International Paper’s Odd ’80s Ad Blitz

How to make a speechBy George Plimpton

International Paper asked George Plimpton,who writes books about facing the sports pros(like 'Taper Uon" and "Shadow Box"),and who's in demand to speak about it, to teUyou how to face the fear of making a speech

One of life's terrors for theuninitiated is to be asked to makea speech.

"Why me?" will probably beyour first reaction. "I dorit have any-thing to say" It should be reassuring(though it rarely is) that since youwere asked, somebody must thinkyou do. The fact is that each one ofus has a store of material whichshould be of interest to others* Thereis no reason why it should not beadapted to a speech.

Why know how to speak?Scary as it is, it's important lor

anyone to be able to speak in frontof others, whether twenty around aconference table or a hall filled witha thousand faces.

Being able to speak can meanbetter grades in any class. It canmean talking the town council outof increasing your property taxes. Itcan mean talking top managementinto buying your plan.

How to pick a topicYou were probably asked to

speak in the first place in the hopethat you would be able to articulatea topic that you know somethingabout. Still, it helps to find out aboutyour audience first. Who are they?Why are they there? What are they

interested in? How much do theyalready know about your subject?One kind of talk would be appropri-ate for the Women's Club of Colum-bus, Ohio, and quite another for theguests at the Vince Lombardi dinner,

How to plan what to sayHere is where you must do your

homework.The more you sweat in advance,

the less you'll have to sweat once youappear on stage. Research your topicthoroughly. Check the library forfacts, quotes, books and timely mag-azine and newspaper articles onyour subject. Get in touch withexperts. Write to them, makephone calls, get interviews tohelp round out your material.

In short, gather—andlearn-far more than you 11ever use. You carit imag-ine how much confi-dence that knowledgewill inspire.

Now start orga-nizing and writing.Most authorities sug-gest that a good speechbreaks down into threebasic parts—an intro-duction, the bodyof the speech, and thesummation.

Introduction: Anaudience makes up itsmind very quickly. Oncethe mood of an audience isset, it is difficult to changeit, which is why introduc-tions are important. If thespeech is to be lightheartedin tone, the speaker can startoff by telling a good-naturedstory about the subject orhimself

But be careful of jokes,especially the shaggy-dog

"What am 1 doing wrong? Taking refugebehind the lectern, looking scared to

death, shuffling pages, and reading myspeech Relax, Come out in the open,

gesture, talk to your audience!"

* . «

variety. For some reason, the jokethat convulses guests in a livingroom tends to suffer as it emergesthrough the amplifying system intoa public gathering place.

Main body: There are fourmain intents in the body of thewell-made speech. These are 1) toentertain, which is probably thehardest; 2) to instruct, which is theeasiest if the speaker has done theresearch and knows the subject;3) to persuade, which one does at asales presentation, a political rally,or a town meeting; and finally, 4)to inspire, which is what the speaker

emphasizes at a sales meeting,in a sermon, or at a pep rally(Hurry-Up Yost, the onetimeMichigan football coach, gave

such an inspiration-filledhalf-time talk that hegot carried away and atthe final exhortationled his team on the run

through the wronglocker- roomdoor into theswimming pool.)Summation:

This is where youshould "ask for the order."

An ending should probablyincorporate a sentence ortwo which sounds like anending-a short summaryof the main points of thespeech, perhaps, or therepeat of a phrase thatmost embodies whatthe speaker has hopedto convey. It is valuable

to think of the last sen-tence or two as some-thing which might pro-duce applause. Phraseswhich are perfectly ap-propriate to signal thisare: "In closing..." or"I have one last thingto say..."

Once done-fullywritten, or the main

points set down on 3 " x 5 " index following day, and a month later tirement, say, but a technical talk orcards-the next problem is theactual presentation of the speech.Ideally, a speech should not be readAt least it should never appear orsound as if you are reading it. Anaudience is dismayed to see aspeaker peering down at a thicksheaf of papers on the lectern,wetting his thumb to turn to thenext page.

How to sound spontaneousThe best speakers are those who

make their words sound spontane-ous even if memorized. I'vefound it's best to learn aspeech point by point,not word for word. Care-ful preparation anda great deal ofpracticingare re-quiredto makeit come togethersmoothly andeasily- MarkTwain once said,"It takes threeweeks to preparea good ad-lib speech/1

Don't be fooled when you re-hearse. It takes longer to deliver aspeech than to read it. Most speak-ers peg along at about 100 words aminute.

Brevity is an assetA sensible plan, if you have

been asked to speak to an exactlimit, is to talk your speech into amirror and stop at your allottedtime; then cut the speech accord-ingly. The more familiar you be-come with your speech, the moreconfidently you can deliver it.

As anyone who listens tospeeches knows, brevity is an asset.Twenty minutes are ideal. An houris the limit an audience can listencomfortably.

In mentioning brevity, it isworth mentioning that the shortestinaugural address was GeorgeWashingtorfs-just 135 words. Thelongest was William Henry Harri-son's in 1841. He delivered a two-hour 9,000-word speech into theteeth of a freezing northeast wind.He came down with a cold the

he died of pneumonia.

Check your grammarConsult a dictionary for proper

meanings and pronunciations. Youraudience won't know if you're a bad

an informative speech can beenlivened with a question period.

The crowdThe larger the crowd, the easier

it is to speak, because the responsespeller, but they will know if you use is multiplied and increased Mostor pronounce a word improperly. In people do not believe this. Theymy first remarks on the dais, I used peek out from behind the curtainto thank people for their "fulsomeintroduction," until I discovered tomy dismay that "fulsome" meansoffensive and insincere.

"Why should you make a speech? There are four big reasons (left to right): to inspire,to persuade, to entertain, to instruct VU tell you how to organize what you say."

On the podiumIt helps one's nerves to pick out

three or four people in the audience-preferably in different sectors so thatthe speaker is apparently giving hisattention to the entire room—onwhom to focus. Pick out people whoseem to be having a good time.

How questions helpA question period at the end of

a speech is a good notion. One wouldnot ask questions following a tributeto the company treasurer on his re-

and if the auditorium is filled to therafters they begin to moan softly inthe back of their throats.

What about stage fright?Very few speakers escape the

so-called "butterflies." Theredoes not seem to be any cure

for them, except to realizethat they are beneficialrather than harmful,

and never fatalThe tension usual-

ly means that thespeaker, being keyed

up, will do a better job.Edward R. Murrow calledstage fright "the sweat ofperfection." Mark Twainonce comforted a fright-

frozen friend about tospeak: "Just remember they don'texpect much." My own feeling is thatwith thought, preparation and faithin your ideas, you can go out thereand expect a pleasant surprise.

And what a sensation it is-tohear applause. Invariably after itdies away, the speaker searches outthe program chairman-just tomake it known that he's availablefor next month's meeting.

Today, the printed word is more vital than ever. Now thereis more need than ever for all of us to read better, write better, andcommunicate better.

International Paper offers this series in the hope that, even ina small way, we can help.

If you'd like additional reprints of this article or an 11 "x 17"copysuitable for bulletin board posting or framing, please write:

"Power of the Printed Word," International Paper Company,Dept. 9, P.O. Box 954, Madison Square Station,New York, NY 10010. :, 1982 INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPAN-

INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANYWe believe in the power of the printed word.

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How to write a resumeby Jerrold G. Simon, Ed.Di jjg*Harvard Business School

International Paper asked Jerrold G.Simon, Ed. D., psychologist and careerdevelopment specialist at Harvard BusinessSchool who has counseled over a thousandpeople in their search for jobs, to tell youhow to go after the job you really want

If you are about to launch asearch for a job, the suggestions Ioffer here can help you whether ornot you have a high school or col-lege diploma, whether you are juststarting out or changing your jobor career in midstream.

"What do I want to do?"Before you try to find a job

opening, you have to answer thehardest question of your workinglife: "What do I want to do?"Here's a good way.

Sit down with a piece of paperand don't get up till you've listedall the things you're proud to haveaccomplished. Your list mightinclude being head of a fund-rais-ing campaign, or acting ajuicy role in the seniorplay.

Study the list. You'll seea pattern emerge of thethings you do best and liketo do best. You might dis-cover that you're happiestworking with people, ormaybe with numbers, or words,or well, you'll see it.

Once you've decided whatjob area to go after, read

" 'Who am I? What do I want to doV Writingyour resume forces you to think about yourself

more about it in the referencesection of your library. "Talk shop"with any people you know in thatfield Then start to get your resumetogether.

There are many good booksthat offer sample resumes anddescribe widely used formats. Theone that is still most popular, thereverse chronological, emphasizeswhere you worked and when, andthe jobs and titles you held.

How to organize itYour name and address go at

the top. Also phone number.What job do you want? That's

what a prospective employer looksfor first. If you know exactly, listthat next under Job Objective.Otherwise, save it for your coverletter (I describe that later), whenyou're writing for a specific job toa specific person. In any case,make sure your resume focuses onthe kind of work you can do and

want to do.Now comes Work

Experience. Here'swhere you list your

qualifications.Lead with

your mostimportantcredentials.If you've had

a distin-guished workhistory in anarea related tothe job you'reseeking, lead

off with that. If your education willimpress the prospective employermore, start with that.

Begin with your most recentexperience first and work back-wards. Include your titles or posi-tions held. And list the years.

Figures don't bragThe most qualified people

don't always get the job. It goes tothe person who presents himselfmost persuasively in person andon paper.

So don't just list where youwere and what you did. This isyour chance to tell how well youdid. Were you the best salesman?Did you cut operating costs? Givenumbers, statistics, percentages,increases in sales orprofits.

No jobexperience?

In that case,list your summerj obs, extracurricular1

school activities,honors, awards. Choose the activi-ties that will enhance your qualifi-cations for the job.

