In a recent Reuters article the post-presidential career of Bill Clinton is briefly documented and his recent earnings are tallied nicely. Apparently millions can be had for an ex-president willing to go out on the lecture circuit and there's millions more for their biography. Interesting. When I initially saw the title of the article (Bill Clinton Speaks Less,Writes More) I naively thought the article would describe how the former president was using the structural cognitive activities required and enhanced by writing and taking more time to organize his thoughts- actually taking more care in his personal expression and writing more instead of just blurting stuff out. No such luck...
When I was in graduate school my committee chair and I would spend hours discussing the cognitive differences between speaking, writing and engaging in electronic discourse . I eventually wrote my dissertation on the subject. Attempting to understand the uniqueness of the electronic type of discourse required a thorough immersion in the psycholinguistic literature, the social linguistic literature and a large dose of academic personal opinion. Once after a particularly strong dose of a professors personal opinion my chair dismissed his peer with the remark, "Oh, he writes more than he reads". This remark set a standard for me in my academic communications. I never wanted to be caught just talking about stuff - only writing would do and then, only meticulously researched writing at that...
I guess that's why I was disappointed to read the article regarding Clinton's activities- here I am thinking like some idiot that a politician was actually attempting to improve their communicative style and all that was really being addressed was their latest accomplishments in amassing cash.
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This is Mom. You really need to read Clinton's book. I think I wrote you an email because I was too frustrated trying to figure out how to contact you. No where does it say (except from you on the phone) that I could do it anonymously and not have to join anything!
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