The Richly or Poorly Show
Show Transcript
shdawson-20261027.mp3
Episode 10/27/2026
10/27/2026
Hello! Welcome to The Richly or Poorly Show!
My name is Dr. Stephen Dawson, and I am your show host.
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The show's motto is unmistakable: RICHLY IS GOODLY!
Please consider how you define the term good as we journey through life together in your pursuit of defining the term richly in your life.
Last week, I continued to address the skill of Writing by explaining the Relevance of Writing to you in the year 2026 and how you, I, and the rest of humanity are heading rapidly into artificial intelligence doing the act of Writing. I shared that I expected you would be surprised by what you heard from me last week about how to overcome the power of artificial intelligence by furthering your agenda to live your life more richly through leveraging The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success in your life to interface with artificial intelligence and robotics in ways that are as simple as they are timeless. They are simple and timeless because they are based on Wisdom.
Today, I will present how to acquire the skill of Writing in your life. I cannot say it is a hard skill to gain, but I can say it is work to gain the skill. It is work to gain the skill of Writing because you are the only one who can decide whether or not what you have written in your message forms the specific message you want to send at a particular time, to a particular receiver, for a particular reason, to achieve a particular outcome. I struggle to answer this question in my life, as I want to help people when I send them my messages. I want to help them, as my worldview holds the belief that helping someone is better than hurting them. How about you?
The resources to gain the skill of Writing include the skill of reading. Reading is not a skill in The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success. I will explain to you why reading is not a skill in The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success during the last episode of this series, after sharing how to acquire the fifth skill in The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success.
Reading is how you input words into your mind. Yes, hearing is also a way to input words into your mind. However, a person who cannot read is a person who cannot trust all that they hear. Reading validates hearing, and vice versa.
I am not saying a person who cannot read but can hear is either ignorant, lazy, disabled, or wrong for not being able to read. I am saying their ability to input words into their mind is less than a person who can both read and hear. I am not saying a person who can neither see nor hear is either ignorant, lazy, disabled, or wrong for not being able to both see and hear. I am saying their ability to input words into their mind is less than a person who can both read and hear. The deaf and blind person does have the option to learn the Braille tactile writing system in substitution of using their eyes to read. Look up the name Helen Adams Keller and spend 30 seconds to learn her stunning biography of academic success and her unyielding commitment to live her life more richly. I once read of a person who used their feet to read Braille, as their hands were lost when they lost their vision and hearing from an accident. Talk about the desire to live life more richly!
Now, about the means for you to learn how to write.
First, you need your resources. There are four of them.
FIRST, THE DICTIONARY:
The dictionary is the repository of all words in a language. There is no substitute. The thesaurus is a version of the dictionary that lists similar words, called synonyms, without the definition of the word, as a way to spark thought. The dictionary has some synonyms listed for each term, but not as many as a thesaurus. The dictionary is the minimum resource here, whereas the thesaurus does help one process the dictionary a bit faster than without it.
Slang is a vocabulary of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. Slang is used in unstructured messaging. You are not looking for slang in your writing.
SECOND, ENDLESS READING:
Read anything you can put in front of your eyes. Read all types of writing. Poetry is intended to be incomplete sentences, but also read poetry. Read the laws of your government, technical documents, children's stories, science fiction, documentaries, and any other type of writing you can imagine and gain access to read. The learning transformation experience takes time, more time than only a glance at the material. I expect it to take you several weeks of focused reading to learn the material you read and understand each of them at a proficient skill level.
THIRD, THE REED & KELLOGG SYSTEM:
The reason you need grammar after you do reading is that you already have grammar under your belt. You read, then validate what you read by the grammar system of the language you chose to read. I am operating here on the basis that you are reading in the US English language, and the grammar of this language is inseparable. The Reed & Kellogg System is, as I have shared, the most beneficial means I have found in 60 years of looking to accomplish grammar of the US English language.
I took a five-day lesson in tennis as a kid. He taught me how to hit the tennis ball with the tennis racket. I thought there was more to tennis, but he said it is all about how the tennis player hits the tennis ball. I figured it was worth my time and effort to learn from him. The instructor was mean and rude. He had a statement that stuck with me since then: If you practice wrong, then you learn wrong. He is correct. There is no need to do your training, your practicing, your learning of writing, with what you have read if what you have read is wrong in the form of grammar errors.
FINALLY, CAPTURING YOUR WRITING:
You need either a pen or a pencil, called a writing instrument in the school days, and paper. Alternatively, you need either a smartphone, a laptop, or a personal computer. I shared, during the June 16th, 2026, episode, the means to use a word processor for free, with ease, providing you the ability to translate all of your writing into the language you prefer with the click of a button, with all of your writing 100% ready to use with artificial intelligence. My friend, life does not get much better than this combination for the person who is learning how to write.
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You then set off to write. You write what comes to your mind, what you want to remember, what you want to share, and what you wonder about in your free time. You write about current events, politics, sports, whatever moves your thinking to capture it on either paper or in a word processor. You mature your writing by editing what you have written. Editing is adding words, removing words, or replacing words. You structure your writing into an article, an opinion, a recommendation, and countless other forms of writing. It is similar to learning how to hit the tennis ball. You have many ways to swing the tennis racket, but only one way to hit the ball. The way is putting the ball where you want it to reside. The residing part is when what you have written forms the specific message you want to send at a particular time, to a particular receiver, for a particular reason, to achieve a particular outcome.
