William Thomas P.O. Box 27217 Washington, D.C. 20038 November 4, 1988 Dear Ahmed, brother student in a land of a strange tongue: As I understand it you have asked me for help to perfect your skill in writing the venacular of an alien nation. I am honored. In His unfathomable greatness the Creator has blessed me with the opportunity to share, for another's benefit, a gift which sometimes seems almost worthless ... the English language. As I may have mentioned, it was my great pleasure to visit the geo-social area of your birth. While in that region of the Creator's earth, I learned much of value ... of respect, sharing, and compassion. And something of the difficulties involved in reaching understanding amid an unfamiliar mode of speech. You have offered money because I am willing to help you improve your communicative skills. Allow me to explain a couple of reasons which preclude me from accepting money in exchange for sharing the gift of my language. First, in my honest opinion money is an extremely inefficient false idea which only "works" because so many of us believe that it works. Second, I do not have a teaching certificate. Although this is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Free," things are not exactly "free" here. If the university officials discover that I am accepting money in exchange for knowledge perhaps they will become jealous, and have me charged with the crime of "teaching without a certificate." I certainly don't want to upset the authorities. My duty is to share what I have. If I am able to make your life a little easier by sharing that will be ample recompense. I express my understanding of the specific paper on which you desired guidance in the enclosed essay "The Topic is an Idea." I would suggest that you use "the Topic" as a sample. Then substitute your own thesis, and re-write each paragraph to support the your own thesis. You might like to use the title, "Honesty in Essays reveals Truth." By applying this method I believe you will find little difficulty in producing an original paper. I would be very happy to assist with your final proofreading, or any other adivce you might like. Do not hesitate to contact me for further assistance. Your brother student, THE TOPIC IS AN IDEA Ideas, sometimes finely dissected into themes like thoughts, opinions, inventions, delusions, or fantasies, are blood in the veins of understanding. Ideas stem from individual perceptions of reality, and represent the building blocks of all human industry. With words and sentences the themes of a story are woven to clothe its topic. The quality of the finished material is tied to the author's knowledge of his topic. A successful author must craft his words to display his knowledge convincingly, and weave his sentences to sway the reader's mind. Ideas become effective relative to the power with which they are transmitted to other individuals. This transmission is called communication. THESIS The Essay, an Effective Channel for the Written Word. The written word is a media through which ideas flow freely. Writing has been organized into several distinct genres, of which the essay is one. As the essay is usually short, to be powerful it must be focused. A good tool for focusing the topic of an essay is the thesis statement, a device by which the author may capture the audience's attention with a concise summarization of the themes central to his idea. OUTLINE Novel ideas may find clear articulation through linking a number of different familiar points. The fashion in which the various points of an essay are orgainized is a major factor determining how easily understanding of a novel idea will be channeled to other minds. The organization of points in an essay may be facilitated by drawing an outline. Listing each of the points to be covered helps the writer to visualize some order for the presentation of ideas. Points may be presented based on their 1) chronological or 2) spatial relationships; on 3) relations in action and reaction; 4) where one point is the consequence of another point; 5) in order of importance, where each point follows from the least to the greatest in signifcance; or 6) by grouping points which oppose each other. For example, organizing an essay entitled "Building an Effective Channel of Resource Allocation" might be expressed in the following outline: 1. Motives in the expenditure of resources. (a) Life, (b) Profit. 2. Problems in the practical expenditure of resources. (a) Fear, (b) Greed, (c) Ignorance. 3. The reason for problems in the practical expenditure of resources (a) Deifying material comfort, (b) Devaluation of spiritual devotion. 4. Conclusion Keeping in mind that he has a whole lot to say, and a short time to say it, the author might choose to stick tightly to his outline. Covering each of the themes -- 1 thru 4, and sub-themes (a) thru (c) of the outline -- by one paragraph, adding a thesis statement, he could produce an essay of twelve paragraphs. E.g.: Building an Effective Channel of Resource Allocation (Thesis Statement) No one wants to die, and most everyone likes to live comfortably. The earth is presently home to some five billion people. Most experts agree that, using only the present available arable land, the earth is capable of producing enough food to provide amply for a population of fifty billion. In addition to food, humans desire clothing, shelter, transportation, communi- cation, education and recreation. The theory is that, through the efficient application of the existing resources, every man, woman and child could enjoy a standard of living equal to that of the average upper-middle-class United States citizen. (Theme 1) Resources have been produced by the earth since long before the existence of humanity. For at least several thousand years resources have been gathered from the earth