The Elements of Eloquence

Author: Mark Forsyth
Publisher: Icon Books
ISBN: 9781785781728
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER THE ETYMOLOGICON. 'An informative but highly entertaining journey through the figures of rhetoric ... Mark Forsyth wears his considerable knowledge lightly. He also writes beautifully.' David Marsh, Guardian. Mark Forsyth presents the secret of writing unforgettable phrases, uncovering the techniques that have made immortal such lines as 'To be or not to be' and 'Bond. James Bond.' In his inimitably entertaining and witty style, he takes apart famous quotations and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde or John Lennon. Crammed with tricks to make the most humdrum sentiments seem poetic or wise, The Elements of Eloquencereveals how writers through the ages have turned humble words into literary gold - and how you can do the same.

The Etymologicon

Author: Mark Forsyth
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101611766
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Book Description
This perfect gift for readers, writers, and literature majors alike unearths the quirks of the English language. For example, do you know why a mortgage is literally a “death pledge”? Why guns have girls’ names? Why “salt” is related to “soldier”? Discover the answers to all of these etymological questions and more in this fascinating book for fans of of Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The Etymologicon is a completely unauthorized guide to the strange underpinnings of the English language. It explains how you get from “gruntled” to “disgruntled”; why you are absolutely right to believe that your meager salary barely covers “money for salt”; how the biggest chain of coffee shops in the world connects to whaling in Nantucket; and what, precisely, the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening. This witty book will awake the linguist in you and illuminate the hidden meanings behind common words and phrases, tracing their evolution through all of their surprising paths throughout history.

The Horologicon

Author: Mark Forsyth
Publisher: Icon Books
ISBN: 1848314302
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Book Description
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER THE ETYMOLOGICON. ‘Reading The Horologicon in one sitting is very tempting’ Roland White, Sunday Times. Mark Forsyth presents a delightfully eccentric day in the life of unusual, beautiful and forgotten English words. From uhtceare in the hours before dawn through to dream drumbles at bedtime, The Horologicon gives you the extraordinary lost words you never knew you needed. Wake up feeling rough? Then you’re philogrobolized. Pretending to work? That’s fudgelling (which may lead to rizzling if you feel sleepy after lunch). A Radio 4 Book of the Week, The Horologicon is an eye-opening, page-turning celebration of the English language at its most endearingly arcane.

Wisdom and Eloquence

Author: Robert Littlejohn
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433517086
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
To succeed in the world today, students need an education that equips them to recognize current trends, to be creative and flexible to respond to changing circumstances, to demonstrate sound judgment to work for society's good, and to gain the ability to communicate persuasively.

Empire of Eloquence

Author: Stuart M. McManus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110890498X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Book Description
An exploration of the culture of public speaking in the Iberian world, which places the classical rhetorical tradition within the context of Iberian global expansion in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Vernacular Eloquence

Author: Peter Elbow
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199782504
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 455

Book Description
Since the publication of his groundbreaking books Writing Without Teachers and Writing with Power, Peter Elbow has revolutionized how people think about writing. Now, in Vernacular Eloquence, he makes a vital new contribution to both practice and theory. The core idea is simple: we can enlist virtues from the language activity most people find easiest-speaking-for the language activity most people find hardest-writing. Speech, with its spontaneity, naturalness of expression, and fluidity of thought, has many overlooked linguistic and rhetorical merits. Through several easy to employ techniques, writers can marshal this "wisdom of the tongue" to produce stronger, clearer, more natural writing.This simple idea, it turns out, has deep repercussions. Our culture of literacy, Elbow argues, functions as though it were a plot against the spoken voice, the human body, vernacular language, and those without privilege-making it harder than necessary to write with comfort or power. Giving speech a central role in writing overturns many empty preconceptions. It causes readers to think critically about the relationship between speech, writing, and our notion of literacy. Developing the political implications behind Elbow's previous books, Vernacular Eloquence makes a compelling case that strengthening writing and democratizing it go hand in hand.

