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eakers Paradox—Continued from page 6)
philosophy, core values and the people who have invested in their lives. Your heart has
a wealth of speaking material for you to use. You simply have to take the time to dig it
out, put it on paper and master its telling. As a side note, when I began digging through
my past for the source of my life’s philosophy and my core values, I was rewarded with a
myriad of places, names of people, and events that shaped my life. Often places, people
and events I had forgotten: forgotten to visit; forgotten to thank or appreciate; and,
forgotten to commemorate. Remembering is rewarding, even though it is sometimes
painful because it teaches you that you are a survivor, people cared enough to invest in
you, and how many milestones you have already passed.
When Lincoln stood at Gettysburg, his heart was open, and his words revisited who he
was, what he was about, and where and from who the lessons were mastered. You have
the same reservoir of important messages in you: dig them out.
The Skill
“Do you write out your speeches?” I have been asked that question on five continents,
maybe even six. To write or not to write? The answer is found in the “Speaker’s Paradox:”
Before you ever started reading or writing the English language you were speaking it. In
fact you were understanding it before you even spoke it, babies understand “no.” If only
politicians would learn the word. When you started school you learned a second version
of English: formal English. The language
of writing and reading. But it probably
didn’t take you long to learn the
language you spoke and the language
you wrote and read, weren’t exactly the
same.
In fact oral language and formal
language are different. They can both be
expressed in written form but we use
the oral form more than ninety-percent .
of the time. Research demonstrates that
oral language and formal language have two different vocabularies in the brain. A
linguist by the name of Martin Joos identified five universal strands of language used
by speakers and writers. For writers, the Formal Strand is the one used most often. It
uses proper English, sentence structure and syntax, but nobody speaks formal English,
unless they are talking to royalty or persons in authority over them. So what does this
(Continued on page 8)
7
philosophy, core values and the people who have invested in their lives. Your heart has
a wealth of speaking material for you to use. You simply have to take the time to dig it
out, put it on paper and master its telling. As a side note, when I began digging through
my past for the source of my life’s philosophy and my core values, I was rewarded with a
myriad of places, names of people, and events that shaped my life. Often places, people
and events I had forgotten: forgotten to visit; forgotten to thank or appreciate; and,
forgotten to commemorate. Remembering is rewarding, even though it is sometimes
painful because it teaches you that you are a survivor, people cared enough to invest in
you, and how many milestones you have already passed.
When Lincoln stood at Gettysburg, his heart was open, and his words revisited who he
was, what he was about, and where and from who the lessons were mastered. You have
the same reservoir of important messages in you: dig them out.
The Skill
“Do you write out your speeches?” I have been asked that question on five continents,
maybe even six. To write or not to write? The answer is found in the “Speaker’s Paradox:”
Before you ever started reading or writing the English language you were speaking it. In
fact you were understanding it before you even spoke it, babies understand “no.” If only
politicians would learn the word. When you started school you learned a second version
of English: formal English. The language
of writing and reading. But it probably
didn’t take you long to learn the
language you spoke and the language
you wrote and read, weren’t exactly the
same.
In fact oral language and formal
language are different. They can both be
expressed in written form but we use
the oral form more than ninety-percent .
of the time. Research demonstrates that
oral language and formal language have two different vocabularies in the brain. A
linguist by the name of Martin Joos identified five universal strands of language used
by speakers and writers. For writers, the Formal Strand is the one used most often. It
uses proper English, sentence structure and syntax, but nobody speaks formal English,
unless they are talking to royalty or persons in authority over them. So what does this
(Continued on page 8)
7