Next list your Education-unless you chose to start with that.This should also be in reversechronological order. List your highschool only if you didn't go on tocollege. Include college degree,postgraduate degrees, dates con-ferred, major and minor coursesyou took that help qualify you forthe job you want.

Also, did you pay your ownway? Earn scholarships or fellow-ships? Those are impressiveaccomplishments.

No diplomas or degrees?Then tell about your educa-

tion: special training programs orcourses that can qualify you.Describe outside activities thatreveal your talents and abilities.Did you sell the most tickets to theannual charity musical? Did you

take your motorcycleengine apart and

put it backtogether so itworks? Thesecan helpyou.

Next, list any Military Service.This could lead off your resume ifit is your only work experience.Stress skills learned, promotionsearned, leadership shown.

Now comes Personal Data. Thisis your chance to let the reader get aglimpse of the personal you, andto further the image youve workedto project in the preceding sections.For example, if you're after a jobin computer programming, and you

enjoy playing chess,mention it.

impressive action verbs: "Created,""Designed," "Achieved," "Caused"

No typos, pleaseMake sure your grammar and

spelling are correct And no typos!Use 8Vz " x 11" bond paper—

white or off-white for easy reading.Don't cram things together.

Make sure your original is cleanand readable. Then have it profes-sionally duplicated. No carbons.

Get it into the right handsNow that your resume is ready,

start to track down job openings.How? Look up business friends,personal friends, neighbors, yourminister, your college alumni asso-ciation, professional services. Keepup with trade publications, andread help-wanted ads.

And start your own "directmail" campaign. First, find outabout the companies you are inter-ested in—their size, location, whatthey make, their competition, theiradvertising, their prospects. Gettheir annual report-and read it.

No "Dear Sir" lettersSend your resume, along with

a cover letter, to a specific personin the company, not to "Gentle-men" or "Dear Sir." The person

should be the topperson in the

area whereyou want towork. Spellhis name

properly!The cover

letter shouldappeal to your ^

reader's own needs.What's in it for him? >

Quickly explain why you areapproaching his company (theirproduct line, their superior train-ing program) and what you canbring to the party. Back up yourclaims with facts. Then refer himto your enclosed resume and askfor an interview.

Oh, boy! An interview!And now you've got an inter-

view! Be sure to call the day beforeto confirm it. Meantime, prepareyourself. Research the companyand the job by reading books andbusiness journals in the library.

On the big day, arrive 15 min-utes early. Act calm, even though,if you're normal, you're tremblinginside at 6.5 on the Richter scale.At every chance, let your inter-viewer see that your personal skillsand qualifications relate to the jobat hand. If it's a sales position, forexample, go all out to show howarticulate and persuasive you are.

Afterwards, follow throughwith a brief thank-you note. Thisis a fine opportunity to restate yourqualifications and add any impor-tant points you didn't get a chanceto bring up during the interview.

Keep good recordsKeep a list of prospects. List

the dates you contacted them,when they replied, what was said.

And remember, someone outthere is looking for someone justlike you. It takes hard work andsometimes luck to find that per-son. Keep at it and you'll succeed.

"Talkabout a hobby ifit'll help get the

job. Want to bean automotive engi-

neer? Tell how youbuilt your own hot rod."

Chess playing requires the abilityto think through a problem.

Include foreign languages spo-ken, extensive travel, particularinterests or professional member-ships, i/they advance your cause.

Keep your writing style simple.Be brief. Start sentences with

Today, the printed word is more vital than ever. Now thereis more need than ever for all of us to read better, write better, andcommurdcate better.


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How to spellBy John Irving H

m ^____ * ~ _ 1 11 1 • cr 1 1 T » ' i I T I I

International Paper asked John Irving,author of "The World According to Garp,""The Hotel New Hampshire," and "Set-ting Free the Bears," among other novels—and once a hopelessly bad speller himself—to teach you how to improve your spelling

Let's begin with the bad news.If you're a bad speller, you

probably think you always will be.There are exceptions to everyspelling rule, and the rules them-selves are easy to forget GeorgeBernard Shaw demonstrated howridiculous some spelling rules are.By following the rules, he said,we could spell fish this way: ghoti.The "f" as it sounds in enough,the "i" as it sounds in women, andthe "sh" as it sounds in fiction.

With such rules to follow, noone should feel stupid for beinga bad speller. But there are waysto improve. Start by acknowledg-ing the mess that English spellingis in-but have sympathy: Englishspelling changed with foreigninfluences. Chaucer wrote "gesse,"but "guess," imported earlier bythe Norman invaders, finallyreplaced it. Most early printersin England came from Holland;they brought "ghost" and "gherkin"with them.

If you'd like to intimidate your-self-and remain a bad spellerforever-just try to remember

the 13 different ways the sound"sh" can be written:

shoesugaroceanissuenationschist

suspicionnauseousconsciouschaperonemansionfuchsia

pshaw

Now the good newsThe good news is that 90 per-

cent of all writing consists of 1,000basic words. There is, also, amethod to most English spellingand a great number of how-to-spellbooks. Remarkably, all these bookspropose learning the same rules!Not surprisingly, most of thesebooks are humorless.

Just keep this in mind: If you'refamiliar with the words you use,you'll probably spell them cor-rectly-and you shouldn't be writ-ing words you're unfamiliar withanyway. USE a word-out loud, andmore than once-before you trywriting it, and make sure (with anew word) that you know what itmeans before you use it. Thismeans you'll have to look it up ina dictionary, where you'll not onlylearn what it means, but you'll seehow it's spelled. Choose adictionary you enjoy browsingin, and guard it as you woulda diary You wouldn't lenda diary, would you?

A tip on looking it upBeside every word I

look up in my dic-tionary, I makea mark.

"Love yourdictionary."

Beside every word I look up morethan once, I write a note to myself-about WHY I looked it up. I havelooked up "strictly" 14 times since1964.1 prefer to spell it with a k -as in "stricktly." I have looked up"ubiquitous" a dozen times. I can'tremember what it means.

Another good way to use yourdictionary: When you have to lookup a word, for any reason, learn-and learn to spell— a new word atthe same time. It can be any usefulword on the same page as the wordyou looked up. Put the date besidethis new word and see how quickly,or in what way, you forget it. Even-tually, you'll learn it.

Almost as important as know-ing what a word means (in orderto spell it) is knowing how it's pro-nounced. It's government, notgoverment. It's February, notFebuary. And if you know thatanti- means against, you shouldknow how to spell antidote andantibiotic and antifreeze. If youknow that ante- means before, youshouldn't have trouble spellingantechamber or antecedent.

Some rules, exceptions, andtwo tricksI don't have room to

touch on all the rules here.It would take a book todo that. But I can sharea few that help memost:

Some spelling prob-lems that seem hard are

really easy. What about-ary or -ery? Just remember

that there are only six^common words in

English thatend in -ery.Memorizethem, andfeel fairlysecure thatall the restend in -ary.

cemeterymillinerydistillery

monasteryconfectionerystationery(as in paper)

Here's another easy rule. Onlyfour words end in -efy. Most peoplemisspell them-with -ify, which isusually correct. Just memorize these,too, and use -ify for all the rest.

stupefy putrefyliquefy rarefy

As a former bad speller, I havelearned a few valuable tricks. Anygood how-to-spell book will teachyou more than these two, but thesetwo are my favorites. Of the800,000 words in the English lan-guage, the most frequently mis-spelled is alright; just rememberthat alright is all wrong. Youwouldn't write alwrong, would you?That's how you know you shouldwrite all right.

The othertrick is for thetruly worstspellers. I meanthose of you whospell so badly that youcan't get close enough tothe right way to spell a word inorder to even FIND it in the dic-tionary. The word you're lookingfor is there, of course, but youwon't find it the way you're tryingto spell it. What to do is look upa synonym-another word thatmeans the same thing. Chancesare good that you'll find the wordyou're looking for under the defini-tion of the synonym.

Demon words and bugbearsEveryone has a few demon

words-they never look right, evenwhen they're spelled correctly.Three of my demons are medievalecstasy and rhythm. I have learnedto hate these words, but I have notlearned to spell them; I have tolook them up every time.

And everyone has a spellingrule that's a bugbear-it's either toodifficult to leam or it's impossibleto remember. My personal bugbearamong the rules is the one govern-ing whether you add -able or -ible.I can teach it to you, but I can't

remember it myself.You add -able to a full word:

adapt, adaptable; work, workable.You add -able to words that end ine-just remember to drop the finale: love, lovable. But if the wordends in two e's, like agree, you keepthem both: agreeable.

You add -ible if the base is nota full word that can stand on itsown: credible, tangible, horrible,terrible. You add -ible if the rootword ends in -ns: responsible. Youadd -ible if the root word ends in-miss: permissible. You add -ibleif the root word ends in a soft <

incomprehensibilities

'This is one of the longest English wordsin common use. But dont let the length ofa word frighten you. There's a rule for howto spell this one, and you can learn it."

(but remember to drop the final e!):force, forcible.

Got that? I don't have it, and1 was introduced to that rule inprep school; with that rule, I stilllearn one word at a time.

Poor President JacksonYou must remember that it is

permissible for spelling to driveyou crazy. Spelling had this effecton Andrew Jackson, who onceblew his stack while trying to writea Presidential paper. "It's a damnpoor mind that can think of onlyone way to spell a word!" the Presi-dent cried.

When you have trouble, thinkof poor Andrew Jackson and knowthat you're not alone.

What's really importantAnd remember what's really

important about good writing isnot good spelling. If you spell badlybut write well, you should holdyour head up. As the poet T.S.Eliot recommended, "Write for aslarge and miscellaneous an audi-ence as possible"-and don't beoverly concerned if you can't spell

"miscellaneous."Alsorememberthat you can

spell correctlyand write well

and still be misun-derstood. Hold your

head up about that, too.As good old G.C. Lichten-

berg said, "A book is a mirror: ifan ass peers into it, you can'texpect an apostle to look out"-whether you spell "apostle" cor-rectly or not.



