A Lesson on Writing from Benjamin Franklin

Today I read chapter two of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. In it, Franklin explains how composition and education played a significant role in his ventures with the printing business, which began as a joint effort to support his brother, James's, newspaper.  Franklin humbly admits that his vocabulary and rhetorical skill were not originally sufficient for publication; therefore, his older sibling often subjected him to menial tasks. Franklin wanted more for himself and wanted equal status with James, so he took to educating himself.

Franklin's steps toward intellectual self-improvement came first by the means of improving his rhetorical influence. He began through application of poetry because he believed the need for words to match a certain meter or measure he would undoubtedly, by necessity, expand his vocabulary. He also took up grammar and logic--particularly adapting the Socratic method of questioning. He practiced his skills by memorizing prose and rewriting it, comparing, and repeating the steps that are more or less paraphrasing by modern definitions. It is interesting to me that he broaches the subject of writing and English mastery as part of the foundational aspects of his later success. Franklin says that it gives him great pleasure in forcing superior intellectuals into concession, and to be taken serious himself in conversation and any manner of important discourse. 

To this end, Franklin counsels in favor of couching all discourse as a subjective and as personal belief rather than one of unbending certainty. He says, to avoid words like certainty and undoubtedly, but instead prefers phrases, such as if I am not mistaken or I believe it so. He cautions that if speaker/writer asserts him or herself too sincerely, it is perceived by the audience as dogmatic and therefore often met with opposition. In this assessment of the rhetorical situation, he has identified his audience and has moved to meet the purpose of his discourse--either to persuade, inform, or both.   

In all, I recommend that others read this chapter of Franklin's autobiography because it reflects both contemporary and modern advice for posturing oneself as learned. Once a person can be seen by his or her peers as someone with something to say, others are more likely to listen. Franklin is an accomplished, respected, and modeled founder of our nation, therefore, it seems to me that his advice should not go unheard; however, just as he supposed his own assessments and practices, I too would advance that any individual find his or her own caveats of writing/speaking and mastery of discourse.