Now, you need to validate your ability to write. There are three options to validate your writing ability.
FIRST, YOU ALONE:
You are the only one who can decide whether or not what you have written in your message forms the specific message you want to send at a particular time, to a particular receiver, for a particular reason, to achieve a particular outcome. A slogan is not your friend when trying to learn the skill of Writing. A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan or a political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, to persuade members of the public or a more defined target group. The work you are accomplishing is to write a complete sentence. Then, write additional complete sentences that are relevant to one another. Then, form your sentences into paragraphs, which all together contain the specific message you want to send at a particular time, to a particular receiver, for a particular reason, to achieve a particular outcome. Yes, you can accomplish the specific message you want to send at a particular time, to a particular receiver, for a particular reason, to achieve a particular outcome in a single sentence. This condition is the smaller part of the big picture of life. You will, by the probability calculation forming a prediction, need to write more than a single sentence to achieve the particular outcome you desire to accomplish.
SECOND, YOUR PEERS:
This is where you share with anyone who is willing to read your writing to learn their feedback on your writing. You are revealing a part of yourself to someone by way of your writing. This revelation can be a scary experience when you write about a topic that is a big deal for you. Think about a topic that brings forth great passion from within you, and write some sentences about the topic. Then, consider your writing being rejected as an invalid perspective on the topic by the person you chose to ask to provide you with feedback about your writing. The only way to get feedback about your writing is to share your writing with anyone that you choose who is willing to read it objectively and then provide you with objective feedback. A biased person is not worth your time to read anything you write, as they are not providing you with objective feedback. Leave them to their senseless, self-centered bigotry and move on to live your life more richly by not having them in your life. You are looking for the person who is willing to tell you, objectively, that your writing is horrible. Why? So you can learn to improve your writing. It may take you a few days, or a few weeks, or even a few months to get past horrible writing. You have a solid process to learn how to write now in your hand, in your eyes, and in your mind. Use it, learn writing, and be free from having any objective person ever tell you again that your writing is horrible.
Yes, I am using the term horrible to shock you in my message to you now. I am trying to prepare you for the worst experience possible when receiving feedback about your writing from a person you chose to ask for their feedback about your writing. If you are prepared for the worst experience, then you are ready for anything.
Here is a way to look at this matter: Some of the best, most precious memories I have are from when I was chewed out by a person I respected, not angrily but calmly and objectively, and I thanked them for chewing me out after they did it. I felt bad about my actions, and I wanted to change my actions. They cared enough to tell me The Truth by way of Wisdom, to help me live my life more richly. Are you willing to hear that you are not perfect as a means to help you live your life more richly? I am certain I am not perfect. How about you? I am willing to hear that I am not perfect as a means to help me live my life more richly, because I know Wisdom always leads to The Truth. How about you? Are you willing to have your writing be reviewed by a person who will, objectively, tell you why it is horrible and what would help you not have horrible writing?
FINALLY, AN AUTHORITATIVE THIRD PARTY:
I do not like isolated testing. I do not like it because of the fraud I shared that I experienced in my school years. I like accredited testing. Accredited testing is a test that has been reviewed by many sources and determined by independent reviews to be fair, thorough, and, as a result, meaningful. If you can do a skill, then why not validate that you can do the skill so you can get some income from doing the skill? If you do not want income today from doing the skill, then that is not a big deal to me. How about tomorrow? How about if you need to have validation that you can do a skill?
There is no mandate for you to complete any testing to prove any of your skills. There is no mandate for you to do anything. It is best to prove your skills by testing to gain income by people paying you to do something you have proven you are qualified to do in life.
If you are willing to prove your Writing skill to yourself by way of an authoritative third party, then there are two options I recommend you consider. First, the International English Language Testing System, acronym I-E-L-T-S. Second, The Test of English as a Foreign Language, acronym T-O-E-F-L. There are few college or university degree programs that are good enough today to prove anyone has the ability to write in the US English language. The IELTS and TOEFL are wonderful testing processes to validate the skill of Writing.
Yes, this option of an authoritative third party involves time, effort, and money. You and you alone must decide the value of an authoritative third party.
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Next week, we will begin the third skill of The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success. A hint: It is doing something you have been doing since the moment you were born. I am confident you will like the skill. Why am I confident? Simple. I have no reason to believe anyone will ever choose to stop doing the skill.
You now have two-fifths, 40%, of the information about The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success. This is a huge milestone in your life. I doubt you will ever forget this empowerment you have received to live your life more richly. I expect you will look back on this day in the years to come with great joy. I urge you to have some type of celebration within the next 24 hours. I hope you enjoy your celebration!
Well, that's it for today.
RICHLY IS GOODLY!
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The Richly or Poorly Show!
I have enjoyed presenting to you today.
Until the next episode, I hope you will be safe and join me next week.
Until then.
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