DEFINE IMAGES AND IDEAS

In this movie Lloyd demonstrates beautifully his ability to do more than merely milk a gag, but to top it. (In an old, simple example of topping, an incredible number of tall men get, one by one, out of a small closed auto. After as many have clambered out as the joke will bear, one more steps out: a midget. That tops the gag. Then the auto collapses. That tops the topper.) In Safety Last Lloyd is driven out to the direty end of a flagpole by a furious dog; the pole breaks and he falls, just managing to grab the minute hand of a huge clock. His weight promptly pulls the hand down from IX to VI. That would be more than enough for any ordinary comedian, but there is further logic in the situation. Now, hideously, the whole clockface pulls loose and slants from its trembling springs above the street. Getting out of difficulty with the clock, he makes still further use of the instrument by getting one foot caught in one of these obstinate springs.

from People and Places by Margaret Mead

Science means asking a question and keeping that question in one's head while one watches, over and over again, what happens until one finds an explanation. It means testing out the explanation--watching and watching again to see if the explanation works.

Recognize what the reader will find unfamiliar or unclear. In writing for a general audience you will find yourself using words, expressions, and ideas with which the reader will most likely be unfamiliar. You want your writing to be natural and to represent you, therefore you don't want to use formal dictionary definitions. Yet you want your reader to understand you without using his dictionary. You want your writing to achieve convenient clarity. There are a number of ways to achieve a balance between "naturalness" and "clarity." You can simply include brief explanations set off by parentheses or commas; e.g. "Those difficult (that is hard to say) words, are slowing me down in French." Or, "The lymphoid, a new dance, is very big here at the moment." But many expressions require more lengthy explanations. For more lengthy explanations you may define unfamiliar or unclear expressions by (1) supplying specific examples, and (2) identifying essential characteristics.

Define by supplying specific examples. An effective informal way of defining an idea likely to be unfamiliar to your reader is to tell about an event or happening that will illustrate the meaning of the idea. This is what James Agee does in his paragraph on the comic genius of Harold Lloyd. The expression "topping it" is a theatrical term, probably foreign to the general reader. A typical dictionary definition employing a synonym or classifying the term and its characteristics will be of little help here. What is needed is a specific example. Agee therefore describes the old circus gag. Notice how detailed the example is: first the tall man getting out of the auto, then the midget, then the auto's collapsing. A specific example is effective to the degree that it supplies adequate descriptive details.

Define by identifying essential characteristics. The exerpt from Margaret Mead's People and Places is a definition; she tells us what science means. Her method is actually to list those activities that are characteristic of science: (1) asking a question, (2) keeping the question in your head while watching, (3) watching and watching, (4) finding an explanation, and (5) testing the explanation by watching and watching again to see if it works. This method is especially effective for making ideas understandable because it breaks up ideas into parts which are readily understood. It also translates a concept into concrete human activities: asking, remembering, watching.

ASSIGNMENT

The Seventh-day Adventist sub-culture has a number of expressions which are mystifying to the general public. In your sermons, it is particularly important for you to be easily understood by the uninitiated without seeming unnatural to the "faithful" (your regularly attending church members). Write a clear and natural paragraph which includes two or more of the following terms: "the truth," "the great controversy" (not the book), "Pathfinders," "Sister White," "The Spirit of Prophecy," Desire of Ages, "General Conference," "disfellowship." Employ the techniques of supplying specific examples and/or identifying essential characteristics.