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How to enjoy poetryby James Dickey

International Paper asked James Dickey,poet4n*residence at the University of SouthCarolina, winner of the National BookAward for his collection of poems, "Buck-dancer's Choice," and author of the novel"Deliverance," to tell you how to approachpoetry so it can bring special pleasure andunderstanding to your life.

What is poetry? And why has itbeen around so long? Many havesuspected that it was invented as aschool subject, because you haveto take exams on i t But that isnot what poetry is or why it is stillaround That's not what it feels like,either. When you really feel it, anew part of you happens, or an oldpart is renewed, with surprise anddelight at being what it is.

Where poetry is coming fromFrom the beginning, men have

known that words and things, wordsand actions, words and feelings,go together, and that they can gotogether in thousands of differentways, according to who is usingthem. Some ways go shallow, andsome go deep.

Your connection with otherimaginations

The first thing to understandabout poetry is that it comes to youfrom outside you, in books or inwords, but that for it to live, some-thing from within you must come toit and meet it and complete it. Yourresponse with your own mind andbody and memory and emotionsgives the poem its ability to work itsmagic; if you give to it, it will giveto you, and give plenty.

When you read, dorft let thepoet write down to you; read up tohim. Reach for him from your gutout, and the heart and muscles willcome into it, too.

Which sun? Whose stars?The sun is new every day, the

ancient philosopher Heraclitus said.The sun of poetry is new every day,too, because it is seen in different

"The things around us-like water, trees, clouds, the sun-belong to us all. How you seethem can enhance my way of seeing them. And just the other way around!'

ways by different people who havelived under it, lived with it, respond-ed to it. Their lives are different fromyours, but by means of the specialspell that poetry brings to the fact ofthe sun-everybody's sun; yours, too-

you can come into possessionof many suns: as many as men andwomen have ever been able toimagine. Poetry makes possible thedeepest kind of personal possessionof the world.

/MORE/

The most beautiful constellationin the winter sky is Orion, whichancient poets thought looked likea hunter, up there, moving acrossheaven with his dog Sirius. What isthis hunter made out of stars hunt-ing for? What does he mean? Whoowns him, if anybody? The poetAldous Huxley felt that he did, andso, in Aldous Huxley's universe ofpersonal emotion, he did

Up from among the emblems of thewind into its heart of power,

The Huntsman climbs, and all hisliving stars

Are blight, and all are mine.

Where to startThe beginning of your true en-

counter with poetry should be simple.It should bypass all classrooms, alltextbooks, courses, examinations,and libraries and go straight to thethings that make your own existenceexist: to your body and nerves andblood and muscles. Find your ownway-a secret way that just maybeyou dorit know yet-to open yourselfas wide as you can and as deep asyou can to the moment, the now ofyour own existence and the endlessmystery of it, and perhaps at thesame time to one other thing thatis not you, but is out there: a hand-ful of gravel is a good place to startSo is an ice cube-what more myster-ious and beautiful interior of some-thing has there ever been?

As for me, I like the sun, thesource of all living things, and oncertain days very good-feeling, too."Start with the sun," D.H. Lawrencesaid, "and everything will slowly,slowly happen," Good advice. Anda lot will happen.

What is more fascinating than arock, if you really feel it and look atit, or more interesting than a leaf?

Horses, 1 mean; butterflies, whales;Mosses, and stars; and gravellyRivers, and fruit

Oceans, I mean; black valleys; corn;Brambles, and cliffs; rock, dirt, dust, ice.,.

Go back and read this list-it isquite a list, Mark Van Doreris list!—item by item. Slowly. Let each ofthese things call up an image out ofyour own life.

Think and feel. What moss doyou see? Which horse? What field

of corn? What brambles are yourbrambles? Which river is most yours?

The poem's way of goingPart of the spell of poetry is in

the rhythm of language, used bypoets who understand how powerfula factor rhythm can be, how com-pelling and unforgettable. Almostanything put into rhythm andrhyme is more memorable than thesame thing said in prose. Why thisis, no one knows completely, thoughthe answer is surely rooted far downin the biology by means of whichwe exist; in the circulation of theblood that goes forth from the heartand comes back, and in the repeti-tion of breathing. Croesus was a richGreek king, back in the sixth centurybefore Christ, but this tombstonewas not his:

No Croesus lies in the grave you see;1 was a poor laborer, and this suits me.

That is plain-spoken and definitive.You believe it, and the rhyme helpsyou believe it and keep it.

Some things you'll find outWriting poetry is a lot like a

contest with yourself, and if you likesports and games and competitionsof all kinds, you might like to trywriting some. Why not?

The possibilities of rhyme aregreat. Some of the best fun is inmaking up your own limericks.There's no reason you can't inventlimericks about anything that comesto your mind. No reason. Try it.

The problem is to find threewords that rhyme and fit into ameaning. "There was a young manfrom..." Where was he from ? What

situation was he in? How can thesethings fit into the limerick form-aform everybody knows—so that therhymes "pay off,"and give that senseof completion and inevitability thatis so deliciously memorable thatnothing else is like it?

How it goes with youThe more your encounter with

poetry deepens, the more your expe-rience of your own life will deepen,and you will begin to see things bymeans of words, and words by meansof things.

You will come to understand theworld as it interacts with words, asit can be re-created by words, byrhythms and by images.

You'll understand that thiscondition is one charged with vitalpossibilities. You will pick up mean-ing more quickly—and you willcreate meaning, too, for yourselfand for others.

Connections between thingswill exist for you in ways that theynever did before. They will shinewith unexpectedness, wide-openness,and you will go toward them, onyour own path. "Then..." as Dantesays,"... Then will your feet be filledwith good desire." You will knowthis is happening the first time yousay, of something you never wouldhave noticed before, "Well, wouldyou look at that! Who'd 'a thunk it?"(Pause, full of new light)

"J thunk it!"

Today, the printed word is V I more vital than ever. Now thereis more need than ever for all of v us to read better, write better, andcommunicate better.


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How to read an annual reportBy Jane Bryant Quinn

International Paper asked Jane Bryant Quinn,business commentator for the CBS-TV MorningNews, columnist for Newsweek, and author ofEveryone's Money Book, to tell how anyone 'can understand and profit from a company'sannual report.

T o some business people I know,curling up with a good annualreport is almost more exciting thangetting lost in John le Carre's latestspy thriller.

But to you it might be anotherstory. "Who needs that?" I can hearyou ask. You do-if you're going togamble any of your future worHngfor a company, investing in it, orselling to it.

Why should you bother?Say you've got a job interview atGalactic Industries. Well, whatdoes the company do? Does itsfuture look good? Or will thenext recession leave your partof the business on the beach?

Or say you're thinking of in-vesting your own hard-earnedmoney in its stock. Sales areup. But are its profits gettingbetter or worse?

Or say you're going to supplyit with a lot of parts. Should you __extend Galactic plenty of credit orkeep it on a short leash?

How to get oneYou'll find answers in its annualreport. Where do you find that?^bur library should have the annualreports of nearby companies plusleading national ones. It also haslistings of companies' financial

officers and their addresses so youcan write for annual reports.

So now Galactic Industries'latest annual report is sitting infront of you ready to be cracked.How do you crack it?

Where do we start? Not at thefront. At the back! We don't wantto be surprised at the end of thisstory.

Start at the backFirst, turn back to the report of thecertified public accountant. Thisthird-party auditor will tell youright off the bat if Galactic's reportconforms with "generally acceptedaccounting principles."

Watch out for the words "sub-ject to." They mean the financialreport is clean only if you take thecompany's word about a particularpiece of business, and the accoun-tant isn't sure you should. Doubtslike this are usually settled behindclosed doors* When a "subject to"makes it into the annual report, itcould mean trouble.

What else should you knowbefore you check the numbers?

Stay in the back of thebook and go to

in its pocket. Are earnings up?Maybe that's bad. They may be upbecause of a special windfall thatwon't happen again next year.The footnotes know.For what happened and why

Now turn to the letter from thechairman. Usually addressed "to ourstockholders," it's up front, andshould be in more ways than one.The chairman's tone reflects thepersonality, the well-being of hiscompany.

In his letter he should tell youhow his company fared this year.But more important, he should tellyou why. Keep an eye out for sen-tences that start with "Except for..."and "Despite the..." They're cluesto problems.

Insights into the futureOn the positive side, a chairman'sletter should give you insightsinto the company's future and itsstance on economic or politicaltrends that may affect it.

While you're up front, look forwhat's new in each line of business.Is management getting the com-

pany in good shape to weather thetough and competitive 1980's?

"Reading an annual report can be (almost) as exciting as a spy thriller—it you know how tofind the clues. I'll show you how to find the most important ones here."

the footnotes. Yep! The wholeprofits story is sometimes in thefootnotes.

Are earnings down? If it's onlybecause of a change in accounting,maybe that's good! The companyowes less tax and has more money

Now—and no sooner—shouldyou dig into the numbers!

One source is the balance sheet.It is a snapshot of how the companystands at a single point in time. Onthe left are assets - everything thecompany owns. Things that can

quickly be turned into cash arecurrent assets. O n the right areliabilities— everything the companyowes. Current liabilities are the debtsdue in one year, which are paid outof current assets.

The difference between currentassets and current liabilities is networking capital, a key figure towatch from one annual (and quar-terly) report to another. If workingcapital shrinks, it could mean trou-ble. One possibility: the companymay not be able to keep dividendsgrowing rapidly.

Look for growth hereStockholders' equity is the differencebetween total assets and liabilities.It is the presumed dollarvalue of what stock-holders own. You want itto grow.

Another importantnumber to watch is long-term debt. High and risingdebt, relative to equity,may be no problem for agrowing business. But itshows weakness in a com-pany that's leveling out.(More on that later.)

