Paramedic Method

The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.

Recognized Masters

• Edward Gibbon: “The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.”

• "But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.

E.B. White

• Analysts have had their go at humor, and I have read some of this interpretative literature, but without being greatly instructed. Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.

H.L. Menken

• There is no record in human history of a happy philosopher: they exist only in romantic legend. Many of them have committed suicide; many others have turned their children out of doors and beaten their wives. And no wonder. If you want to find out how a philosopher feels when he is engaged in the practise of his profession, go to the nearest zoo and watch a chimpanzee at the wearying and hopeless job of chasing fleas. Both suffer damnably, and neither can win.

Judith Butler

• The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.

What is Solutionize?

• Solutionize is a breakthrough knowledge and services platform for Technology Solutions that dramatically reduces costs, exposes new revenue opportunities, facilitates and simplifies partner collaboration, and knowledge enables a vendor's sales force. It provides a solution dimension that simplifies collaborative e-commerce between partners selling combined solutions.

Official StylePassive/impersonalComplex verb constructions Latin diction (-shun, -zed)Long windupsLong strings of prepositional

phrasesDifficult/tedious to read

aloudEuphemistic (buzzwords)

Paramedic Method

1. Circle the prepositions.2. Circle the “is” forms.3. Find the action.4. Put this action in a simple (not compound) active verb.5. Start fast—no slow windups.6. Read the passage aloud with emphasis and feeling.7. Write out each sentence on a blank screen or sheet of

paper and mark off its basic rhythms units with a “/.” 8. Mark off sentence length with a “/.”

Breaking Down• In the event of damage to the property incurred by a hurricane,

the policy holder is not entitled to a process of reimbursement. – In the event – Of damage – To the property– Incurred – By a hurricane– The policy holder is– Not entitled – To a process– Of reimbursement

Examples

• I installed the software.• The software was sourced to an automated

installation process.• Pursuant to the stated goals and objectives

priotorized by the company’s explicit and implicit policies of technological operations and synergies, the appropriate software e-solution as required was utilized and operationalized according to the standard installation process and procedure for smart efficiency maximization.

Examples• In accordance to the stated goals, objectives, and outcomes

as identified by the board and its members (both present and non-present), the partial implementation of the pre-planning initiative (mindshare gathering, knowledge and solution-management), was mapped onto a “smart logic” solutions panel and re-envisioned as a tool for extending and reinforcing the pre-structure onto a synergistic foundation keeping in terms and pursuant to the stated goals, objectives, and outcomes.

• The initial project pre-planning phase was enabled.• I played solitaire.

Skotison!

• The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.• He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:• He leadeth me beside the still waters.• He restoreth my soul.

Skotison!

• Translate one of these statements into official style of at least three lines:1. Toast the bread.2. Write an essay.3. Draw a giraffe.4. Take notes during lectures.5. Vitamins are good for you.

Un-Skotison!

• Using the paramedic method, restore a statement to “Plain English”:1. Being that personal safety is a priority, the role of

the process of operating the motor vehicle has been deliberately preceded by the fastening on of the customary safety belt instrument.

Un-Skotison!

• Using the paramedic method, restore these partial statements to “Plain English”:1. The use of conceptualization 2. Being of a non-brave disposition 3. In the process of fabricating a state of shoe lace

unity4. Require a new understanding of the process of

outwardly projecting a basketball towards a circular access point

Un-Skotison!

• Using the paramedic method, restore a statement to “Plain English”:1. As you will notice given your observation, I am

effecting a phase-shift transition from total mental and sensory preparedness to a state of temporary unconsciousness and rapid eye movement.

Whose Plain English is it, anyway?

Justifications (or Excuses?)

• Butler: “But is it not part of a critical approach to language, and, indeed, to rhetoric, to ask what constitutes the norms of communicability, and what challenges them, and how it is that a critical consideration of the norm and its challenges forms part of the project of a comparative approach to literature?

Just being difficult?

• Complex concepts resist easy summary• Technical terms are more precise• Complex language “slows you down,” forcing

you to take more time to think about the issue.• If the idea is “beyond language,” you must rely

on contortions and tricks to get at the ideas. • Elite discourse communities are exclusive by

nature.

Translate Henry A. Giroux

• At the very least, the production of films such as Fight Club suggests that

progressives need a new civic language and vocabulary to address the

relevance of culture, politics, and pedagogy in order to understand not

just how to read texts critically, but also how to comprehend how

knowledge circulates through various circuits of power in order to put into

place images, experiences, representations, and discourses that objectify

others and create the ideological conditions for individuals to become

indifferent to how violence in its diverse expressions promotes human

suffering.