Body Eloquence

Author: Nancy Mellon
Publisher: Elite Books
ISBN: 1604150289
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Have you ever had an ache or pain, and wished your body could talk to you and tell you what was wrong? You're not alone! Master storyteller Nancy Mellon, author of Body Eloquence, has guided scores of people through the process of giving their bodies a voice. Drawing from mythology, medicine, biology and energetic healing, she finds the essential stories that characterize each organ of the human body, and trains us how to use these resources to identify the messages that our organs are communicating to us.The heart, for instance, is not just a durable pump, sending oxygenated blood to every cell. It's also a representation of goodwill; a heart-to-heart connection, or an openhearted friend, are universal stories we can all identify. But a hard-hearted person is one we all avoid. These archetypes are found in mythologies from Native American traditions to Scandinavian tribes to Greek history, and are woven together in a fascinating matrix in Body Eloquence, showing how our organs are part of our psyche, our history, and our collective mythology.

The Call

Author: Craig R. Smith
Publisher: MSU Press
ISBN: 1628954515
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Book Description
This book is a unique examination of the phenomenon of the call. Characterizing the call as a rhetorical event, the book identifies how speakers can use eloquence in the service of truth. Authors Craig R. Smith and Michael J. Hyde offer the rare combination of a phenomenology of the call linked closely to eloquence and explore this linkage by examining the components of eloquence, including examples of its misuse by George W. Bush and Donald Trump. The bulk of the text examines case studies of eloquence in the service of truth including epideictic, forensic, and deliberative eloquence, with examples drawn from addresses by Barack Obama, Daniel Webster, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Chase Smith, Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney. The authors also examine the Epistles of St. Paul, the writings of St. Augustine, and the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. Finally, the book explores eloquence in filmic narratives and dialogic communication between artists and writers, concluding with a study of the sublime and how it is evoked with awe using the work of Annie Dillard.

A Short History of Drunkenness

Author: Mark Forsyth
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0525575383
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Book Description
From the internationally bestselling author of The Etymologicon, a lively and fascinating exploration of how, throughout history, each civilization has found a way to celebrate, or to control, the eternal human drive to get sloshed “An entertaining bar hop though the past 10,000 years.”—The New York Times Book Review Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there’s drink there’s drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. It can be religious, it can be sexual, it can be the duty of kings or the relief of peasants. It can be an offering to the ancestors, or a way of marking the end of a day’s work. It can send you to sleep, or send you into battle. Making stops all over the world, A Short History of Drunkenness traces humankind’s love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to the twentieth century, answering every possible question along the way: What did people drink? How much? Who did the drinking? Of the many possible reasons, why? On the way, learn about the Neolithic Shamans, who drank to communicate with the spirit world (no pun intended), marvel at how Greeks got giddy and Sumerians got sauced, and find out how bars in the Wild West were never quite like in the movies. This is a history of the world at its inebriated best.

The Gift of the Gab

Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300219415
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
We all know eloquence when we hear it. But what exactly is it? And how might we gain more of it for ourselves? This entertaining and, yes, eloquent book illuminates the power of language from a linguistic point of view and provides fascinating insights into the way we use words. David Crystal, a world-renowned expert on the history and usage of the English language, probes the intricate workings of eloquence. His lively analysis encompasses everyday situations (wedding speeches, business presentations, storytelling) as well as the oratory of great public gatherings. Crystal focuses on the here and now of eloquent speaking—from pitch, pace, and prosody to jokes, appropriateness, and how to wield a microphone. He explains what is going on moment by moment and examines each facet of eloquence. He also investigates topics such as the way current technologies help or hinder our verbal powers, the psychological effects of verbal excellence, and why certain places or peoples are thought to be more eloquent than others. In the core analysis of the book, Crystal offers an extended and close dissection of Barack Obama’s electrifying “Yes we can” speech of 2008, in which the president demonstrated full mastery of virtually every element of eloquence—from the simple use of parallelism and an awareness of what not to say, to his brilliant conclusion constructed around two powerful words: dreams and answers.