if all this were not bad enough, in The Times ''According to a new YouGov poll, 61 per cent of [Conservative] members would rather have “significant damage” to the economy to ensure Brexit takes place. I don't know why the Security Service worries about Trots when there are these morons.”

Or a Tweet:

It also works in an examination too.

“Was Henry VIII a tyrant?” (An imaginary question here!)

“This question is misleading. It seems to assume...

or
Question from a real Business exam::

“A charity shop is sometimes considered as operating in a not-for-profit environment, but this is not really the case.
(b) Outline two reasons why a charity shop must make a profit.” 

Here is a specimen answer attacking the question:

Charity shops advertise themselves as Charity. People assume that Charities are there to receive Charity, not to make a profit. However...

I do not do Tweets, but for those that do:

How do you start a speech, an essay, a comment, a tweet?

Praise.

The easiest way is to praise the audience, whether it is in writing or in a speech.

• 
  
  Thank you so much for that comment, I could not agree more! You are so right!
  
• 
  I am so glad to see so many eager upturned faces this morning. I am so glad that there are so very many good people in Peckham!
  
• 
  First of all our hearts go out to the bereaved families here today. I want to promise you that you are in all our hearts and, yes, our prayers too.
  

Praise the audience and they will like you!

Examination technique:

Qu: “Examine the role of the Exchequer in the reign of Henry VIII.”

Let the examiner know that you like the question - and therefore the people who set it.

• Ans: “This fascinating question has been asked by a number of people. For example...”
  
• or
  
• Ans: “The Exchequer is perhaps the most important part of Henry VIII's settlement. Why is this?...”
  

Tweet: 

You do Tweets. I do not do them. President Trump does them. But I believe there are one or two – just one or two – nice people out there who say nice things aren't there? Aren't there?

Anyone for an Essay?: Essay writing/Commenting on blogs/Interviews/argui...

Anyone for an Essay?: 

Essays, Comments, Interviews: Useful starters.

1. 
   
    Here is a list of ways to start your comment/paragraph/tweet.
   
   
   1.President Trump/Karl Marx/Heinrich Himmler would agree with all of that. But it would be much more civilized to…
   
   
   2.I think this is really a bit sexist/ racist/ Islamophobic/ unacceptable (etc) myself. Here's why...
   
   
   3.Everyone does it. Come on! It is quite normal to…
   
   
   4.How out of date all this is! We need to move on a bit. And here's how...
   
   
   5.How would you like it if someone did that to you? There are victims here...
   
   
   6.Let's just define what we are talking about...
   
   
   7.Actually the facts don't support this argument. The most recent figures are these...
   
   
   8.I think there are three separate things going on here. The first is...
   
   
   9.Everyone knows that stealing is wrong/ hitting women is wrong/ people should be treated fairly (etc). This means…
   
   
   10.I believe that Shakespeare/Confucius/Winston Churchill (or pick your own: Madonna? ) once said...
   
   
   11.This is a very complicated subject. Let's just break it up into its separate parts shall we. First...
   
   
   12.OK. So if we do this, what will be the probable result?...
   
   
   13.True or false? Helpful or dangerous? Which one are we talking about? Let's look at the alternatives...
   
   
   14.(Pick a celebrity who holds opposite views to your own.)Well he/she would say that! Let's take a sneaky peak into their lives, shall we? Let us, for example, take a look at...
   
   
   15.Fair's fair! The same rules should apply across the board. So is this a fair discussion? I don't think so...
   
   
   16.OK. So something is not quite right. Who is to blame?...
   
   
   17.People should support... And here's why...
   
   
   18.A funny thing about this topic is... (Pick something unusual).
   
   
   19.Everyone thinks that... Actually this is not the case at all. Here's why...
   
   
   20.Oh yes! (Name a public celebrity who is on the other side of the argument.) That is rich coming from her/him! (Now put the boot in).
   
   
   21.Let's not play the blame game. There is nothing wrong in...
   
   
   22.It would have been better, looking back, if...
   
   
   23.I think that... is rather like marmite/spaghetti/minestrone (or something completely ridiculous like a...) ...
   
   
   24.Looking back, it would have been a mistake if we had...
   
   
   25.Think of a nickname for a famous personality who is interested in what you are discussing. Now talk about their views using the nickname.
   
   
   26.Post hoc, propter hoc: just because things happen after other things, that does not imply cause.
   
   
   Please notice that you can click on each suggestion for a fuller explanation of the idea. I would like to thank the great Aristotle for inspiring this idea in his Rhetoric. He was the personal teacher and coach, of course, of Alexander the Great.

Nicknames and Name Calling.

Isn't it hilarious when we call stupid people by a nickname!

Mrs Thatcher – milk snatcher! Tony Bliar! Mrs Dismay!

Isn't it funny when we hang a huge orange balloon of President Trump wearing a nappy!

Isn't Jo Brand hilarious when she admits to a fantasy of throwing acid in the face of a politician!

Not quite so funny thogh when President Trump calls the Mayor of London, who allowed the balloon to fly, a loser who cannot control knife crime. Not quite so funny when a man compares the Royal Baby to a monkey. That, as everybody knows (except apparently the elderly man who did it) has to be racism.

Nicknames are dangerous – they appeal to our own tribe, but they alienate the other tribes.

And they lower the tone. Like this cartoon:

This excerpt is from a blog which I used to follow regularly:



“This applies in spades to Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, the "compulsive liar", about which the only certainty is that he will lie through his back teeth if there is any advantage to be gained from it.
"Right to the end, "cheater" Johnson is doing his best to rig the contest in his favour, especially as he is still struggling to avoid having to partake in Channel 4's TV debate.
"Brexit: lies, damn lies and politics - That the Telegraph rushes to the turd-giver (Boris Johnson) when he is called out as a liar, tells you all you need to know about the paper."

Now, I do not go near it!

If you dish it out, then be prepared to take it! (Prince Harry and his lovely wife please note.)