Quotes About Clarity

From your point of view as a reader, therefore, the most important words are those that give you trouble.

Analytical reading is preeminently for the sake of understanding

Informar-se é simplesmente saber que algo é um fato. Esclarecer-se é saber, além de que algo é um fato, do que se trata esse fato: por que ele é assim, quais as conexões que possui com outros fatos, em quais aspectos são iguais, em quais aspectos são diferentes etc.

outside help should be sought whenever a book remains unintelligible to you, either in whole or part, after you have done your best to read it according to the rules of intrinsic reading.

I. SURVEYING THE FIELD PREPARATORY TO SYNTOPICAL READING 1. Create a tentative bibliography of your subject by recourse to library catalogues, advisors, and bibliographies in books. 2. Inspect all of the books on the tentative bibliography to ascertain which are germane to your subject, and also to acquire a clearer idea of the subject.

1. What does the author want to prove? 2. Whom does he want to convince? 3. What special knowledge does he assume? 4. What special language does he use? 5. Does he really know what he is talking about?

Any good argument can be put into a nutshell. There

terms as a skilled use of words for the sake of communicating knowledge.

Good controversy should not be a quarrel about assumptions

RULE 5. FIND THE IMPORTANT WORDS AND THROUGH THEM COME TO TERMS WITH THE AUTHOR.

Some writers have excellent "control"; they know exactly what they want to convey, and they convey it precisely and accurately

State in your own words!" That suggests the best test we know for telling whether you have understood the proposition or propositions in the sentence. If, when you are asked to explain what the author means by a particular sentence, all you can do is repeat his very words, with some minor alterations in their order, you had better suspect that you do not know what he means. Ideally, you should be able to say the same thing in totally different words.

RULE 9. YOU MUST BE ABLE TO SAY, WITH REASONABLE CERTAINTY, "I UNDERSTAND," BEFORE YOU CAN SAY ANY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS: "I AGREE," OR "I DISAGREE," OR "I SUSPEND JUDGMENT.

If words could not be used ambiguously, if, in short, each word was an ideal term, language would be a diaphanous medium.

In the first case, we may have obtained information, but we may not have increased our understanding. If the book is completely intelligible from cover to cover, then the author and the reader are like two minds with the same frame. The symbols on the page simply express the common understanding that the reader and writer shared before they met.

Suppose even that it is understood enough to know that it is not understood, which, unfortunately, does not always happen. It is known that the book means something more than what is understood, and therefore that it contains something that can increase our understanding.

Uma montanha de fatos [...] pode servir de obstáculo ao entendimento.

Não precisamos saber tudo sobre determinada coisa para que possamos entendê-la.

You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, I understand, before you can say any one of the following things: I agree, or I disagree, or I suspend Judgment.

STEP 3 IN SYNTOPICAL READING: GETTING THE QUESTIONS CLEAR

We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understand­ ing as too few. There is a sense in which we modems are inun­ dated with facts to the detriment of understanding.

Godfrey's wife Charmian sat with her eyes closed, attempting to put her thoughts into alphabetical order which Godfrey had told her was better than no order at all, since she now had grasp of neither logic nor chronology.

Never apologise, never explain.

From today onward, my memory is improving in every way. I will always remember whatever I need to know at every moment of time and point of space. The impressions I receive will be clear and definite. I will retain them automatically and easily. Whatever I want to recall will immediately present itself in the correct form in my mind. I am improving rapidly every day. Very soon my memory will be better than it has ever been before.