Discernment
What makes for good writing? As a writer, you should be able to critically look at your own writing to see if it passes muster. One way to practice this skill is to look at the writing of others and make critical judgments about its quality.
Who Said it Better?
Directions: These are exercises in making judgments about writing. For each example, consider the quotes and decide which one is the best. You should be able to explain your reasoning. In order to make your decision, make sure that you understand what each writer is trying to convey.
It is also worth noting that these are not random quotes. Each was carefully chosen and exposes you, the student, to some of the greatest minds of the Western world. This is no accident. A good writer has a broad understanding of history and culture.
Example 1: All three quotes deal with the idea of love. Your task is to read each quote and decide which is the best.
“The wounds invisible,
That love’s keen arrows make.”
William Shakespeare, As You Like It
“Who can give law to lovers? Love is a greater law to itself.”
Boethius, Philosophiae
“To be loved, be lovable.”
Ovid, Ars Amatoria
Who said it better — Shakespeare, Boethius, or Ovid?
Click here to see my answer.
Example 2: All three quotes deal with the idea of war. Your task is to read each quote and decide which is the best.
“The legitimate object of war is a more perfect peace.”
William Tecumseh Sherman
“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”
Robert E. Lee
“They were going to look at war, the red animal — war, the blood-swollen god.”
Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
Who said it better — Sherman, Lee, or Crane?
Click here to see my answer.
Example 3: Both quotes deal with the idea of being civilized. Your task is to read each quote and decide which is the best.
“Civilization is the lamb’s skin in which barbarism masquerades.”
T.B. (Thomas Bailey) Aldrich, from Ponkapog Papers
“The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage.”
Henry David Thoreau, from Walden
Who said it better – Aldrich or Thoreau?
Click here to see my answer.
Example 4: Both quotes deal with the idea of truth. Your task is to read each quote and decide which is the best.
“For truth itself does not have the privilege to be employed at any time and in every way; its use, noble as it is, has its circumscriptions and limits.”
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, from his Essays
“Humanly speaking, let us define truth, while waiting for a better definition, as—’a statement of the facts as they are’.”
Voltaire, from his Dictionnaire Philosophique
Who said it better – de Montaigne or Voltaire?
Click here to see my answer.
Example 5: Both quotes deal with the idea of reading/education/learning. Your task is to read each quote and decide which is the best.
“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
from James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
“Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”
Plato, Republic
Who said it better – Boswell/Johnson or Plato?
Click here to see my answer.
Want More?
Pen & Paper contains more exercises in discernment. Click on the link to purchase access to the course.