Trained engineer and communications expert Allan Laurence Brooks has recently published Think Smart, Talk Smart: How Scientists Think: A Guide to Effective Communication, a new book available in the IGS Store.

About the Book

No one doubts that science underlies every tangible aspect of our lives, but few people apply its systematic style of thinking to improve their communication styles. To get the most out of science, it’s important to understand science as a style of thinking rather than just a forbidding collection of facts and mathematics. Individuals who learn how scientists collect evidence, evaluate facts, and draw conclusions can improve their own thought processes and overcome shortcomings.

Written by a trained engineer and communications expert, this guidebook provides the tools you need to sharpen your thinking skills, hone your communication skills, refine your evaluation of data, and improve your objectivity. You’ll also learn important theories and ways of thinking from scientists and scholars such as Albert Einstein, Aristotle, Marshall McLuhan, Werner Heisenberg, and many others.

By sharing case studies and questioning assumptions, author Allan Laurence Brooks provides a roadmap that allows you to immediately improve your communication with others. Leave obstacles behind and approach life like a scientist with Think Smart, Talk Smart.

Click here to purchase Think Smart, Talk Smart in the IGS Store.

About the Author

Allan Laurence Brooks holds a master's degree in communication studies; he has forty-five years of experience as a graduate engineer. He has taught communications for more than fifteen years and was a member of the English Department of the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York. He currently lives in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Purchase the Book

Click here to purchase Think Smart, Talk Smart in the IGS Store.

At the 13th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association, the Institute of General Semantics is sponsoring a panel presentation on the importance of general semantics to more effective human communication.

General Information

The Thirteenth Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association
"The Crossroads of the Word"
June 7–10, 2012
Manhattan College
Riverdale, New York
http://media-ecology.org/activities/index.html

IGS Panel

Moderator

Lance Strate

Panel Presenters

Corey Anton
Martin H. Levinson

Today, the Board of Trustees of the Institute of General Semantics elected two new trustees: Edward E. Tywoniak and Kristene A. Doyle.

Edward Tywoniak

Edward E. Tywoniak, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, School of Liberal Arts, of Saint Mary’s College of California.  Dr. Tywoniak has been a professor of Communication at Saint Mary's College of California for over 30 years, and the upcoming 2012-13 academic year marks his third appointment as Chair of the department of Communication. He currently sits on the Core Curriculum Committee and the Technology Advisory Committee, is a Faculty Fellow for Curriculum and Technology, and is a W. M. Keck Research Fellow and Director of the Digital Studies program within the School of Liberal Arts at Saint Mary's College. Other current board affiliations include membership on the board of directors for the Media Ecology Association, the board of trustees of the School of Applied Theology at the Berkeley Graduate Theology Union, and the board of directors of EBI--a non-profit organization serving the developmentally disabled adult population of the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Kristene A. Doyle

Kristene A. Doyle, Ph.D., is the Director of the Albert Ellis Institute in New York City.  At the Albert Ellis Institute, Dr. Doyle is also a Staff Psychologist, the Director of Clinical Services, the Director of Child and Family Services, and a Training and Development Coordinator.  She has been a clinical supervisor for both the childhood clinical track and the school psychology doctoral program at St. John's University since 2000.  She received her doctorate in combined clinical and school psychology from Hofstra University in 1999.

Our Board

• Click here for the current list of the Institute of General Semantics board of trustees.

Volume 69, Number 1 (January 2012), of the Institute of General Semantics's quarterly journal ETC: A Review of General Semantics will be out soon in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

• Click here to download ETC 69:1 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents Preview

• "Silent Cal and the Invisible Audience: the Sociotechnological Significance of the Presidential Voice" by James Eric (Jay) Black
• "Science Fiction Language/Political Reporting: Communicating News via Words from Nowhere Real" by Marleen S. Barr
• "No One Saw This Coming: Korzybski's Concerns, Predictions, and Time-Binding Suggestions" by Milton Dawes
• "Indexing Africa" by Martin H. Levinson
• "Binding Places and Time: Reflections on Fluency in Media Ecology" by Karen Lollar
• "Twitter and the New Publicity" by Joseph Faina
• "Chronemics: Time-Binding and the Construction of Personal Time" by Tom Bruneau
• Metaphors in Action:
  "A Music Concert as a Metaphor" by Raymond Gozzi, Jr.
• "Probes: Homo Faber" by Peter Zhang
• Plus Book Reviews.

