Gourmet English: Trick 9: Deduction.Say something which everyone wh...

Gourmet English: Trick 9: Deduction.Say something which everyone wh...: Trick 9: Deduction. Say something which everyone who follows you believes to be right. Deduce your idea from that. Ramadan fasting in t...

Trick 9: Deduction.

Say something which everyone who follows you believes to be right.
Deduce your idea from that.

Ramadan fasting in the workplace

In an effort to move beyond the Islamophobic rhetoric that makes fasting in the workplace much harder than it needs to be, I ask you, my fellow colleagues, to educate yourself about the month of Ramadan. (Who could possibly disagree with that?)This Ramadan, use your unlimited WiFi access to educate yourself on the holy practices of Ramadan. Understand that in this month of spirituality and shunning of some worldly desires, we may not be at full capacity. And to the haters who endlessly claim that it’s not their job to learn about some foreigners’ religion, to them I say: we are all foreigners. We are all immigrants, and so long as the world continues to grow and connect, we all must self-reflect and learn about our community.

(Who can possibly argue with education! Is is a shoo in. Notice how the thought about us all being foreigners is quietly slipped in after, though. It is not, of course, true, but it sounds right, doesn't it!)


Or this:

The void of not living in Palestine, to me, can never be one hundred percent filled, ever. Living in the diaspora is a sort of despair we did not wish upon ourselves; it is our inescapable reality. That is, at least, how I feel.Throughout my time here in Canada, I have met so many Palestinians. I even lived in the Middle East, and I have never met a community of Palestinians like here. We all have something in common: we are desperate to try to define home because we have never lived in Palestine. A lot of us travel to find what we could have had.

(This is a very good example of a topic sentence which cannot be questioned leading to an inevitable conclusion which you cannot disagree with either.)


Both of these paragraphs are taken from a site which appeals to Muslim women, so the words in green resonate there. They probably don't, however, resonate outside the community of Muslim women.

Here is something for everyone to agree with.

Good men never lack rewards, and crimes never go without their punishment; for in all their activities, the purpose for which each deed is performed can reasonably be regarded as its reward. For example, the crown of victory is the purpose of running on the racetrack, and therein lies the reward.

That resonates with everybody even though it was written shortly after the fall of the Roman Empire way back in 500 a.d. by a Roman (Boethius) who had been quite unjustly put in jail by a barbarian invader. The picture on the book cover above shows Philosophy consoling Boethius in prison.

If only the words in green were true!

Gourmet English: Trick Eight: Statistics: a matter of taste.“Everyo...

Gourmet English: Trick Eight: Statistics: a matter of taste.“Everyo...: Trick Eight: Statistics: a matter of taste. “Everyone does it!” And that very often makes it right. Let's take the popularity of ...

Trick Eight: Statistics: a matter of taste.

“Everyone does it!”
And that very often makes it right.

Let's take the popularity of divorce as an example of how to spice English up a bit.

This statement about divorce is all right. Bit it needs spicing up a bit. How?

Divorce was a no-no until the Second World War made it necessary. Men returned from the war to find their wives with someone else. Lady Chatterley became famous: the story of a women whose man had lost his manhood. Then came the 60s when you “let it all hang out” and sex became “gender” and what you did “in the privacy of Woodstock” was your own business.So now, divorce is quite accepted. Everyone does it.Half a century ago, divorce was only for the very rich. Then everyone - including the Royal Family were at it. What had been unthinkable now became quite normal.

This could be a lot tastier if it were supported with a few fact from people who know their subject well!

“Your divorce petition can be initiated online now for just £37. Or you can have all the divorce forms you'll need to send to Court completed for you for just £67.There isn't a simpler, more complete divorce package available in the UK. If you use our 3-step process to generate your divorce papers you can initiate your divorce in less than 3 minutes and save up to £720.Last year, over 22,000 people in the UK used Quickie-Divorce to initiate their divorce petition, allowing them to get on with their new, happier lives using the UK's most popular low cost 'do it yourself' divorce service.”

and:

The latest divorce figures, released last year, revealed the divorce rate for heterosexual couples in the UK was at a 45-year low, with 101,669 divorces of heterosexual couples in England and Wales. But experts said this could be down to the fact that fewer couples are choosing to get marrie

Well, fellow gourmets of English, how we use of statistics is a matter of taste.
Thanks to the internet, all that research took me just a couple of minutes and I know little or nothing about divorce having been very happily married for a very long time.
PS If you use the internet for research it is only good manners to add the link so people can check and so that the sites you use get the credit.

Gourmet English: Trick Seven: Development of Trick Six:statistics.“...

Gourmet English: Trick Seven: Development of Trick Six:statistics.“...: Trick Seven: Development of Trick Six: statistics. “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” – as Disraeli never said. But facts and ...

Trick Seven: Development of Trick Six: statistics.

