Eureka!

by Walker Royce

  106 letters or more

  Try again

  PUZZLE 3. CONSONANT BLENDS

  The object here is to find the shortest English words that contain the following 25 consonant digraphs (two-letter blends of consonants). Each word must be three letters or more. Score 1 point for each letter used. Score 10 points for each digraph that you can’t find a word for.

  115 letters or less

  Scrabble® whiz

  116-125 letters

  Crossword puzzle whiz

  126-140 letters

  Average Joe

  141 letters or more

  Try again

  PUZZLE 4. LETTER SEQUENCES

  Ten different three-letter alphabetical sequences can be found in legitimate English words. For example, the word first contains the sequence rst, and the word define contains the sequence def. Can you identify the other eight? Here are all the combinations.

  abc bcd cde def efg fgh ghi hij jkl klm lmn

  nop opq pqr qrs rst stu tuv uvw vwx wxy xyz

  Five of the three-letter sequences in Puzzle 4 can begin words. Only one three-letter sequence is a word all by itself.

  The four silly sentences in Puzzle 5 were contrived from a set of words that have a subtle similarity. Try to figure out the common characteristic that each word exhibits and put the words in the correct order. When you figure out the common characteristic, the order should be obvious. An elementary school student can solve this puzzle. It just takes a keen sense of observation outside your normal frame of reference.

  PUZZLE 5. FIRST IMPRESSIONS

  Opaque jade cubes befuddled emerald experts.

  Double-use jeep vehicle teams seemingly evaded enemy efforts.

  Decent eight-cheese pizzas are ideal.

  Wise, aged zebras usually escape cagey elephants.

  If you need a hint to solve this puzzle, see Appendix C.

  The combination of consonants and vowels into a spoken sound is called a syllable. These are the building blocks of words. Wikipedia defines syllable as follows:

  A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological building blocks of words. They can influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic meter, its stress patterns, and so forth.

  Prosody is another word for tone. For example, you can say the words what is that so that your tone implies a question, a surprise, excitement, or sarcasm. This is the prosody element of the sound.

  English vowels and consonants are particularly attractive for putting together words that have teeth—in other words, for creating memorable, meaningful word usage in a specific context. While I can’t prove that English has more toothy words than other languages, I believe that people prefer to express their emotions in English rather than French. Here’s why.

  Canada recognizes both English and French as official languages, and all traffic signs, menus, and public literature are exhibited in both languages. I studied French for many years in school, and while I cannot speak it well, I can understand 60% of what I read or hear. During a year I spent in Montreal, I attended a couple of professional hockey games where the crowd was largely French Canadians. Their clear preference for speaking, with one obvious and notable exception, was French. Sitting in the stands and enjoying some great hockey, I had to strain to understand the people around me except when they used profanity.

  It struck me as trés odd that when they cursed, they used English expletives exclusively. I think this was because the folks who invented the King’s English took great care to create profanity with consonant and vowel sequences that people love to say. Start with a hard opening constriction; follow with a soft middle sound; and close with a hard constriction. All of our fun-to-say profanity follows this common pattern. (Consider the old George Carlin routine about the seven words you can’t say on television.) The French (and everyone else) love to swear in English. I didn’t hear anyone say merde, which sounds too subtle and soft and romantic. You just can’t match the joy of expressing emotions with English expletives.

  Words count. The difference between good writing and good speaking is mostly in word selection and sentence structure. English has evolved over hundreds of years so that we can communicate more clearly and use a single meaningful word to describe the same thing that previously required several words. Yet most people recognize only a small percentage of the words in the English language. Most of the words are obscure and rarely needed. However, the larger your vocabulary, the more concise you can be. A poor choice of words may obscure a great thought. Good ideas are not worth much if they are not communicated effectively. Communicating an idea by writing it down is a great way to organize thoughts, analyze alternatives, and reason through its strengths and weaknesses.

  For most people, the key obstacle to communicating better is the tendency to be verbose. We use several words when we need only one meaningful word. We end up sounding overly long-winded (a self-defining example). Long-winded, a word that has teeth, is memorably self-descriptive. It means verbose or overly wordy in getting to the point. Overly long-winded therefore means overly, overly wordy. Why take the emphasis off a great word like long-winded by adding a redundant word like overly? Such annoyingly meaningless verbosity is covered really extensively and with overly long-winded and very redundant wordiness in a later chapter following this one. Ha!

