Malcolm Cox

Today we look at the ninth chapter of Haddon Robinson’s excellent book. How is our thinking ‘dressed’? Have you ever dressed inappropriately for an event you went to? It sends the wrong signals, confuses the observers, and embarrasses the wearer. Lessons that are badly dressed draw attention to the confused thought that led to this error. What do we mean by dressing a lesson? Haddon Robinson gives us the following subtitles to the chapter:  Strong transitions A clear style: a clear outline; short sentences; simple sentence structure; simple words A direct and personal style A vivid style I won't comment on all of these because Haddon Robinson does it much better in his book, but I will highlight a couple of points. Transitions Why do clear transitions matter? The matter because a listener needs stronger clues about the direction of thinking than a reader. Someone reading a text can see the transition in front of them. They can re-read the document and observe the transition. In a lesson the listener ne