Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear

by the way, the term “rule of thumb” is based on an archaic rule where a husband was not allowed to beat his wife with anything thicker than his thumb)

i. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. ii. Never use a long word where a short one will do. iii. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. iv. Never use the passive where you can use the active. v. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can thin

• Franklin Roosevelt: “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

On the contrary, it’s a matter of finding the most appealing and persuasive way to present a preexisting proposition or program in a more accurate light.

For the politician aiming to persuade, and anyone else for that matter, education must precede motivation and even information. This may be painfully obvious to read, and it is certainly painful to witness when it isn’t practiced, but your audience needs to know the basic generalities before you can motivate them to respond to the specifics. You ca

Credibility is established very simply. Tell people who you are or what you do. Then be that person and do what you have said you would do. And finally, remind people that you are what in fact you say you are. In a simple sentence: Say what you mean and mean what you say.

To own a GM car is to tell the world that you’re so 1970s, and since what you drive is considered an extension and expression of yourself to others, people end up buying cars they actually like less because they feel the cars will say something more about them.

There’s a simple test to determine whether or not your message has met this rule. If it generates an “I didn’t know that” response, you have succeeded.

“Rights,” as opposed to mere policy preferences, are thought to be inalienable. They don’t come from us, and no one is allowed to take them away—for any reason. They cannot be abridged, no matter what. And that’s what makes the language so powerful.