Lesson 07 – Practical Notes

Regarding the text of the Courses, the writing style I present is mostly aligned with standard grammatical and punctuation practices. There are, however, a few quirks in my writing style that need some explanation.

The first is my somewhat frequent use of ‘ellipses’ punctuation in sentences. Ellipses are three dots (…). Ellipses are formally used to signify that words have been left out of a sentence. But I use them in an informal manner. Most often I like to use them as if you were actually talking to someone, speaking your train of thoughts. When speaking to someone in real life, you sometimes pause while speaking… considering your next words… then you resume talking. I like to mimic those real-life pauses with the ellipsis.

Sometimes when you are speaking, then you pause, the next stream of thought coming through your words may begin deviating a little from your original stream of thought… you go on a tangent… your thought stream redirects a bit, now traveling down a side path stream of thought. I like to use the ellipsis for those little detours, too.

Another writing tidbit is that I like to use ‘single quote marks’ to emphasize a word or phrase. I do this to help convey to the reader that I intend a somewhat different meaning for the word or phrase. Or I may want to much more strongly emphasize it. Often I want to bring your attention to a deeper meaning, a cynical meaning, or some other alternative meaning to the word or phrase, rather than its common meaning.

In sentences you might see words Capitalized Here and There, where normally you would not expect to see that. This is to enhance the importance of certain words or phrases. For example, I always like to capitalize the words Natural Hygiene, Nature, and Natural Laws. I do this on purpose to strongly convey how important it is to make these words, and their meanings, a very important part of your life.

This writing technique was inspired in me by the founders of the country called the United States of America. The first paragraph of the USA Constitution reads like this:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Notice how the capitalized words Grab Your Attention. That’s the same way I like to use that writing technique.

Another technique I sometimes like to use are bolded words, italicized words, or both, to stress their importance in a sentence, or when describing a concept. Bolded words emphasize direct, important facts. Italics emphasize the deeper meaning, context, or intention of the word or phrase. Bolded and italics together means Important! Pay extra attention when you see words or phrases emphasized like that.

So those are the main quirks in my writing style. Now you know my intention when you see them.