The second basic source ofnumbers is the income statement. Itshows how much money Galacticmade or lost over the year.

Most people look at one figurefirst. It's in the income statement atthe bottom; net earnings per share.Watch out. It can fool you.Galactic's management could boostearnings by selling off a plant. Orby cutting the budget for researchand advertising. (See the foot-notes!) So don't be smug about netearnings until you've found outhow they happened-and how theymight happen next year.

Check net sales firstThe number you should look at firstin the income statement is net sales.Ask yourself: Are sales going up at afaster rate than the last timearound? When sales increases startto slow, the company may be introuble. Also ask: Have sales goneup faster than inflation? If not, thecompany's red sales may be behind.And ask yourself once more: Havesales gone down because the com-pany is selling off a losing business?

If so, profits may be soaring.(I never promised you that fig-

uring out an annual report wasgoing to be easy!)

Get out your calculatorAnother important thing to studytoday is the company's debt. Getout your pocket calculator, andturn to the balance sheet. Dividelong-term liabilities by stock-holders' equity. That's the debt-to*equity ratio.

A high ratio means that thecompany borrows a lot of money tospark its growth. That's okay-ifsales grow, too, and if there'senough cash on hand to meet thepayments. A company doing well

information, an annual report is second only tomeeting with the brass behind closed doors. Come on in!"

on borrowed money can earn bigprofits for its stockholders. But ifsales fall, watch out. The wholeenterprise may slowly sink. Somecompanies can handle high ratios,others can't.

You have to compareThat brings up the most importantthing of all: One annual report, onechairman's letter, one ratio won'ttell you much. You have to com-pare. Is the company's debt-to-equity ratio better or worse than it

used to be? Better or worse thanthe industry norms? Better orworse, after this recession, than itwas after the last recession? Incompany-watching, comparisonsare ciL They tell you if managementis staying on top of things.

Financial analysts work outmany other ratios to tell them howthe company is doing. You canlearn more about them from bookson the subject. Ask your librarian*

But one thing you will neverlearn from an annual report is howmuch to pay for a company's stock.Galactic may be running well. Butif investors expected it to run bet-ter, the stock might fall Or,Galactic could be slumping badly.But if investors see a better daytomorrow, the stock could rise.

Two important suggestionsThose are some basics for weighinga company's health from its annualreport. But if you want to know oilyou can about a company, youneed to do a little more homework.First, see what the business presshas been saying about it over recentyears. Again, ask your librarian.

Finally, you should keep upwith what's going on in business,economics and politics here andaround the world. All can-andwill-affect you and the companiesyou're interested in.

Each year, companies give youmore and more information in theirannual reports. Profiting from thatinformation is up to you. I hopeyou profit from mine.


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How to enjoy the classicsBy Steve Allen

International Paper asked Steve Allen, televisioncomedian, composer, writer of the television series"Meeting of Minds" author of 22 books and loverof the classics, to tell how you can appreciatemans greatest written works.

Why is it? In school we learn oneof the most amazing and difficultfeats man has ever accomplished-how to read - and at the same timewe learn to hate to read the thingsworth reading most!

Its happened to us all- withassignment reading! It happened tome.The teacher assigned Moby Dick.I didn't want to read it. So I foughtit. I disliked it. I thought I won.

But I lost. My struggle to keepat arm's length from Moby Dickcost me all the good things that cancome from learning to come toterms with those special few bookswe call the "classics."

I've come back to Moby Dickon my own since. I like it. And I'vediscovered a new level of pleasurefrom it with each reading.

What is a classic? A classic is abook that gives you that exhilarat-ing feeling, if only for a moment,that you've finally uncovered partof the meaning of life.

A classic is a book that's stoodthe test of time, a book that menand women all over the world keepreaching for throughout the agesfor its special enlightenment.

Not many books can survivesuch a test. Considering all thevolumes that have been producedsince man first put chisel to stone,

classics account for an infinitesimalshare of the total- less than. 001percent. That's just a few thousandbooks. Of those, under 100 makeup the solid core.

Why should you tackle theclassics? Why try to enjoy them?

I suggest three good reasons:1. Classics open up your mind.2. Classics help you grow.3. Classics help you understand

your life, your world, yourself.That last one is the big one. A

classic can give you insights intoyourself that you will get nowhereelse. Sure, you can get pleasure outof almost any book. But a classic,once you penetrate it, lifts you uphighl Aeschylus's Oresteia waswritten nearly 2,500 years ago - andit still knocks me out!

But I can hear you saying, "I'vetried reading classics. Theyare hard to understand. Ican't get into them."

Let me offer somesuggestions that willhelp you open upthis wondrous world.Pick up a classic you'vealways promised to try.Then take Dr. Allen's advice.Know what you're reading

Is it a novel, drama, biog-raphy, history? To find out,check the table of contents,read the book cover, thepreface, or look up the titleor author in The ReadersEncyclopedia,

Don't read in bedClassics can be

tough going; I'll admitit. You need to be alert,with your senses sharp. Whenyou read in bed you're courtingsleep- and you'll blame it on thebook when you start nodding off,

Don't let a lotof characters throw you

Dostoevsky tosses fifty majorcharacters at you in The Brothers

Karamazov. In the very first chapterof War and Peace, Tolstoy bombardsyou with twenty-two names-long, complicated ones like AnnaPavlovna Scherer, Anatole andPrince Bolkonski. Don't scurry forcover. Stick with it. The charac-ters will gradually sort themselvesout and you'll feel as comfortablewith them as you do with your owndear friends who were strangers,too, when you met them.

Give the author a chanceDon't say "I don't get it!" too

soon. Keep reading right to the end.Sometimes, though, you may

not be ready for the book you'retrying to get into. I tackled Plato'sRepublic three times before it finallyopened up to me. And man, wasit worth it! So if you really can'tmake a go of the book in your lap,put it aside for another day, or year,

and take on another one.Read in big bites

Don't read inshort nibbles.

How canyou expect to

get your headinto anything

that way? Thelonger you staywith it, the moreyou get into the

rhythm and mood-and the more pleasureyou get from it.

When you readZorba the Greek try put-ting bouzouki music

on the record player;Proust, a little Debussy;Shakespeare, Eliza-bethan theater music.

Read whatthe author read

To better understandwhere the author is

"'Moby Dick1 escaped me when itwas assigned reading. Yve landed itsince and loved it. Dont let assignedreading spoil the classics for you!'

coming from, as we say, read the the required reading stigma, trybooks he once read and thatimpressed him. Shakespeare, forexample, dipped into North's trans-lation of Plutarch's Lives for theplots of Julius Caesar, Antony andCleopatra and A Midsummer Night'sDream. It's fun to know you'rereading what he read.Read about the author's time

You are the product of yourtime. Any author is the product ofhis time. Knowing the historyof that time, the problerthat he and others facedtheir attitudes-will helpunderstand the author'spoint of view. Impor-tant point: You maynot agree with theauthor. No prob-lem. At least he'smade you think!

Read aboutthe author's lifeThe more you know

about an author's ownexperiences, the moreyou'll understand whyhe wrote what he wrote.You'll begin to see theautobiographical oddsand ends that are hidden in his work.

A writer can't help but revealhimself. Most of our surmises aboutShakespeare's life come from cluesfound in his plays.

Read the book againAll classics bear rereading* If

after you finish the book you'reintrigued but still confused, rereadit then and there. It'll open upsome more to you.

If you did read a classic a fewyears back and loved it, read itagain. The book will have so manynew things to say to you, you'llhardly believe it's the same one.

A few classics to enjoyYou can find excellent lists of

the basic classics compiled by help-ful experts, like Clifton Fadiman'sLifetime Reading Plan, the HarvardClassics and Mortimer J. Adler'sGreat Books. Look into them.

But before you do, I'd like tosuggest a few classics that can lightup your life. Even though somemight have been spoiled for you by

them. Try them. And try them.1. Homer; Iliad and Odyssey.

The Adam and Eve of Western lit-erature. Read a good recent trans-lation. My favorite is by RobertFitzgerald.

2. Rabelais: Gargantua andPantagruel A Gargantuan romp. Irecommend the Samuel Putnam

translation.

"Some of my best friends come out of the pages of the classics I suggest to you here. They'll beyour best friends, tou, for they'll help yvu better utvderstand your life, your world and yourself!'

3. Geoffrey Chaucer: Canter-bury Tales. Thirty folks on a four-daypilgrimage swapping whoppers.Don't be surprised if the people youmeet here are like people you knowin your life.

4- Cervantes: Don Quixote. Thefirst modern novel, about the lovableold Don with his "impossible dream."How could you go through lifewithout reading it once 1

5. Shakespeare: Plays. Shake

speare turned out 37 plays. Someare flops, some make him thegreatest writer ever. All offer gold.His best: "Hamlet," "Macbeth" and"Romeo and Juliet." (See them onthe stage, too.)

6. Charles Dickens: PickwickPapers. No one can breathe life intocharacters the way Dickens can.Especially the inimitable SamuelPickwick, Esq.

7. Mark Twain: HuckleberryFinn. Maybe you had to read thisin school. Well, climb back on that

raft with Huck and Jim. You'llfind new meaning this time.

Of course, these fewsuggestions hardly scratch

the surface.Don't just dip

your toe into thedeep waters of theclassics. Plunge in!Like generationsof bright human

beings before you,you'll find yourselfinvigorated to themarrow by thoughtsand observationsof the most giftedwriters in history.

You still enjoylooking at classic paintings. Youenjoy hearing musical classics.Good books will hold you, too.

Someone has said the classicsare the diary of man. Open up thediary. Read about yourself- and

understand yourself.

Today, the printed word is more vital than ever. Now thereis more need than ever for all of us to read better, unite better, andcommunicate better.


