Specific Is Terrific, The

[Music] [Music] [Applause] the world is so full of a number of things and all of them are nouns what they do are verbs nouns and verbs are the most powerful of words even with no help from other words what wonders they communicate Thunder rumbles toddler stumbles buyer Hegel's tail waggle [Music] team score and kites soar however adverbs can modify or change herbs and adjectives can give nouns different images for example house is a fine noun all by itself but with adjectives we can make it a blue house apartment house abandoned house or any kind of house we wish to describe adverbs can make a tree droop wearily or go soaring majestically toward the sky [Music] let's concentrate now upon the big four explore what can be done with these four types of words Simon Pi is a college freshman a hometown girl he likes will soon be graduating from high school and he wants to persuade her to come to this college this is what he writes this is a good college you want to try it next year Simon do you think you'd like it there I don't know what a Simon liked about it he didn't say it sharp and improved his writing any I sure have it meanwhile another student Brad tacky having condensed his knowledge into a term paper gets it bad it's a I covered everything exactly where you went wrong Brad writing is not supposed to cover things it is supposed to reveal them one purpose of words is to transfer the image in your mind to the mind of a reader or listener when you can do that well you are able to inform others another purpose is to put your feelings about something into words that generate a similar feeling in others when you can do that well you are able to influence others let's try it the image the word the result not so good try again and this time use a noun that is more specific the image the word the results not quite be more exact more specific the image the word and the result the more specific the word the more exact is the image transfer for example this man is moving to general this man is running there she has it which of these fairground objects am i talking about when I say it is an attraction you can't tell the word is too general suppose I say it is a ride closer but not specific enough now I say it is a ferris wheel there only this specific now and tells you exactly what I had in mind now let's select a verb to describe the action of the ferris wheel we'll try a general term the ferris wheel moves now a more exact verb the ferris wheel rotates vague general statements rarely satisfy our need to know we keep seeking more specific information just on account of the way things are the wood thing you know different things come on be more specific know know what's making it happy it's the way I've been pitching I feel like I'm letting everybody down the coaches like the reader she can't share your concerns until you give her the specifics but what does all this have to do with my term paper reading the spread of nuclear weapons is a great danger to everyone there are nothing explosives on hand now to be of genuine concern what exactly are you trying to communicate Brad well I want to make people realize the power the size of these weapons with general words such as danger and concern you are telling people what they should feel right but telling them to be impressed is not the same as impressing them watch this little episode John that is a dangerous place to stand you should feel concerned a role is that self John you are standing on a lion's tail oh I see that when he got specific the other fellow reacted read your line again there are enough explosives on hand now to be of genuine concern let me read the same facts as printed in a United Nations magazine the explosive power of a freight train three thousand miles long carrying TNT can be compressed into a single bomb or missile with greater force than the sum total of all bombs dropped during World War two the current stockpile of nuclear weapons contains the TNT equivalent of about 10 tons for every individual in the world Wow instead of telling people what to feel use specific terms to create specific images that cause people to feel and Simon your friend might be more interested in this College if you gave her more specifics but I said it was a good school not image-making don't try to shrink a whole college into one sentence think of specifics for example what is Molly interested in computer science I think and that's good because there's a new computer center here with state-of-the-art equipment dr. Wilke the head of the department he's the man who save it to tell her what the campus like it's like you dream every campus should be it's appreciated Ivy covered buildings and in the spring and the cherry and dogwood trees blue it's like you walk into a living postcard scene you feel soon tell me Simon tell Molly hey smart and remember the general may be humdrum but the specific can be terrific sorry [Music]