The Richly or Poorly Show - Show Transcript

The Richly or Poorly Show
Show Transcript
shdawson-20260929.mp3
Episode 09/29/2026
09/29/2026

Hello! Welcome to The Richly or Poorly Show!

My name is Dr. Stephen Dawson, and I am your show host.

Thank you for joining me.

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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 presented the first skill of The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success is Grammar. Grammar is the easiest of the five to master. It is also the fastest of the five to master. I framed the events and circumstances that led to identifying Grammar as necessary for success. I shared that Grammar is a set of rules for a specific language to handle assembling the parts of speech into sentences. The grammar comprising the US English System is based on the UK English System. The English language was defined around 800 AD, around 1,200 years ago. AU English is also based on UK English.

Today, I will present the Relevance of the first skill in The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success in your life as a member of my intended audience. I will do so by explaining why learning the Reed-Kellogg System alone is not the answer to your understanding of how Grammar empowers you to use The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success.

Grammar is a set of rules where the majority of humanity defines the rules. The grammar rules for English are different from the grammar rules of, say, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and the other hundreds of languages held by humanity. The rules of Grammar change slightly in each language every so often, such as every century or so.

Grammar is regulated by a common body known as no one. Academia, news outlets, companies that publish dictionaries, and historical documents of religions, governments, and even comic books form grammar. Grammar is the intersection of the parts of speech, such as nouns and verbs, and the punctuation characters, such as periods and commas, to shape the parts of speech we choose in our writing and speaking into groups called phrases and sentences that form paragraphs, that form writing efforts such as a paper, an article, or a book.

A sentence diagram is a pictorial representation of the grammatical structure of a sentence. Educators Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg designed what was to become the definitive system for sentence diagramming in their 1877 book titled Higher Lessons in English. My take on why they wrote their book is twofold. First, they saw in 1877 the absence of a common understanding about connecting the parts of speech and the parts of punctuation. Meaning, nothing of the like existed in all of history. So, they wrote a book as their gift to humanity. Second, they wanted to get some money from their effort, so they structured their gift as a book that was sold at a nominal cost. The result is a brilliant idea of a simple system to have a pictorial representation of the grammatical structure of a sentence.

Now, I hold the position that learning the Reed-Kellogg System alone is not the answer to your understanding of how Grammar empowers you to use The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success. I hold this position more for the punctuation aspect than the parts of speech. There are countless times in history where a sentence has a comma that breaks up the sentence into a group of messages. Putting either a comma or commas in a sentence is a paramount change to the sentence. Moving a comma either before or after a single word in a sentence changes the entire message that forms a message group in a sentence. Multiply that impact over multiple sentences, and then over multiple paragraphs. I am sure you can see easily how the intent of a writer can either succeed or fail to communicate with either a reader or listener based on how the recipient of their writing or speaking interprets their words combined with their punctuation.

The episodes from June 2nd, 2026, to June 23rd, 2026, address the topic of Messaging & Communication. I invite you to review these episodes as you see fit to better understand the episode I present to you today. The episodes from July 21st, 2026, to September 1st, 2026, address the topic of Relationships. Again, I invite you to review these episodes as you see fit to better understand the episode I present to you today.

You will learn in these episodes how there is a direct connection between Messaging & Communication and Relationships. Now, Messaging & Communication can be either verbal or nonverbal, often both at the same time. My intent to form our relationship occurred in the episodes between December 2nd, 2025, and January 27th, 2026. The plan was to provide you, as a member of my intended show audience, with material on a variety of topics through a variety of presentation styles for you to understand more about me as a person, as your show host, and as, hopefully, as your new friend. I have gained feedback from several show listeners who have told me they have not been able to bond as they prefer with the show host in other forms of media, because they do not have a relationship formation experience with them. The feedback informs me clearly that the benefits of the Listener Relationship Formation episodes benefited both my listeners and me in ways I did not expect. Specifically, the ability to point to a specific topic by a section of a show episode instead of an entire episode being viewed as a single topic. This multi-topic approach is an example of how paragraphs build a message to accomplish communication. My listeners also having the show episode transcripts enables them to receive the punctuation of my speaking. The show audio and transcripts combine to form a communication effort. I am unable to comprehend how a presenter in 2026 can succeed in connecting with their intended audience apart from providing both audio and transcripts of the audio to listeners. The transcripts are in a web page, on a feature in a syndication app. Some of the benefits of having the transcripts in a web page is they are searchable, they are translatable to almost any other language imaginable, and they are ready to be used by artificial intelligence for things like summarizing the transcript, asking artificial intelligence questions about multiple transcripts, or even adding the transcript as an input to an analysis effort.