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How to use a libraryBy James A.Michener

International Paper asked Pulitzer Prize-winningnovelist James A. Michener, author of "Tales ofthe South Pacific," "Hawaii," "Centennial"and "Chesapeake," to tell how you can benefitfrom the most helpful service in your community.

You're driving your car home fromwork or school. And somethinggoes wrong. The engine stalls out atlights, holds back m you go to pass.

It needs a tune-up-and soon.Where do you go? The library.

You can take out an auto repairmanual that tells step-by-step howto tune up your make and model.

Or your tennis game has fallenoff. You've lost your touch at thenet. Where do you go?

The library-for a few books onimproving your tennis form.

"The library!" you say. "That'swhere my teacher sends me to do- ugh- homework."

Unfortunately, Fve found that'sexactly the way many people feel.If you're among them, you're deny-ing yourself the easiest way toimprove yourself, enjoy yourself andeven cope with life.

It's hard for me to imagine whatI would be doing today if I had notfallen in love, at the ripe old age ofseven, with the Melinda Cox Libraryin my hometown of Doylestown,Pennsylvania. At ourhouse, we just could notafford books. The booksin that free library wouldchange my life dramatically.

Who knows what your librarycan open up for you?

My first suggestion for makingthe most of your library is to dowhat I did: read and read and read.For pleasure-and for understanding.

How to kick the T V habitIf it's TV that keeps you from

cultivating this delicious habit, I canoffer a sure remedy. Take home fromthe library a stack of books thatmight look interesting.

Pile them on the TV set. Nexttime you are tempted to turn ona program you really don't want tosee, reach for a book instead.

Over the years, some peoplecollect a mental list of books theymean to read. If you don't havesuch a list, here is a suggestion. Takefrom the library some of the booksyou might have enjoyed dramatizedon TV, like Remarque's "All Quieton the Western Front," Clavell's"Shogun," Tolkien's "The Hobbit','or Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables'.'

If you like what you read, youcan follow up with other satisfy-ing books by the same authors.

Some people in their read-ing limit themselves to currenttalked-about best sellers. Oh,what they miss! The library is

"You dont have to go this far to cut back on the TV habit and enjoyreading more. See my suggestions here"

full of yesterday's best sellers; andthey still make compelling readingtoday Some that I've enjoyed: A.B.Guthrie's "The Big Sky," Carl VanDoren's "Benjamin Franklin," MariSandoz's "Old Jules," and NormanMailer's "The Naked and the Dead."

How do you find these or anyother books you're looking for? It'seasy-with the card catalog.

Learn to usethe card catalog

Every time I go to the library-and I go more than once a week-1invariably make a beeline to thecard catalog before anything else.It's the nucleus of any public library

The card catalog lists everybook in the library by:

1. author; 2. title; 3. subject.Let's pick an interesting subject

to look up. I have always beenfascinated by astronomy

You'll be surprised at the wealthof material you will find under"astronomy" to draw upon. And theabsorbing books you didn't knowexisted on it.

CAUTION: Always have apencil and paper when you use thecard catalog. Once you jot downthe numbers of the books you areinterested in, you are ready to find

them on the shelves.

Learn touse the stacks

Libraries call theshelves "the stacks."In many smaller li-braries which you'llbe using, the stackswill be open for youto browse.

To me there is aspecial thrill in track-ing down the booksI want in the stacks!For invariably, I findbooks about which

I knew nothing, and

these often turn out to be the veryones I need You will find the samething happening to you when youstart to browse in the stacks."A learned mind is theend product of browsing"

"Every time I go to the library,I make a beeline to the card catalog.Learn to use it It's easy."

CAUTION: If you take a bookfrom the stacks to your work desk,do not try to return it to its properplace. That's work for the experts. Ifyou replace it incorrectly, the nextseeker won't be able to find it.

Learn to knowthe reference librarian

Some of the brightest and bestinformed men and women in Amer-ica are the librarians who specializein providing reference help.

Introduce yourself. State yourproblem. And be amazed at howmuch help you will receive.

CAUTION: Don't waste thetime of this expert by asking sillyquestions you ought to solve your-self. Save the reference librarian forthe really big ones.

Learn to use The Reader^Guide to Periodical Literature

This green-bound index is oneof the most useful items in anylibrary. It indexes all the articles inthe major magazines, includingnewspaper magazine supplements.

Thus it provides a guide to thevery latest expert information onany subject that interests you.

So if you want to do a reallyfirst-class job, find out which maga-zines your library subscribes to,then consult The Reader's Guideand track down recent articles onyour subject. When you use thiswonderful tool effectively, you showthe mark of a real scholar.

Four personal hintsSince you can take most books

home, but not magazines, take full

notes when using the latter.Many libraries today provide a

reprographic machine that canquickly copy pages you need frommagazines and books. Ask about it.

If you are working on a projectof some size which will requirerepeated library visits, keep a small

notebook in which you recordthe identification numbers ofthe books you will be usingfrequently. This will save youvaluable time, because youwon't have to consult the cardcatalog or search aimlesslythrough the stacks each timeyou visit for material you seek.

Some of the very best books inany library are the reference books,which may not be taken home.Learn what topics they cover andhow best to use them, for thesebooks are wonderful repositories ofhuman knowledge.

Your business and legal advisorYour library can give you help

on any subject. It can even be yourbusiness and legal advisor.

How many times have youscratched your head over how to geta tax rebate on your summer job?Youll find answers in tax guides atthe library. Thinking of buying orrenting a house? Youll find guidesto that. Want to defend yourself intraffic court? Find out how in legalbooks at the library.

library projectscan be fun—and rewarding

Here are a few ideas:I. What are your roots? Trace A

your ancestors. Many libraries Jr7specialize in genealogy. /j

2. Did George Washington sleepnearby? Or Billy the Kid? Yourlibrary's collection of local historybooks can put you on the trail.

3. Cook a Polynesian feast Oran ancient Roman banquet. Readhow in the library's cookbooks.

4. Take up photography. Checkthe library for consumer reviews ofcameras before you buy. Take outbooks on lighting, composition, ordarkroom techniques.

Or-you name it!If you haven't detected by now

my enthusiasm for libraries, let meoffer two personal notes.

I'm particularly pleased that inrecent years two beautiful librarieshave been named after me; a smallcommunity library in Quakertown,

"I discover all lands of interesting books just bybrowsing in the stacks. I encourage you tobrowse"

Pennsylvania, and the huge researchlibrary located at the University ofNorthern Colorado in Greeley.

And I like libraries so much thatI married a librarian.




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How to write with styleByKurtVonnegut

International Paper asked Kurt Vonnegut, authorof such novels as "Slaughterhouse-Five" "Jailbird"and "Cat's Cradle" to tell you how to put yourstyle and personality into everything you write,

Newspaper reporters and technicalwriters are trained to reveal almostnothing about themselves intheir writings. This makes themfreaks in the world of writers, sincealmost all of the other ink-stainedwretches in that world reveal a lotabout themselves to readers* Wecall these revelations, accidentaland intentional, elements of style.

These revelations tell us asreaders what sort of person it iswith whom we are spending time.Does the writer sound ignorant orinformed, stupid or bright, crookedor honest, humorless or playful - ?And on and on.

Why should you examine yourwriting style with the idea of im-proving it? Do so as a mark of re-spect for your readers, whateveryou're writing. If you scribble yourthoughts any which way, yourreaders will surely feel that you carenothing about them. They willmark you down as an egomaniacor a chowderhead — or, worse, theywill stop reading you.

The most damning revelationyou can make about yourself is thatyou do not know what is inter-esting and what is not. Don't youyourself like or dislike writers

mainly for what they choose toshow you or make you think about?Did you ever admire an empty-headed writer for his or her masteryof the language? No.

So your own winning style mustbegin with ideas in your head.

1. Find a subject you care aboutFind a subject you care about

and which you in your heart feelothers should care about. It is thisgenuine caring, and not yourgames with language, which willbe the most compelling and seduc-tive element in your style.

I am not urging you to write anovel, by the way - although Iwould not be sorry if you wroteone, provided you genuinely caredabout something. A petition to themayor about a pothole in frontof your house or a love letter tothe girl next door will do.

2. Do not ramble, thoughI won't ramble on about that.

3. Keep it simpleAs for your use of language:

Remember that two great mastersof language, William Shakespeareand James Joyce, wrote sentenceswhich were almost childlikewhen their subjects were mostprofound. "To be or not to be?"asks Shakespeare's Hamlet.The longest word is threeletters long. Joyce, when hewas frisky, could puttogether a sentenceas intricate and asglittering as a neck-lace for Cleopatra,but my favoritesentence in his shortstory "Eveline" is thisone: "She was tired."At that point in thestory, no other wordscould break the heartof a reader as thosethree words do.

Simplicity of language is notonly reputable, but perhaps evensacred. The Bible opens with asentence well within the writingskills of a lively fourteen-year-old:"In the beginning God created theheaven and the earth "

4. Have the guts to cutIt may be that you, too, are

capable of making necklaces forCleopatra, so to speak. But youreloquence should be the servant ofthe ideas in your head. Your rulemight be this: If a sentence, nomatter how excellent, does not il-luminate your subject in somenew and useful way, scratch it out.

5. Sound like yourselfThe writing style which is most

natural for you is bound to echothe speech you heard when a child.English was the novelist JosephConrad's third language, and muchthat seems piquant in his use ofEnglish was no doubt colored byhis first language, which was Pol-ish. And lucky indeed is the writerwho has grown up in Ireland, forthe English spoken there is soamusing and musical. I myself grew

up in Indianapolis,^Should IV">W wêre common

speech soundslike a bandsaw cuttinggalvanized tin,

act upon theurgings that I feel,or remain passive

and thus ceaseto exist?

"Keep it simple, Shakespeare did, with Hamlet's famous soliloquy."