  Your choice of words in every communication is a key element of your style and effectiveness. Many of us evolve from children who say exactly what they mean to educated adults who feel compelled to demonstrate their advanced education by using strange words and complex structure to beat around the bush. Aristotle provided some great advice on this topic. Paraphrased:

  Think as wise men do, and speak as common people do, so that everyone may understand.

  Here are some simple word selection principles that help achieve this goal.

  Use a familiar word rather than an unusual one.

  Use a concrete word rather than an abstract word or phrase.

  Use a single word rather than a roundabout phrase.

  Use a short word rather than a long one.

  If you stray from these principles, as a writer or a speaker, it should be to serve a specific purpose or to make a more precise point. When you use unusual, abstract, or long words, there should be a reason: The alternative word should communicate your intent more precisely. In most cases, people use unusual, abstract, or long words either to add diversity to their wording or to raise the level of perceived literacy expected by the reader. In either case, the alternative word inhibits reading and understanding. Here are some typical tradeoffs.

  Familiar Word

  Unusual Words

  expect

  presuppose, envisage

  ruin

  sabotage, obliterate

  limit

  ceiling, demarcation, utmost

  honest

  trustworthy, truthful, candid

  enough

  sufficient, adequate

  make

  render, constitute, fabricate, synthesize

  home

  residence, household, domicile

  Concrete Word

  Abstract Words or Phrases

  feasible

  attainable, reasonable, viable, of a feasible nature

  compare

  examine, observe, perform a comparison of

  complex

  involved, intricate, complex in nature

  abstract

  indefinite, deep, in an abstract way

  analyze

  consider, evaluate, perform an analysis of

  explore

  look into, investigate

  Single Word

  Phrase or Circumlocution

  toward

  in relation
to

  with

  in relation to

  in

  with regard to

  most

  the majority of instances

  some

  in a number of cases

  can

  is prepared to

  Short Word

  Longer Words

  total

  totality, entirety

  use (verb)

  utilize, employ, exploit

  start (noun)

  initiation, inception, commencement

  lack

  deficiency, inadequacy, insufficiency

  change

  modification, transformation, metamorphosis

  complex

  complicated, convoluted

  limit

  limitation, delimit

  The next chapter contains a concise discussion of wordiness.

  One intriguing window into English word usage is a list of the 100 most commonly used words. There is no authoritative, mathematically provable list, but studies done by Oxfordonline.com and other organizations provide lists that are close enough to stimulate some interesting observations. The list shown in Table 1-2 was published on Wikipedia. Some of the words represent more than one word. For example, be represents many of the conjugated forms of the verb to be, such as is, are, be, and was.

  TABLE 1-2. The 100 Most Frequently Used Words in the English Language

  The most frequently used words are pretty boring as a group since they mostly represent the fundamental building blocks of the language: general pronouns, articles, conjunctions, prepositions, and so forth. However, a closer look at the relative frequencies of words resulted in some intriguing observations.

  I is #10; we is #27. I think we can be pretty self-centered.

  To be (existence) is the most popular verb, followed by to have (ownership). The only other verbs to make the list are say, will, get, make, know, see, look, come, think, use, work, want, and give. These popular verbs are primarily the things humans do that differentiate us from other life forms.

  Our order of interest in asking questions is what, who, which, and when. Why and where don’t even make the list. This does seem to reflect human nature. We care about outcomes more than the causes.

  The word take (#60) is used much more frequently than the word give (#97). Again, this seems to be an accurate reflection of human nature.

  The word one is used frequently. The number two is also on the list. This is significant because in many cases, one is used as a pronoun or article, not as a number.

  The most frequently used noun is time (#55); the next is people (#61). People must be concerned about time.

  Year is the most frequently used measure of time, followed by day. This is counterintuitive to me. It suggests that more people think long-term than short-term. I suspect that if you included all the instances of yesterday, tomorrow, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the use of day words would dominate the word year.

  The word he shows up before his, and both are more frequently used than their feminine equivalents. The word her precedes she. Does this mean men are more often subjects and women are more often objects? This was certainly true in the past. I wonder how this is changing in today’s writing.

  The words good (#65), well (#89), and new (#92) are the only adjectives on the list. Who says we are all pessimists? Well is also used as an adverb, the only one on the list. I like that.

  The word first (#88) shows up in the top 100. Coming in first and knowing what is first are clearly important to most people.

  Why is there only one word with more than 6 letters? Just because.

  These observations say much about humans. It would be interesting to compare all of your conversations and writings, to analyze them and come up with your list of most frequently used words. This would probably say a lot about who you are.

