Week One: BCIT
Dr. Stephen Ogden
LIBS 7001
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Liberal Arts Benefit for Business Professionals
 “….not all of us are arts students …. English
course[s], in which the text is not as clear as in other
courses…. lack the precise detail of business and
science texts.”
 “…. it is better for the notes to be detailed, as having
complete notes can help us better prepare for the
final exam. Also, not everyone has awesome
memory….”
Question: Is there a practical professional benefit to
studying critical reading & writing?
BCBC: What Does Business Want from SFU
Graduates?
 BC Business Council: “2010 Biennial Skills
& Attributes Survey Report: What are BC
employers looking for?”
 Skills preferred across all industry categories:
 Nine out of ten preferred attributes ranked are
non-technological.
 Eight out of ten preferred skills ranked are
non-technological
 A “Liberal Arts” skill-set: e.g. speaking, writing,
reading, critical thinking are the nine.
Some Reasons to Write Well
More Reasons to Write Well
Reasons to Write Well: #1445
A personal case of a
(3rd year) student who,
having submitted a
Term Paper to me one
year late along with
(what I suspected to be)
a forged letter from a
Doctor, responded to
my return contact with a
second letter from (it
said) the same Dr. that
reads as follows:
“…. because you may not
have understood the
medical points in my first
letter, I will now put [ the
student’s ] condition in
laments terms…”
Yet Another Reason to Write Well
More Reasons to Write Well
 Language is a techne.
A Formal System—closed,
rule-based.
Improved writing = improved
salary.
Increased opportunity of
Managerial or Supervisory
Promotion
Language is business power:
pure & simple.
Vocabulary is strength
 Words = Tools
 More Words-More Power
Grammar is Control
 Correct someone’s
grammar & you own them.
 Do try this at home.
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 ALTERNATIVE:

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Adj. & N. The other (of two),
which may be chosen
instead.
“Hastings St. is a good
alternative to Hwy 1.”
 ALTERNATE:


Adj. & V. Done or changed
by turns, coming each after
one of the other kind.
“Alternate between Hastings
St. and Hwy 1 to see which
is the quicker route.”
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Response to the “Language is Evolving”
defense of slovenly language use.
 [You] “’Alternate’ and ‘alternative’ are two different

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words with important distinctions between their
meanings.”
[Them] “But language is evolving.”
[You] “Shut your ugly !&*^%&ing mouth you fat
and #!%*&ing ignorant son of a b_#(^&!!!
[Them] “???!!!!!”
[You] “No, no—I just meant that ‘I love you & I
respect your opinion’: my language has just evolved,
that’s all."
More Reasons to Write Well
 Darwinian principle:
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You are not competing against everyone
everywhere; you are competing against your
own kind in the immediate environment.
You do not have to read and write better than
everyone else: you just have to read and write
better than the tiny number of other people
applying for a job, or working in the same job
in the same office.
Orwell-Ogden’s Rules for
Immediate Written Accomplishment
Ogden: “If a word is not necessary for grammar or
meaning, always cut it out”
Orwell (‘Politics & the English Language’):
 (i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of
speech which you are used to seeing in print.
 (ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
 (iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it
out.
 (iv) Never use the passive where you can use the
active.
 (v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a
jargon word if you can think of an everyday English
equivalent.
 (vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say
anything outright barbarous.
Critical Writing + Critical Reading
 Writing and Reading
Critically are two sides of
the same coin:
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Effective writing is simply a
matter of craft and
technique.
Effective writing can be
achieved by simple learning
and training
When the rules and the
techniques of writing are
known, reading critically is
entirely a matter of
recognising the writing rules
& techniques.
Of Two Very Difficult Things,
One is Far Harder Than the Other
DIFFICULT
 Through critical reading,
recognise and accept a
weakness or injustice in
a piece of writing—
political, social, religious,
etc.—with which you
completely agree.
VERY DIFFICULT
 Through critical reading,
recognise and accept a
strength or admirable
fairness in a piece of
writing—political, social,
religious, etc.—with which
you completely disagree.
Ladder of Critical Reading
Right Way
versus
Read
2. Analyse (re-read with
notation)
3. Describe
4. Evaluate (compare)
1.

5.
Against examples
&/or standards.
Judge
Wrong Way
1.
Read (or not!)
2.
Judge (Praise or
Damn)
Course Method
• I will adhere very reliably and directly to:
– the Course Outline
– the Weekly Guide
– the two Course Texts
•
SSW + Course reader
• This will allow you to:
– very directly prepare for the weeks’ lecture
– Very directly review the lecture material
• Lecture slides will:
– Add enlightening material
– Recast terms & concepts into practical, plainlanguage, real-world form.
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Double-Aspect of the Course
 The course has two, complementary, sides.
1.
How to Write Effectively
2.
How to Read Effectively
 Knowing effective (sp) writing methods creates the

ability to effectively read and analyse writing.
Knowing effective reading & analytical methods
creates the ability to effectively write.
A Natural pairing:
(a.) every written work has a writer;
(b.) every writer wants an audience (even if it is himself)
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Aristotle (4th C. BC):
Founder of the Scientific Method
 Aristotle’s teacher Plato
studied ‘why things are.’

Search for perfection
 Aristotle himself instead
looked at how things
are.
1.
2.
“What is the purpose of
this?”
“How does it operate
best?”
 Pragmatic, not ‘Ideal’
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Aristotle’s Universal Relevance
(Alexander the Great’s teacher)
 The Physics
 The Politics
 The Ethics (x3)
 The Mechanics
 The Soul
 The Universe
 The Rhetoric
 On Animals
 On Logic
 The Poetics
 ‘That Book Filed Beside The
Physics’ = The Metaphysics.
 The Poetics: Literature is
 that which pleases and sustains
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interest of the audience. Has:
Mimesis: fundamental part of
human nature, from our desire
to know. I.e. homo sapiens.
Hamartia: injury committed
unknowingly.
Catharsis: reordering of the
emotions.
Peripateia: reversal of
circumstance
Anagnorisis: recognition
The 3 Unities: Place, Time,
Action
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Aristotle: writing is Techne—a science
with order & rules.
Middle-Ages through to (British) present:
Trivium
–
–
–
Grammar: how words work
Rhetoric: how to arrange words to get them to
do what you want.
Dialectic: how ideas are arranged in writing
• Thus, Good Writing is judged essentially by
its EFFECTIVENESS
•
Cf: With Quadrivium = ‘Seven Liberal Arts.’
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