"Be merciless on yourself. If a sentence does not illuminateyour subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out!'

and employs a vocabulary as unor-namental as a monkey wrench.

In some of the more remotehollows of Appalachia, childrenstill grow up hearing songs and lo-cutions of Elizabethan times. Yes,and many Americans grow uphearing a language other thanEnglish, or an English dialect amajority of Americans cannot un-derstand*

All these varieties of speechare beautiful, just as the varieties ofbutterflies are beautiful No matterwhat your first language, youshould treasure it all your life. If ithappens not to be standard En-glish, and if it shows itself whenyou write standard English, the re-sult is usually delightful, like a verypretty girl with one eye that isgreen and one that is blue.

I myself find that I trust myown writing most, and others seemto trust it most, too, when I soundmost like a person from Indianapo-lis, which is what I am. What al-ternatives do I have? The one mostvehemently recommended byteachers has no doubt been pressedon you, as well; to write likecultivated Englishmen of a centuryor more ago.

6. Say what you mean to sayI used to be exasperated by

such teachers, but am no more. Iunderstand now that all those an-tique essays and stories with whichI was to compare my own workwere not magnificent for their dat-edness or foreignness, but for say-ing precisely what their authors

meant them to say. My teacherswished me to write accurately,always selecting the most effectivewords, and relating the words to

one another unambiguously,

/> rigidly, like parts of a machine.

The teachers did not want toturn me into an Englishmanafter all They hoped that I

would become understandable- and therefore understood.

And there went my dream ofdoing with words what PabloPicasso did with paint or whatany number of jazz idols didwith music. If I broke all therules of punctuation, had

words mean whatever I wantedthem to mean, and strung themtogether higgledy-piggledy, I wouldsimply not be understood. So you,too, had better avoid Picasso-styleor jazz-style writing, if you havesomething worth saying andwish to be understood.

Readers want our pagesto look very much like pagesthey have seen before.Why? This is becausethey themselves havea tough job to do, andthey need all the helpthey can get from us.

7. Pity the readersThey have to

identify thousands oflittle marks on paper,and make sense ofthem immediately.They have to read, an

"Pick a subject you care so deeply aboutthat youd speak on a soapbox about it

art so difficult that most people don'treally master it even after havingstudied it all through grade schooland high school - twelve long years.

So this discussion must finallyacknowledge that our stylisticoptions as writers are neither nu-merous nor glamorous, since ourreaders are bound to be suchimperfect artists. Our audiencerequires us to be sympathetic andpatient teachers, ever willing tosimplify and clarify - whereas wewould rather soar high above thecrowd, singing like nightingales.

That is the bad news. Thegood news is that we Americansare governed under a uniqueConstitution, which allows us towrite whatever we please withoutfear of punishment. So the mostmeaningful aspect of our styles,which is what we choose to writeabout, is utterly unlimited.

8, For really detailed adviceFor a discussion of literary style

in a narrower sense, in a moretechnical sense, I commend toyour attention The Elements of Style,

by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B.White (Macmillan, 1979).

E.B. White is, ofcourse, one of themost admirable lit-erary stylists thiscountry has so farproduced. •

You should realize,too, that no onewould care how wellor badly Mr. Whiteexpressed himself,if he did not haveperfectly enchantingthings to say.




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How to write dearlyBy Edward T. ThompsonEditor-in-Chief, Reader's Digest

IInternational Paper asked.Edward T, Thompsonto share some of what he has learned in nineteenyears with Readers Digest, a magazine famousfor making complicated subjects understandableto millions of readers.

If you are afraid to write, dorit be.If you think youVe got to string

together big fancy words and high-flying phrases, forget i t

To write well, unless you aspireto be a professional poet or novel-ist, you only need to get your ideasacross simply and clearly.

It's not easy. But it is easierthan you might imagine.

There are only three basicrequirements:

First, you must want to writeclearly. And I believe you really do,if youVe stayed this far with me.

Second, you must be willing towork hard. Thinking means work—and that's what it takes to doanything well

Third, you must know and fol-low some basic guidelines.

If, while you're writing for clar-ity, some lovely, dramatic orinspired phrases or sentences cometo you, fine. Put them in.

But then with cold, objectiveeyes and mind ask yourself; "Dothey detract from clarity?" If theydo, grit your teeth and cut the frills.

Follow some basicguidelines

I can't give you a complete list of

"dos and don'ts" for every writingproblem you'll ever face.

But I can give you some funda-mental guidelines that cover themost common problems.1. Outline what you want to say*

I know that sounds grade -schoolish. But you can't write clearlyuntil, before you start, you knowwhere you will stop.

Ironically, that's even a problemin writing an outline (i.e., knowingthe ending before you begin).

So try this method;

• On 3 ' x 5 " cards, write-onepoint to a card—all the points youneed to make.• Divide the cards into piles-onepile for each group of points closelyrelated to each other. (If you weredescribing an automobile, you'dput all the points about mileage inone pile, all the points about safetyin another, and so on.)• Arrange your piles of points ina sequence. Which are mostimportant and should be given firstor saved for last? Which must youpresent before others in order tomake the others understandable ?• Now, within each pile, do thesame thing-arrange the points inlogical, understandable order.

There you have your outline,needing only an introduction andconclusion.

This is a practical way to out-line. It's also flexible. You canadd, delete or change the locationof points easily.

remember that your prime purposeis to explain something, not provethat you're smarter than your readers.3. Avoid jargon*

Don't use words, expressions,phrases known only to people withspecific knowledge or interests.

Example; A scientist, using sci-entific jargon, wrote, "The biotaexhibited a one hundred percentmortality response." He could havewritten; "All the fish died."4. Use familiar combinationsof words*

A speech writer for PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt wrote, "We areendeavoring to construct a moreinclusive society." ED.R. changedit to, "We're going to make a countryin which no one is left out."

CAUTION: By familiar com-binations of words, I do not meanincorrect grammar. That can beunclear. Example; John's fathersays he can't go out Friday (Whocan't go out? John or his father?)

5. Use "first-degree" words.These words immediately bring

an image to your mind. Otherwords must be "translated"

through the first-ly degree word

before you see

i* 'Outline for clarity. Write\ your points on 3 "x 5 "cards-one point to a card.

Then you can easily add to,or change the order ofpoints-even delete some."

2. Start where your readersHow much do they know^

about the subj ect ? Don'twrite to a level higherthan your readers'knowledge of it.

CAUTION: Forgetthat old—and wrong-advice about writing toa 12-year-old mentality.That's insulting. But do

"Grit your teeth and cut the frills. Thai s one oj me sugThey cover the most common problems. And they're a

lestions I offer here to help you write clearly.II easy to follow."

the image. Those are second/third-degree words.

First-degree wordsface—stay-book-

Second/third-degree words— visage, countenance— abide, remain, reside— volume, tome, publication

First-degree words are usuallythe most precise words, too.6. Stick to the point.

Your outline- which was morework in the beginning-now savesyou work. Because now you canask about any sentence you write:"Does it relate to a point in theoutline? If it doesrit, should I addit to the outline? If not, I'm gettingoff the track." Then, full steamahead-on the main line.?• Be as brief as possible*

Whatever you write, shorten-ing— condensing—almost alwaysmakes it tighter, straighter, easierto read and understand.

Condensing, as Reader s Digestdoes it, is in large part artistry. Butit involves techniques that anyonecan learn and use.• Present your points in logical A B Corder: Here again, your outlineshould save you work because, ifyou did it right, your points alreadystand in logical ABC order—Amakes B understandable, B makesC understandable and so on. Towrite in a straight line is to saysomething clearly in the fewestpossible words.• Don t waste words telling peoplewhat they already know: Notice howwe edited this: "Have you ever

wondered how banks rate you as acredit risk? You know, of course,-that it's some combination of facto

3o on. But actually nfany bankshave a scoring system...."• Cut out excess evidence andunnecessary anecdotes: Usually, onefact or example (at most, two) willsupport a point. More just belaborit. And while writing about some-

/ f he biota exhibited a(100% mortality

Writing clearly means avoiding jargon. Why didnthe just say: "Ml the fish died!"

thing may remind you of a goodstory, ask yourself: "Does it reallyhelp to tell the story, or does it slowme down?"

(Many people think Reader'sDigest articles are filled with anec-dotes. Actually, we use them spar-ingly and usually for one of tworeasons: either the subject is so dryit needs some "humanity11 to giveit life; or the subject is so hard tograsp, it needs anecdotes to helpreaders understand If the subjectis both lively and easy to grasp, wemove right along,)• Look for the most common wordwasters: windy phrases.

Windy phrasesat the present t ime-in the event ofin the majority of instances -

Cut to . . .nowifusually

• Look for passive verbs you canmake active .-Invariably, this pro-duces a shorter sentence. "Thecherry tree was chopped down byGeorge Washington.11 (Passiveverb and nine words.) "GeorgeWashington chopped down thecherry tree.11 (Active verb andseven words.)• Look for positive /negative sections

from which you can cut the negative:See how we did it here:"The answerebco not root with carclcs

itencc. It lie iy IUALLav-ing enough people to do the job.11

• Finally, to write more clearly bysaying it in fewer words: when youVefinished, stop.

cî/l*st\^T*




"Power of the Printed Word," International Paper Company,Dept. 4, P.O. Box 954, Madison Square Station,New York, NY 10010. : 1962 INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY


Printed in U.S. on International Paper Company's Springhill® Offset, basis 60 1b,

How to improveyour vocabulary

By Tony Randall

International Paper asked Tony Randall-who is onThe American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel,and loves words almost as much as acung-to tellhow he has acquired his enormous vocabulary.

Words can make us laugh, cry, goto war, fall in love.

Rudyard Kipling called wordsthe most powerful drug of mankind.If they are, I'm a hopeless addict—and I hope to get you hooked, too!

