Philip Yaffe

Philip Yaffe, a devout agnostic, has been having an electronic discussion with an evangelical Christian for two years. They have reached some crux issues and would like to open the discussion to a broader audience. What do you think about these issues?

Racist, religious, and ethnic jokes are generally reprehensible. However, when properly used, they can do much to bring people together rather than tearing them apart.

I recently did an Internet search to find out why polygamy is banned in some places in the world and is not, and even encouraged, in others. The results were surprising, disappointing, and thought-provoking.

A good expository text should be well-thought-and well structured in order to have any chance of informing or convincing people. However, sometimes simply writing whatever comes into your head may be the best way to start. The result of this "pre-first draft" can often lay a firm foundation for the true first draft and then the final draft to come.

A major reason most people write so poorly is the chaotic state of English spelling. Eliminating irregular, non-phonetic, and Latin-based spellings would therefore help everyone express themselves in clearer, more concise, more persuasive texts.

The venerable bullet point has been shot down for slide-assisted presentations because today everything must be resolutely visual. But bullet points are visual. And when properly used, astonishingly effective. Just ask Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

True science fiction permits consideration of fundamental questions of ethics, philosophy, and sociology in situations so remote from contemporary life that they can be examined with greater acuity and less emotion. Here are two stellar examples.

Many adults lament the apparent disinclination of modern children to read. The better you understand how something is made, the more likely you are to appreciate it. Given all the distractions, getting children to read more by teaching them to write better may be the only way.

As a collector of quotations, I occasionally wonder if some of my favorite specimens are actually correct. In many cases, they seem too good to be true. I recently researched the subject on the Internet and came up with a number of quotations that indeed seemed to have been altered after the fact.

The Elements of Style is not a book about writing, but rather grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc. It effectively sharpens the tools of our craft. However, being somewhat prescriptive, it often gives inadequate insight into how and why to use them.