Cover Art

The cover of ETC 69:1 is a work titled "Golan Thorns" by Kyle Perler.

• Click here to view more art by Kyle Perler.

Martin H. Levinson, Ph.D., has recently created A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics, a new booklet available for free download through the IGS Store.

About the Booklet

Debuting at the 59th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture in October 2011 as a gift to registrants, the 47-page booklet A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics offers guidance for teachers interested in creating a course for students of general semantics.

Originally available in hard copy, A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics is now available as a PDF.

Click here to download A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics in the IGS Store.

Table of Contents

Lesson I: Science-Related Ideas for Effective Communication and Problem-Solving
Lesson II: Mental Maps—The Way to Better Planning and Prediction
Lesson III: Extensional and Intensional Orientations—How Real is Real?
Lesson IV: Non-Allness—No One Can Know All there is to Know About Anything
Lesson V: "Indexing"—Getting Closer to What is Really Going On
Lesson VI: "Dating"—We Live in a Changing World
Lesson VII: Two-Valued Orientations—The Limitations of Our "Either-Or" Language
Lesson VIII: Distinguishing Facts from Inferences—Language and Reality
Lesson IX: Nonverbal Communication—The Semantics of Silence
Lesson X: Signal-Symbol Reactions—Keeping Your Cool
Lesson XI: Increasing Semantics Awareness—The Structural Differential
Lesson XII: Asking Constructive Questions—Ones that Show an Extensional Orientation

About the Author

Martin H. Levinson, Ph.D., is the President of the Institute of General Semantics and the author of numerous articles and several books on general semantics and other subjects. His latest book is Brooklyn Boomer: Growing Up in the Fifties (2011).

Download the Booklet

Click here to download A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics in the IGS Store.

The booklet is also redundantly available in the General Semantics Learning Center under Teaching Materials.

Click here to visit the Teaching Materials section of the General Semantics Learning Center.

Volume 68, Number 4 (October 2011), of the Institute of General Semantics's quarterly journal ETC: A Review of General Semantics will be out soon in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

Click here to download ETC 68:4 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents Preview

• "The Spectacled Society: General Semantics and a Painters Process" by Dom Heffer
• "Corporate Identity Metaphor as Constitutive Discourse in Miniature: The Case of New China Life" by Peter Zhang
• "Appreciative Inquiry + General Semantics → IFD Disease Resistance" by Mary P. Lahman
• Poem:
  "Townsend Hell vs. Townsend Hall" by Lynn Chih-Ning Chang
• "My Culture Shock Experience" by Lynn Chih-Ning Chang
• Poem:
  "For A.K." by Joseph Gold
• "Memorandum" by Bill Petkanas
• Five Poems:
  "Words Fail" by Heather Statz
  "The Right Question" by Heather Statz
  "Doublespeak" by Heather Statz
  "My Doublespeak" by Heather Statz
  "In a Sentence" by Heather Statz
• "Reading Korzybski through Nietzsche" by Zhenbin Sun
• "Language Power: Korzybski's Interdisciplinary Methodology" by Blake Victor Seidenshaw
• "'She Just Called You Honey': My Quandary at Waffle House" by Brett Lunceford
• "The Oxford English Dictionary: A Time-Binding Marvel" by Martin H. Levinson
• "'The Map Is Not the Territory It Represents': Consequences on the Evaluation-Intervention Process" by Gérard Lavoie
• "The Teacher as Cultural Worker: Overlapping Insights from Sociology and General Semantics" by Mary Bachaspatimayum
• Metaphors in Action:
  "Is the Universe Information?" by Raymond Gozzi, Jr.
• Plus Book Reviews.

