[Lecture Two] Writing: A Mini-Course
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Course summary: In this two-lecture mini-course, Dr. Leonard Peikoff discusses six essential elements of good writing—selectivity, structure, tone, context, motivation, and condensation. Using exercises provided for the audience, he conducts detailed analysis of writing with extensive interactive questions and answers from the audience. Read more »
In this lecture: This lecture completes Dr. Peikoff’s analysis with the final two elements of good writing.
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 39:10 | Why did you use the term “entity” as opposed to “individual” or “being”? |
| 40:49 | If you wanted to take a shot at animal rights too, would that change your opening statement? |
| 1:10:35 | Are there cases when you can use “i.e.” instead of “that is,” as in “individual rights, i.e., the right to…” |
| 1:12:07 | In my previous writing I found that I could condense to the point that my writing sounded too abstract… |
| 1:14:19 | Do you prepare for serious conversations that come up in everyday life? |
| 1:49:08 | If you have a word that is confused in the culture, should you bring out its essence by using an adjective, even at the expense of implying that there are other types of this thing? For instance, “monopolistic cartels.” |
| 1:50:31 | Are there certain things you can do to avoid a newspaper editor editing your letter and botching it? |
| 1:52:41 | Could you talk about who you are writing for, who you have in mind as a reader? |