Whether you're still in schoolor you head up a corporation, thebetter command you have ofwords, the better chance you haveof saying exactly what you mean,of understanding what othersmean—and of getting what youwant in the world.

English is the richest language—with the largest vocabulary onearth. Over 1,000,000 words!

You can express shades ofmeaning that aren't even possiblein other languages. (For example,you can differentiate between"sky" and "heaven." The French,Italians and Spanish cannot.)

Yet, the average adult has avocabulary of only 30,000 to60,000 words. Imagine what we'remissing!

Here are five pointers thathelp me learn—and remember—whole families of words at a time.

They may not look easy—and

won't be at first. But if you stickwith them you'll find they work!

What's the first thing to dowhen you see a word you don'tknow?

1. Try to guess the meaningof the word

from the way it's usedYou can often get at least part of aword's meaning—just from howit's used in a sentence.

That's why it's so importantto read as much as you c a n -different kinds of things; maga-zines, books, newspapers youdon't normally read. The moreyou expose yourself to new words,the more words you'll pick up justby seeing how they're used.

For instance, say you runacross the word "manacle":

"The manacles had been onJohn's wrists for 30 years.Only one person had a key—his wife."

You have a good idea of what"manacles" are—just from thecontext of the sentence.

But let's find out exactly whatthe word means and where itcomes from. The only way to dothis, and to build an extensivevocabulary fast, is to go to thedictionary. (How lucky, you can —Shakespeare couldn't. There wasntan English dictionary in his day!)

So you go to the dictionary.(NOTE: Don't let dictionaryabbreviations put you off. Thefront tells you what they mean,ând even has a guide topronunciation.)

2. Look it upHere's the definitionfor "manacle" in TheAmerican Heritage

Dictionary of the English Language.man-a-cle (manVkal) n. Usually plural.1. A device for confining the hands, usuallyconsisting of two metal rings that are fastenedabout the wrists and joined by a metal chain; ahandcuff. 2. Anything that confines orrestrains.-tr.v. manacled, -cling, -cles,1. To restrain with manacles. 2. To confineor restrain as if with manacles; shackle; fetter.[Middle English manicle, from Old French,from Latin manicula, little hand, handle,diminutive of manus, hand. See man-2 inAppendix.*]

The first definition fits here:A device for confining the hands,usually consisting of two metalrings that are fastened about thewrists and joined by a metalchain; a handcuff.

Well, that's what you thought itmeant. But what's the idea behindthe word? What are its roots 1 Toreally understand a word, youneed to know.

Here's where the detectivework—and the fun—begins.

3. Dig the meaning out bythe roots

The root is thebasic part ofthe word—itsheritage, itsorigin. (Mostof our rootscomefrom

"Your main clue to remembering a word is its root-its grigm."

"'Emancipate has aLatin root. Learn it andyou'll know other wordsat a glance."

Latin and Greekwords at least2,000 years old—which come fromeven earlierIndo-Europeantongues!)

Learning theroots: 1) Helps usremember words.2) Gives us adeeper under-standing of thewords we alreadyknow. And 3)allows us to pick

up whole families of new words ata time. That's why learning theroot is the most important part ofgoing to the dictionary.

Notice the root of "manacle"is manus (Latin) meaning "hand."

Well, that makes sense. Now,other words with this root, man,start to make sense, too.

Take manual—somethingdone "by hand" (manual labor) ora "handbook" And manage—to"handle" something (as amanager). When you emancipatesomeone, you're taking him "fromthe hands of" someone else.

When you manufacturesomething, you "make it by hand"(in its original meaning).

And when you finish your firstnovel, your publisher will see your— originally "handwritten"—manuscript.

Imagine! A whole new worldof words opens up—just from onesimple root!

The root gives the basic clue tothe meaning of a word. But there'sanother important clue that runsa close second—the prefix.

4. Get the powerful\ prefixes under your belt1 A prefix is the part that's

f sometimes attached to thefront of a word. Like—well,

prefix! There aren't many—less than 100 major prefixes—and you'll learn them in notime at all just by becomingmore aware of the meanings

of words you already know.Here are a few. (Some of the

"How-to" vocabulary-building

books will give youPREFIX

(Lat.) (Gk.)com, con, sym, syn,co, col, cor sylin, im, a, anil.ir

contra, anti,counter ant

MEANING

with, very,together

not,without

against,opposite

the others.)EXAMPLES

conformsympathy

innocentamorphous

contraveneantidote

(Literal sense)

(form with)(feeling with)

(not wicked)(without form)

(come against)(give against)

Now, see how the prefix (alongwith the context) helps you get themeaning of the italicized words:

• "If you're going to be mywitness, your story mustcorroborate my story." (The literalmeaning of corroborate is "strengthtogether!')

• "You told me one thing—now you tell me another. Don'tcontradict yourself." (The literalmeaning of contradict is "sayagainst")

• "Oh, that snake's not poison-ous. It's a completely innocuouslittle garden snake." (The literalmeaning of innocuous is "notharmful")

Now, you've got some newwords. What are you going to dowith them?

5. Put your new words towork at once

Use them several times the firstday you learn them. Say them outloud! Write them in sentences.

Should you "use" them onfriends ? Careful —you don't wantthem to think you're a stuffedshirt. (It depends on thesituation. You know when a wordsounds natural—and when itsounds stuffy.)

How about your enemies ? Youhave my blessing. Ask one of them

if he's read that article on pneumo-noultramicroscopicsilicovol-canoconiosis. (You really can findit in the dictionary.) Now, you'reone up on him.

So what do you do to improveyour vocabulary?

Remember: 1) Try to guess themeaning of the word from the wayit's used. 2) Look it up. 3) Dig themeaning out by the roots. 4) Getthe powerful prefixes under yourbelt. 5) Put your new words towork at once.

That's all there is to it—you'reoff on your treasure hunt.

Now, do you see why I lovewords so much?

Aristophanes said, "By words,the mind is excited and the spiritelated." It's as true today as it was

"The more words you know, the more you can use.What does 'corroborate really mean? See the text."

when he said it in Athens—2,400years ago!

I hope you're now like me —hooked on words forever.

Today, the printed word is more vital than ever. Now thereis more need than ever for all of us to read better, unite better, andcommunicate better.


If you'd like additional reprints of this article or an llf/xl7"copysuitable for bulletin board posting or framing, please write:

"Power of the Printed Word," International Paper Company,Dept. 2, P.O. Box 954, Madison Square Station,New York, NY 10010. *«,*.INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY



How to writea business letter

Some thoughts fromMalcolm ForbesPresident and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine

International Paper asked Malcolm Forbes toshare some things he's learned about writing a goodbusiness letter. One rule, "Be crystal clear,''

A good business letter can get youa job interview.

Get you off the hook.Or get you money.It's totally asinine to blow your

chances of getting whatever youwant-with a business letter thatturns people off instead of turningthem on.

The best place to learn to writeis in school. If you're still there, pickyour teachers' brains.

If not, big deal. I learned to ridea motorcycle at 50 and fly balloonsat 52. It's never too late to learn.

Over 10,000 business letterscome across my desk every year.They seem to fall into three cate-gories; stultifying if not stupid,mundane (most of them), and firstrate (rare). Here's the approach

I've found that separates the winnersfrom the losers (most of it's just goodcommon sense)-it starts before you

write your letter:

Know what you wantIf you don't, write it down—inone sentence. "I want to getan interview within the nexttwo weeks." That simple.List the major points youwant to get across-it'll keepyou on course.

If you're answering a letter,check the points that needanswering and keep the letterin front of you while you write.This way you won't forgetanything— that would causeanother round of letters.

And for goodness' sake,answer promptly if you'regoing to answer at all. Don'tsit on a letter- that invites theperson on the other end to sit

on whatever you want from him.

Plunge right inCall him by name—not "DearSir, Madam, or Ms.""Dear Mr,Chrisanthopoulos"-and be sure tospell it right. That'll get him (thus,you) off to a good start.

(Usually, you can gethis name just by phon-ing his company—orfrom a business directoryin your nearest library.)

Tell what your letteris about in the first para-gl§ph« One or two sen-tences. Don't keep yourreader guessing or hemight file your letteraway—even before hefinishes it.

In the round file.If you're answering a

letter, refer to the date

'Be natural Imagine him sittingin front of you - what wouldyou say to him?n

it was written. So the readerwon't waste time hunting for it.

People who read business lettersare as human as thee and me. Read-ing a letter shouldn't be a chore -reward the reader for the time hegives you.

Write so he'll enjoy itWrite the entire letter from hispoint of view-what's in it for himlBeat him to the draw-surprise himby answering the questions andobjections he might have.

Be positive-he'll be more recep-tive to what you have to say.

Be nice. Contrary to the cliche,genuinely nice guys most often fin-ish first or very near it. I admit it'snot easy when you've got a gripe.To be agreeable while disagreeing™that's an art.

Be natural—write the way youtalk. Imagine him sitting in front ofyou—what would you say to him?

Business jargon too often iscold, stiff, unnatural.

Suppose I came up to you andsaid, "I acknowledge receipt of yourletter and I beg to thank you." You'dthink, "Huh? You're putting me on."

The acid test—read your letterout loud when you're done. You

might get a shock-butyou'll know for sure if itsounds natural.

Don't be cute orflippant. The reader won'ttake you seriously. Thisdoesn't mean you've gotto be dull. You preferyour letter to knock 'emdead rather than bore'em to death.

Three points toremember:

Have a sense ofhumor. That's refreshinganywhere - a nice surprise

in a business letter.Be specific. If I tell you there's a

new fuel that could save gasoline,you might not believe me. But sup-pose I tell you this:

"Gasohol" -10% alcohol, 90%gasoline—works as well asstraight gasoline. Since you canmake alcohol from grain or cornstalks, wood or wood waste, coal-even garbage, it's worth somereal follow-through.

