How to write better English
Came from an email by Yixiang.
Here are a few things I used to teach my GP students. Reason why I'm suddenly typing this is because its martin luther king jr day coming monday and he really was an awesome writer. I remember reading his speech when I was 12 and I remember the excessive use of parallelism (let freedom ring from the snow-capped rockies of colorado, let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of new york". It was rather awesome then, how ordinary words were pieced together to draw a nation together.
Sentences are constructed through literary devices. Here are my favourites and you'll notice that sometimes, I do use them in day to day conversations.
Isocolon - We are here to learn, to meet new people, to travel, and to grow ourselves. Here, we see parallel structure.
Anastrophe - This is what noobs call broken grammar. But this really is proper grammar where words are used unnaturally and in the wrong order. The most famous example is, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". Compare this with "Do not ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". For obvious reasons, anastrophes are used sparingly and as a way to draw attention.
Antimetabote - I really like this example from Martin Luther King Jr. "The negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the negro to free him from his fears". Basically, repeated phrases that are then reversed.
Litotex - "I didn't crash my car, I only donated four thousand dollars to charity". "Daniel touched me again. Just my boobs". Basically, there is an attempt at understating things but with the opposite effect and intention.