  Sentences

  Words are probably the most important building blocks of communications. They capture elementary concepts, things, names, actions, and characteristics. Some dogs can understand a vocabulary that includes a couple hundred words. Humans are far more capable intellectually. Depending on age, education, and environment, we have vocabularies that range from many hundreds to many thousands of words. What separates humans from other life forms—and it is a huge quantum leap—is that we can take these thousands of words and compose them into sentences to make observations and value judgments, express opinions, state facts, ask questions, and communicate other information to other people. A collection of sentences can then be composed to tell a story, discuss a quandary, describe an experience, or develop a more complete description of some topic.

  Wikipedia defines sentence as follows:

  In linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language—a grammatical and lexical unit consisting of one or more words, representing distinct and differentiated concepts, and combined to form a meaningful statement, question, request, command, etc.

  Sentences have numerous rules of grammar that govern how words can be composed into well-structured, meaningful expressions. There are many different ways to express a thought using the same words, and even more ways to express it using different words with similar meanings.

  Some sentences roll right off the tongue; others torture us on the way out of our mouths. Well-constructed sentences help the reader and the listener understand your thoughts as you intend them. Poorly constructed sentences can strain or confuse your audience. The hardest sentence for most people to say is probably, “I was wrong,” although not because of the mechanics of speech.

  The most useful advice tends to be concise. Here are two examples that have struck nerves deep in my brain and etched themselves into my permanent memory.

  From The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz:

  Be impeccable to your word.

  Don’t make assumptions.

  Don’t take things personally.

  Do the best you can.

  In fewer than 20 words and four short sentences, Ruiz provides four observations that would make profound differences in most people’s perceived happiness. In my experience, people who appear to be happy deep inside as well as on the surface practice these Four Agreements as natural instincts.

  Some short sentences in Cowboy Ethics, by Owen and Stoecklein, capture values that represent the culture of the American West and position these values as foundations that Wall Street could learn from.

  Live each day with courage.

  Take pride in your work.

  Always finish what you start.

  Do what has to be done.

  Be tough, but fair.

  When you make a promise, keep it.

  Ride for the brand.

  Talk less and say more.

  Remember that some things aren’t for sale.

  Know where to draw the line.

  I’ve spent more than 30 years in the business world of information technology, spanning defense contracting and commercial product development. In my experience, the guidance offered in Cowboy Ethics strikes me as sound, and not routinely practiced. The economic crisis of 2008-2009 clearly exposed the need for more cowboy ethics on Wall Street and in Washington. The most successful people I know—those who have made the biggest contributions to humankind, not to their bank accounts—have practiced most of these cowboy ethics as innate values in their everyday activities and long-term careers.

  The two examples above are extraordinary. They demonstrate two common, recurring themes in great pieces of communication: They are concise and they have impact. Much of the material that follows builds on these themes.

  Here is a list of my core values:

  Self-respect. Personal health (mental, physical, spiritual) is a prerequisite to happiness.

  Sincerity. Practice what you preach. Hypocrisy is always poisonous.

  Production. Value what you produce more than what you consume.

  Teamwork. Celebrate team results over
individual accomplishments.

  Environmentalism. Treat nature as a sanctuary of shared resources.

  Insight. Diversity of thought and critical thinking are crucial components of progress in any field.

  Sharing. Communicate with purpose. Stress accuracy over precision.

  Priorities. Do what you should before you do what you want.

  Integrity. Build trust in all relationships. Always take the high road.

  Balance. Build usable broad skills. Avoid obsessions.

  This list is the result of a mental exercise I undertook to craft a set of values that captures the lessons I’ve learned in life in as few words as possible. This is a great exercise for anyone. First, it is an insightful way to observe an important dimension of yourself, namely, your core values. Sharing it with others—your spouse, your children, your therapist, your parole officer—is a way to keep yourself honest and discuss your observations about what is truly important. Second, it is a great exercise for illuminating and practicing word selection and concise sentences. Writing down your values is deeply personal, and you will become acutely aware of how important each word is when you try to express your values in as few well-structured sentences as possible.

  Paragraphs

  This excerpt from Wikipedia defines paragraph:

  A paragraph is a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or idea. A paragraph typically consists of a unifying main point, thought, or idea accompanied by supporting details. The nonfiction paragraph usually begins with the general and moves toward the more specific so as to advance an argument or point of view. Each paragraph builds on what came before and may consist of one or many sentences.