Now youVe got something tosink your teeth into.

Lean heavier on nouns andverbs, lighter on adjectives. Use theactive voice instead of the passive.Your writing will have more guts.

Which of these is stronger?Active voice: "I kicked out my mon-ey manager." Or, passive voice: "Mymoney manager was kicked outby me." (By the way, neither is true.My son, Malcolm Jr., manages mostForbes money—he's a brilliantmoneyman,)

"J learned to ride a motorcycle at 50 and fly balloonsat 52. It's never too late to learn anything."

Give it the best youVe gotWhen you don't want somethingenough to make the effort, makingan effort is a waste.

Make your letter look appetizing-o r you'll strike out before you evenget to bat. Type it—on good-qualitySVz" x 11" stationery. Keep it neat.And use paragraphing that makes iteasier to read.

Keep your letter short-to onepage, if possible. Keep your para-graphs short. After all, who's goingto benefit if your letter is quick andeasy to read?

You.For emphasis, underline impor-

tant words. And sometimes indentsentences as well as paragraphs.

Like this. See how well itworks ? (But save it for some-thing special.)Make it perfect. No typos, no

misspellings, no factual errors. Ifyou're sloppy and let mistakes slipby, the person reading your letterwill think you don't know better ordon't care. Do you?

Be crystal clear. You won't getwhat you're after if your readerdoesn't get the message.

Use good English. If you're stillin school, take all the English andwriting courses you can. The wayyou write and speak can really help—or hurt.

If you're not in school (evenif you are), get the little 71-pagegem by Strunk & White, Elementsof Style, It's in paperback It's funto read and loaded with tips ongood English and good writing.

Don't put on airs.Pretense invariably impressesonly the pretender.

Don't exaggerate. Evenonce. Your reader will suspecteverything else you write.

Distinguish opinions fromfacts. Your opinions may bethe best in the world. Butthey're not gospel You owe itto your reader to let him knowwhich is which. He'll appreci-ate it and he'll admire you.The dumbest people I knoware those who Know It All.

Be honest. It'll get youfurther in the long run. If you'renot, you won't rest easy until you're

found out. (The latter, not speakingfrom experience.)

Edit ruthlessly. Somebody hassaid that words are a lot like inflatedmoney—the more af tihcm lhat youuse, the less each one of thorn isworth. Fdght on. Go through yourentire letter just as many times asit takes. Soarch out and Annihilateall unnecessary wordsj«*d sen-tences-even entire paragraphs.

"Don't exaggerate. Even once. Your reader willsuspect everything else you write."

Sum it up and get outThe last paragraph should tell thereader exactly what you want himto do-or what you re going to do.Short and sweet. "May I have anappointment? Next Monday, the16th, I'll call your secretary to seewhen it'll be most convenient foryou."

Close with something simplelike, "Sincerely." And for heaven'ssake sign legibly The biggest egotrip I know is a completely illegiblesignature.

Good luck.I hope you get what you're after.Sincerely,




"Power of the Printed Word," International Paper Company,Dept. 1, P.O. Box 954, Madison Square Station,New York, NY 10010. *«, VTPONAL PAPER COMPANY



How to read fasterBy Bill Cosby

International Paper asked Bill Cosby-who earned hisdoctorate in education and has been involved in projectswhich help people learn to read faster—to share what heslearned about reading more in less time.

When I was a kid in Philadelphia,I must have read every comic bookever published. (There were fewerof them then than there are now.)

I zipped through all of them in acouple of days, then reread the goodones until the next issues arrived.

Yes indeed, when I was a kid,the reading game was a snap.

But as I got older, my eyeballsmust have slowed down or some-thing! I mean, comic books startedto pile up faster than my brotherRussell and I could read them!

It wasrft until much later,when I was getting my doctorate,I realized it wasrit my eyeballs thatwere to blame. Thank goodness.TheyVe still moving as well as ever.

The problem is, there's toomuch to read these days, and toolittle time to read every word of it.

Now, mind you, I still readcomic books. In addition to con-tracts, novels, and newspapers.Screenplays, tax returns and corre-spondence. Even textbooks abouthow people read. And which tech-niques help people read more inless time.

I'll let you in on a little secret.There are hundreds of techniquesyou could learn to help you read

faster. But I know of 3 that areespecially good

And if I can learn them,so can you-and you can putthem to use immediately.

They are commonsense,practical ways to get the mean-ing from printed words quicklyand efficiently So you'll havetime to enjoy your comicbooks, have a good laugh withMark Twain or a good cry withWar and Peace. Ready?

Okay The first two ways canhelp you get through tons ofreading material-fast-iathoutreading every word.

They'll give you the overallmeaning of what you're reading.And let you cut out an awfullot of unnecessary reading.

1. Preview—if it'slong and hard

Previewing is especially useful forgetting a general idea of heavyreading like long magazine or news-paper articles, business reports, andnonfiction books.

It can give you as much as halfthe comprehension in as little asone tenth the time. For example,yottshould be able to preview eightor ten 100-page reports in an hour.After previewing, you'll be able todecide which reports (or whichparts of which reports) are wortha closer look.

Here's how to preview: Read jthe entire first two paragraphsof whatever you'vechosen. Nextread only thefirst sentence ofeach successiveparagraph.

Then read the entire last twoparagraphs.

Previewing doesn't give youall the details. But it does keep youfrom spending time on things youdon't really want—or need—to read

Notice that previewing givesyou a quick, overall view of long,unfamiliar material. For short, lightreading, there's a better technique.

2.Skim-ififsshort and simple

Skimming is a good way to get ageneral idea of light reading-likepopular magazines or the sportsand entertainment sections of thepaper.

You should be able to skim aweekly popular magazine or thesecond section of your daily paperin less than half the time it takesyou to read it now.

Skimming is also a great way toreview material you've read before.

Here's how to skim: Think ofyour eyes as magnets. Force themto move fast. Sweep them acrosseach and every line of type. Pickup only a few key words in each line;

Everybody skims differently.You and I may not pick up

exactly the same words when weskim the same piece, but we'll bothget a pretty similar idea of whatit's all about.

To show you how it works,I circled the words I pickedout when I skimmed the

following story.Try it It shouldn'ttake you morethan 10 seconds.

"Learn to read faster and you'll have time for a good laughwith Mark Twain—and a, good cry with War and Peace."

<£5Jnks monsters^)(Tn^ in oui(bedrooi^^loset at nigh&)ButI told him(he is cr

"Go ancjxfthenj' he said.

Q didn't wanbto.Russell saidQ was chickerp

[not,')I saidjesoffiesaicl.

So(f told hint) the monsterswere going to gat hin) at̂ ffudnigHt?)He started to cry. M y ând(]toI3)the monsters^beatlt^Then he told us to^go tosleep^

(Îf I heaj)any more aboutmonsters," he said,ffll spank you?P

We went to(sleep fast) And youno^somethin^Theyêver did)5me bacl<

Skimming can give you a verygood idea of this story in about half

' 'Read with a good Ught—and with as few friendsas possible to help you out. No TV, no musicIt'll help you concentrate better-and read faster.''

the words-and in less than half thetime it'd take to read every word.

So far, you've seen that pre-viewing and skimming can give youa general idea about content-fast.But neither technique can promisemore than 50 percent comprehen-sion, because you aren't reading allthe words. (Nobody gets somethingfor nothing in the reading game.)

To read faster and understandmost— if not all—of what you read,you need to know a third technique.

3. Cluster-to increasespeed and comprehension

Most of us learned to read by look-ing at each word in a sentence-one at a time.

Like this:My=brother-Russell-thinks-

monsters...You probably still read this

way sometimes, especially whenthe words are difficult. Or when thewords have an extra-special mean-ing-as in a poem, a Shakespearean

play, or a contract. And that's O.K.But word-by-word reading is a

rotten way to read faster. It actuallycuts down on your speed.

Clustering trains you to look atgroups of words instead of one ata time—to increase your speed enor-mously. For most of us, clusteringis a totally different way of seeing whatwe read.

Here's how to cluster: Trainyour eyes to see all the words in clus-ters of up to 3 or 4 words at a glance.

Here's how I'd cluster the storywe just skimmed;

^l^brother Russelttminks monsters?Qivemjour bedroomjcloseMFnignt)(But I tol

(Twas chickerp

oo I tolcmjnftthe monsters)(were going(He started to cfy^My Dad came in)(an5 told the monsters)^bearI£PThenhe told

C I hear)(^hy more abouF)^monsters," he saidyI'll s j ^

j you)neverjiicf)

Learning to read clusters is notsomething your eyes do naturally.It takes constant practice.

Here's how to go about it: Picksomething light to read. Read it asfast as you can. Concentrate on see-ing 3 to 4 words at once rather thanone word at a time. Then reread

"Preview, skim, and clusterto readfaster-except thethings you want to readword for word."

i

the piece at your normal speed tosee what you missed the first time.

Try a second piece. First cluster,then reread to see what you missedin this one.

When you can read in clusterswithout missing much the firsttime, your speed has increased.Practice 15 minutes every day andyou might pick up the techniquein a week or so. (But don't be disap-pointed if it takes longer. Cluster-ing everything takes time andpractice.)

So now you have 3 ways tohelp you read faster. Preview to cutdown on unnecessary heavy read-ing. Skim to get a quick, generalidea of light reading. And clusterto increase your speed and com-prehension.

With enough practice, you'llbe able to handle more reading atschool or work™and at home-inless time. You should even haveenough time to read your favoritecomic books-and War and Peace I

Today, the printed word is more vital than ever. Now thereis more need than ever for all of us to read better, write better, andcommunicate better,



"Power of the Printed Word," International Paper Company,Dept. 3, P.O. Box 954, Madison Square Station,New York, NY 10010. t«,™ITERNATONAL PAPER COMPAr



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