redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
([personal profile] redbird Aug. 17th, 2006 08:56 pm)
Useful advice from [livejournal.com profile] agrumer:

I'm a fan of rhetoric. I'm not saying that everybody needs to talk like Vulcans. But your rhetoric should mean something. If you tell your reader/listener to ask themselves something, you should actually want them to ask it of themselves. *

From: [identity profile] mrissa.livejournal.com


Yes, and so many times they really, really don't want me to ask it of myself, because my assumptions are at such right angles with theirs.

This is also why I wish people would avoid the rhetorical phrase, "Now, you're probably thinking x." Because I am rarely thinking x. This is not like that "trick" where you can pop out with, "But emus don't live in Denmark!" and amaze your audience.

From: [identity profile] mrissa.livejournal.com


This happens to me a lot, too. "Surely no one would suggest --" "I would."
.

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