by human beings. Human beings also decide how any given resource will be used. The motive with which any resource is used contributes to the effect which that use will produce. Essentially, motives are limited. (Sub-theme a) Resources may be devoted to the well-being of living crea- tures, including the earth herself, producing harmonious effects. (Sub-theme b) Alternatively, resources used to promote profit-making will often be found to burden living creatures, including the earth, and eventually produce disharmonious effects. (Theme 2) Several factors observed in the human race seem to combine in thwarting resource application likely to produce harmony. (Sub-theme a) Fear hoards many valuable resources. Fearful of some future privation people sometimes store up many more things than could ever be used, denying those things to those with immediate needs. Fearful of changes that innovation might bring, those who control the application of resources might tend to discourage the evolution of more efficient applications of those resources, because they fear the change in application would alter the familiar personal comfort produced by the less efficient application of resources as it exists. (Sub-theme b) Greed takes when it should be giving. Greed may counsel a miserly application of resources to promote familiar comfort. Greed can cause a person to ignore the suffering which his comforts "indirectly" causes others. Greed can manifest itself as conservatism which destroys. (Sub-theme c) Ignorance allows one person to watch another starve, because he is unaware that life is more important than things. Together fear, greed and ignorance work together to fabricate the idea that murder, and its political equivalent ... war, are "necessary" evils. Much to the detriment of human life, vast quantities of resources are expended on "defense" systems which ultimately threaten all life on earth. Founded on this thinking the United States spends some $200 million per day on nuclear weapons. This represents only a fraction of resources consumed by the military/industrial complex each day, in the United States alone. A similar quantitity is spent in equally compassionless expenditures of energy by the Soviet Union. (Theme 3) Is this then the "natural condition" of humanity? Must the dictates of fear, greed and ignorance lead humanity into further fruitless armed conflicts, armed conflicts which technology has evolved to a state-of-the-art capability of eliminating life from the earth? Is it possible for humanity to escape this fate simply be abandoning some of its ancestorial traditions? (Sub-theme a) It might be argued that the principle value of the western world is material comfort. Material comfort finds expression in pursuit of money, which symbolizes material comfort. On the money of a western nation are the words "In God We Trust" are stamped. But, if a person's worship to his god is counted in the hours of his life, and if most of his hours were devoted to money values, then the person's hours would tally money as his god. (Sub-theme b) Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are values which exist independant, or perhaps in spite of money. At times, in the so-called "undeveloped nations," sincerely held religious values -- compassion, sharing, and mutual respect -- may play a broader role in determining individual and societial values than does personal material comfort. Perhaps thes values are only byproducts of shared adversity, but they provide a contrast all the same. (Theme 4) Through the efficient application of the existing resources, the entire population of the earth could be fed, in a manner equal to that of the average upper-middle-class United States citizen, at a cost of $2 billion per year. Hoping to insure its material comforts, a certain "developed" nation will spend $500 million apiece for Stealth Bombers, and buy 135 of them at a cost of $67.5 billion. Rather than to help others live very comfortably, $67.5 billion will be spent so that others may die. Is that "efficient?" ROUGH DRAFT If an essay is analogized to a sculpture the rough draft is the lump of clay. Next to painting, writing is probably the oldest form of communication more permanent than the spoken word. Writing is an art form in which rudimentary symbols (letters) are organized to represent more definitive symbols (words), which in turn are organized in various combinations for the purpose of transmitting the author's ideas to the minds of his audience. Examining the process of writing reveals that organization is more integral to the effectiveness of writing than even the personal computer. As the sculptor may move clay from one place and smooth it into another place, so the author, moving from rough through ever more finished drafts, molds words into an ever more organized, artistic presentation of his ideas. EDITING AND REVISING Perhaps there are individuals who never experience an idea worth transmitting. That in itself is no reason for one to remain illiterate. Although people who lack original ideas might just as constructively grow potatoes, they need not remain non-contributing appendages to the communication process. Instead they can study the techniques of writing and assist those who do have ideas worth communicating by teaching them to organize their valuable ideas in a manner likely to be understood. Those who chose to serve as technical instructors are good sources of editing and revising ideas, unless they are not good instructors. Even those who do not have teaching certificates may be helpful in the editing and revising of progressive drafts. Objective criticism is essential to a well developed paper. PROOFREADING Prior to perfection, the more proofreaders who examine a work, the more likely it is that the author will achieve a letter perfect document.