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Speak the Speech, I Pray Thee

 Long before talking heads and hosts of newscasts proliferated the airwaves with multiple superfluous insertions in every sentence, or began a remark with "So," educators promoted Shakespeare's plea to "speak the speech trippingly on the tongue" through elocution classes. They heralded the ability to communicate in grammatically correct sentences devoid of hesitation with appropriate inflection, pronunciation, and knowledge of the topic as paramount to one's success in life. I was a third-grader at Concord School in Pittsburgh when my mother trotted me off to the King School of Oratory to cure my shyness and fear of speaking with adults. By the time she learned about the miracles its founder, Byron W. King, had accomplished, among them curing himself of a speech impediment, the nation's most celebrated elocutionist had been dead many years, but his wife Inez, a renowned actress of the Chautauqua circuit, still trained actors, businessmen, lawyers, clerg...

What Makes a Good Quality Writer?

 This article is dedicated to Jane Yolen and Ray Bradbury (in memoriam). A good writer writes something which is, by definition, challenging. He tests your ideas or beliefs. He challenges your vocabularies and personal history. He challenges our comfortable morality. He challenges our linearity. He challenges our basic ideas about language. A good writer passes on knowledge or wisdom to readers. He helps you to grow as a person. He helps you to connect more deeply with yourself. He reveals the truth about something. A good writer creates something wonderful or artistic. He writes something meaningful or significant. He helps you navigate reality. A good writer is honest with himself. He is sometimes irritant. You can't stop thinking about his opinions. He makes you remember home, summer, pets, and county fairs. He hurts your ears. He finds the boundaries of your heart. He speaks out of his convictions. He tells a story truthfully. His stories keep you young. He is not a grammaria...

What Is Affiliate Marketing - And Why You Should Use It

 If you're interested in working flexibly from your laptop, a ffiliate marketing might be an option. With many products online for affiliates to promote and many ways to promote them, it's a very flexible business model which can give you time and financial freedom. Initially though many affiliates struggle to make sales. It's a process to learn the skill of marketing affiliate products. However, if you're determined to learn that skill, it can serve you for the rest of your life. Once you're successful as an affiliate, you can live anywhere, work for yourself and never need another job or employee ever again. This is a large "prize" and one worth working for. But many drop out before they get to the point of even making a single sale. The learning curve for affiliate marketing can be a steep one, and there's no guarantees. You'll need to sell something before you can make anything. So if you're desperate for money it's probably not somet...