“There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” – as Disraeli never said.
But facts and figures can make a very powerful argument. This is from the website of Guido Fawkes:

Despite Guido presenting them with compelling evidence that anti-Brexit billboard campaign ‘Led By Donkeys’ are in breach of EU election spending limits, the Electoral Commission tell Guido that they are simply “monitoring the activities” of Led By Donkeys. They add that Led By Donkeys are “fully aware” that they will have to register if they spend more than £20,000 in England, or £10,000 in any other part of the UK. According to their own figures they’ve already spent over £230,000…

Who can argue with that? The Electoral Commission has at last taken action.


This is from John Redwood's blog. He is trying to support a very hard Brexit:

179 states trade successfully with the EU with no customs union or single market membership

So if they can do it, why can't we?
The thing is: you cannot argue with the facts.
But that does not make an argument.
What Sir John is not telling us is that these trading agreements took many years to arrange. And we have a couple of months only…Facts in themselves do not make an argument.

The danger is either this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxjkvjHn6Qg


Or this:

Like everything else: statistics need to be used very carefully.
I once bought a meal which had a large red bonnet pepper laid neatly on the top. I could not eat it. It was simply too hot. Really unpleasant.
Stats are a bit like that: a hint of spice is lovely: a large red pepper is not.

Gourmet English: Trick Six: Defining the conversation.If you want t...

Gourmet English: Trick Six: Defining the conversation.If you want t...: Trick Six: Defining the conversation. If you want to discuss a topic and convince people that your point of view is the right one, then it...

Trick Six: Defining the conversation.

Sales people are very good at this. It is called listing the advantages.

Salespeople have to learn their script. It is detailed. It describes the product with technical words. Only the good points are listed: bad points come later. (If at all!)
Next time you buy something, listen to the sales rep. They will go through the advantages with great care!
Learn from them and do the same when you, too, come to make your argument. 
Lovingly talk about the advantages one by one. 

This works for everyone.

If you are making a speech at a wedding, talk about the couple and say how nice they both are. If you are saying a few words at a funeral, do the same. List the advantages. If you are writing an essay for a College, list the advantages - the details - of your argument, the facts, the dates, the people, the times. Show how they fit. 

List the advantages of your argument.

If you want to discuss a topic and convince people that your point of view is the right one, then it is important that you say clearly why you like it so that people can see why you like it. 

Example 1: Islam.

The examples which I take for this blog come from all over the place. So let's choose Islam.

Why should people sit down and talk about Islam with Muslims?

The argument:

Islamic terrorists think that by going round terrorising people they can spread Islam throughout the world. They do not bother to tell us why they have to wreck other people's lives. They just assume that everyone accepts their point of view. Which is why they make their religion really unpopular.
When Muslims actually sit down and discuss their faith scientifically, however, it isfascinating and, I must admit, very inspiring too. People usually come away positive.

Examples will expand this.

I have outlined the expansion points in blue. 
Almost any terrorist atrocity will give you the examples you need to show what is happening at the moment.

• There is almost no warning before a terrorist murder. 
• There are a lot of assumptions by the terrorist which are never questioned. 
• Islamophobia is widespread. Personal examples? The internet is your friend - google it.
• Find a victim of terrorism  and say what they have gone through.

So when people sit down and discuss these atrocities, they will be shown up for what they really are. Argument and discussion will expose them for everyone to see. Give an example of someone who has come away positive.

Listing the advantages is a very convincing way to persuade people to buy, to change their mind or just to agree with you.

Gourmet English: Trick Five:How would you like it if...This trick i...

Gourmet English: Trick Five:How would you like it if...This trick i...: Trick Five:How would you like it if... This trick is used a lot on tv. Instead of arguing the case for extra money to be spent on ment...

Trick Five:How would you like it if...

This trick is used a lot on tv.

Instead of arguing the case for extra money to be spent on mental health issues, we are presented with Prince William confiding the terrible pain which he felt when his mother died. The fact that he spoke at all is refreshing, of course, because mental issues are important. Of course they are.
But when we identify with the suffering someone as famous as the Prince, all argument flies out of the window.
We are presented almost every night on the tv news with “the crisis in the NHS”.
Instead of arguing the case, we see a pretty young Mum with her baby on her knee telling how the NHS failed her.

Who can argue with that?

Old soldiers sit on the street, with their heads in their hands. They are not only homeless but they have terrible images flashing in their heads too. They have been diagnosed with PTSD.
They provide a very strong argument which can certainly be used politically: it's Austerity isn't it!
Victimhood is the product of Trick Five. Victims win you the argument.

And it is dangerous too.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explains in his book (Not in God's Name) how victims get angry with the people who put them there. Then they dehumanise the people who put them there. They then exterminate the people who put them there. Only by now they are no longer people – just subhuman vermin.
Need for examples?
IRA? Palestinians? Israelis? Ku Klux Klan? Muslim terrorists? Nazis? Fascists? All of these groups see themselves as victims of one sort or another.

Nevertheless, when used responsibly and wisely, Trick Five is very effective.

Advertising people know it well.

Placing a victim centre stage is very powerful. 

So is alcohol.