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Old 11-08-2011, 08:11 AM   #35
Basia Halliop
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 711
Canada
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Re: Overriding uke's determinism

I kind of got the impression he meant something like 'keeping uke from doing what uke is trying to do, and getting uke to do something else instead'.

And (here I'm guessing slightly more) 'in the dojo, we should try to trust each other and assume that others will trust us' and 'if you can get uke to do what you want he or she will trust you because they can see that you know what you're doing'. Or something like that?

A word of advice from George Orwell himself (author of 1984 and Animal Farm if that jogs your memory): "never use a long word where a short one will do". Even if you use a word which is also accurate (which you didn't), more often than not it communicates your idea far less clearly; in fact, sometimes it hides your meaning rather than revealing it. Save the big words for when there honestly isn't any other word that captures your thought, and then be sure you're using the word accurately.

Sometimes people use more complex or unclear language intentionally because they believe it makes them look more intelligent, other times it's just a habit. Either way, it's more likely to make you sound confused than intelligent. Intelligent IDEAS make you sound intelligent. (No idea if this is why Graham is using his kind of language or not - as often as not it's just a habit people get into).

Orwell's essay 'politics and the english language, which he wrote in 1946' is worth reading for anyone.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

At the end he summarizes some writing tips.

"But one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never us 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 think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable. One could keep all of them and still write bad English, but one could not write the kind of stuff that I quoted in those five specimens at the beginning of this article. "

Last edited by Basia Halliop : 11-08-2011 at 08:26 AM.
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