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It is my considered position that the prevalence of US English in the many cultures of today justifies learning the Reed-Kellogg System, even for anyone who does not speak English as their primary language. Learning the Reed-Kellogg System will help you learn Grammar both easier and faster, as I have said both today and last week. You will also learn your primary language better by learning the Reed-Kellogg System. Better, as in how you both understand and use your primary language. Your ability to structure your primary language will, undoubtedly, increase your messaging effectiveness by spending less time and effort to deliver your message to your intended recipient. The result will likely be their increased ability to understand your message. The result of a shared understanding of a message by a message sender and a message receiver is the condition known as communication.

I started with the Reed-Kellogg System using simple sentences. No commas, no prepositions, no fancy anything. I then added another message in my sentence, separated by a comma. I then started adding prepositional phrases. I decided I am not a fan of prepositional phrases. The Grammar rules to structure a prepositional phrase are simple enough for me to understand when I look at the Grammar rules by way of the Reed-Kellogg System. What I realized is I can write my messages in ways that are more effective by not using prepositional phrases. HELLO! This is an example where less writing brings more of the preferred result, which is the message being understood more easily, which means the message is understood faster. That, my friend, was a huge benefit for me to learn Grammar by way of the Reed-Kellogg System.

I do not like excess writing. It is a condition known as tautology. Tautology is spelled T-A-U-T-O-L-O-G-Y. Tautology is a noun. It means needless repetition of an idea, especially in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness. Tautology is a form of waste. A speaker using Tautology is called rhetorical, when the speaker is not using pre-written material for them to read. There are enough things to do in life that are more important in my view than to waste anyone's time by asking them to either read or hear my excess words that return no value to them in their time and effort spent in receiving my words as my message to them. So, I only write and speak the words that I am certain are not excessive.

Another example of my dislike for excess writing is in a set of instructions. True, there is a condition where there is an insufficient amount of instruction for almost any topic. The balance of too much and too little when writing instructions is delicate. One reader may only need a bit of instruction on a topic, and another reader needs much instruction on the same topic. I do not like quick start guides at all. It is my calculation that 99.987,654,321% of humanity will go for the quick way to get what they want on almost any topic. Quickness does not guarantee effectiveness. Effective is the priority when messaging with anyone about anything.

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The selling point for me about Grammar, and I have to believe you and a person who seeks to live their life more richly, is the elimination of the right-wrong debate. Learn the Grammar rules for the words and punctuation you choose to use in your writing and speaking, and you will never be told you are wrong about your message construct. There may be a complaint about a fact you state in your message, but that is a different matter. You will gain the peace of mind from not hearing you are wrong, in terms of your writing and speaking. Not hearing you are wrong builds your credibility, which increases the likelihood someone will agree with your message. Gaining agreement about your written or spoken message brings much help to either informing, entertaining, or persuading your intended audience to accept your position as valid by way of your message.

Next week, I will present how you, as a listener in my intended audience, can accomplish the Acquisition of Grammar in your life. You will hear specific resources and instructions to use those resources. I expect you will be happy beyond measure when you learn how easy and how fast you can add Grammar to your life as one of The Five Academic Skills Necessary for Success.

Well, that's it for today.

RICHLY IS GOODLY!

I hope you are excited about how you can apply the material I present to you on the show to your life, so you can live your life more richly than you have ever known!

Try to settle in your mind my role in your life. Doing so will help you be ready to continue your journey with loads of joy and excitement about the good results in your life gained from experiencing all I have to share with you.

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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