Writing Skills #1

0. present your original opinion;

1. correct it;

2. present other's opinion;

3. reject it;

4. present your current opinion;

5. support it with (an) example(s);

I learned it from the English course today. It's simple and useful. And it reminds me that I should make use of every course I take whether I like it or not. So I decide to start a collection called #plainwritingnreading# to learn more.

With today's Writing Skills #1, I write a sample which goes like this --

I tried to read The History of Western Philosophy in high school. The first name I met was Thales who is famous for the slogan "Water is the first principle of everything". And I thought it was really boring. Did he make any sense by saying that? Water? Why not butter? Anyone could make up a sentence like that. Why we have to regard Thales as the father of philosophy?

And it turned out that I just didn't get the essential meaning behind that slogan. In fact, I was the foolish one. Thales was more than what I thought.

The funny thing is, later I heard from someone saying that Thales deserved the title. In his opinion, since Thales presented that view and the view was recorded, it was meant to be him. However, it didn't convince me.

Now I have a new understanding about what Thales really means to us. It's neither the name "Thales" nor the slogan that matter. It's the attempt to see through the appearance that counts. Thales stood for a generation that made the attempt. That's why we should remember him. We remember Thales for that wise generation's sake. And for ourselves as human race.