Cover Art

The cover of ETC 68:4 is a work titled "Society of the Spectacles II: The Sequel—in 4D!" by Dom Heffer.

Click here to view more art by Dom Heffer.

Authors Gerald & Janice Haslam have recently published In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa, a new book available through the IGS Store.

About the Book

This intimate and detailed biography of the man whose popular book Language in Thought and Action is used as an introduction to general semantics for high-school and college students today draws on interviews with friends and family members, as well as S. I. Hayakawa’s own papers and journals, to bring this controversial and fascinating figure to life.

He was an enigma to colleagues as well as adversaries, a Republican senator who consistently bucked his party’s ideals with his support of the women’s movement, abortion rights, and even Ronald Reagan’s search for a female running mate. The son of Japanese immigrants, born and raised in Canada before moving to the United States, Hayakawa emerges here as a complex and complicated figure. His blend of heritage, politics, artistic inclination, and intellectual achievement makes him quintessentially American.

Click here to purchase In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa in the IGS Store.

About the Authors

Gerald W. Haslam is a professor emeritus of English at Sonoma State University and the author and editor of numerous books, including Workin’ Man Blues: Country Music in California, the novel Straight White Male, and the anthology Many Californias: Literature from the Golden State.

Janice E. Haslam is the coauthor, with Gerald W. Haslam, of the fiction collection Manuel and the Madman and An Instructor's Guide to Many Californias.

Reviews

In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa traces the fascinating life of an iconic American writer, teacher, politician, and family man. In the process, authors Gerald W. Haslam and Janice E. Haslam tell us a lot about the culture wars of the 20th century—and of American identity itself. The authors’ many fans will be delighted by this definitive biography, as will students, scholars, and teachers of ethnic studies, California history, and American politics.

—Jonah Raskin
Author of American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl"
and the Making of the Beat Generation

Gerald and Janice Haslam are the perfect writers for this complete and superbly researched biography of S.I. Hayakawa, the teacher, poet, scholar, writer, flamboyant college president and Senator from California, who was always seeking more, not just for fame but for other, more personal reasons. Only the Haslams, with their unique perspectives, could know and tell this story.

—Clark S. Sturges
Author of Dr. Dave: A Profile of David E. Smith, MD,
founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics

Purchase the Book

Click here to purchase In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa in the IGS Store.

IGS President Martin H. Levinson's article titled "General Semantics and Media Ethics"--based on a chapter in John C. Merrill's book Journalism Ethics titled "Korzybski to the Rescue"--appears on Media Ethics online, the website for the magazine serving mass communications ethics.

Click here to read the article by Martin H. Levinson.

Writer Oliver Burkeman celebrates and discusses D. David Bourland, Jr., and his famous contribution to general semantics, E-Prime ("English without be-verbs"), in an article in the January 16, 2010, edition of UK's The Guardian.

Have a read:

"This column will change your life: To be or not to be…"

Writer William Safire is no stranger to general semantics. The author of the "On Language" column for the New York Times Magazine for decades, in his April 12, 2009 entry (p. 14) makes reference to Alfred Korzybski in discussing the new secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano's use of the euphemism man-caused disaster in place of terrorism.

Noting that "Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan commented: 'Ah. Well, this is only a nuance, but her use of language is a man-caused disaster,'" Safire went on to remark that, "Noonan makes an excellent point of light: a word is not the thing itself. (That was the message of the general semanticist Alfred Korzybski, famous for 'a map is not the territory.') Renaming terrorism 'man-caused disaster' does not begin to deal with the real thing that is terrorism."

Politics aside, we salute Bill Safire for his consciousness of abstracting!

Read the essay online >>