Here's the Prelude to Dilip Mukerjea's new book, English Eloquence: Detonating the Language Barrier, by tackling the crucial basics of grammar, eloquence, and erudition, using Applied Imagination, Catalysed Creativity, and Intellectual Polish:

ENGLISH is the Language of the 21st Century! 

Good English is an Imperative! What are YOU doing about it?

“True eloquence is irresistible. It charms by its images of beauty, it enforces an argument by its vehement simplicity. Orators whose speeches are 'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,' only prevail where truth is not understood, for knowledge and simplicity are the foundation of all true eloquence. Eloquence abounds in beautiful and natural images, sublime but simple conceptions, in passionate but plain words. Burning words appeal to the emotions as well as to the intellect; they stir the soul and touch the heart.” 

~ Albert Ellery Bergh

PRELUDE

The world of tomorrow is being shaped in the institutions of today. Are our students gaining the knowledge and skills they need to make the shift from classrooms to boardrooms? Cognitive overload has become a common evolutionary malady. The cost of confusion has escalated. Are our educators, administrators, and leaders in governance, clear, compelling, and eloquent in their articulations? Are we being educated for Global Competence? We need a disciplinary and inter-disciplinary understanding of the world. 

English is the language of the 21st century. It affects and impacts all aspects of life. Enduring competitive advantage is hard to achieve in a time of great uncertainty and volatility: thus, the ability to communicate with power and eloquence has become more crucial than ever. It calls for flexible intelligence that drives our ability to persuade, inform, entertain, and advance from breakdown to breakthrough! 

In the end, it is not what we achieve in the short term that matters, it is what we leave behind for the long term—what we call the perpetuity principle. Language is thus a peak-priority imperative to create and impel our visions towards winning outcomes. 

This book has been designed to be visually provocative, where text and imagery blend into a force of single-pointedness, directed at enabling you to make exponential progress in any domain of endeavour. It complements my earlier book, English Angles. 

Richard Mayer, an expert on learning and memory spent decades studying the effects of multimedia learning. His five main conclusions, obtained from empirical data about how humans learn best, are: 

(1) We learn better with words and images than with words alone. 

(2) We learn better when the words and images are presented simultaneously as opposed to consecutively. 

(3) We learn better when the words and images are close together. 

(4) We learn better when any irrelevant material is removed from the presentation. 

(5) We learn more with animated images and narration than with animated images and text on a screen. 

New graduates, and an army of executives, are going full-speed to nowhere if they 

• lack critical, creative and systems thinking skills; 

• exhibit poor attention to detail, and fail to synthesise vast reams of data; 

• make massive errors in writing [absence of expertise in grammar]; 

• are inarticulate at public speaking. 

I urge you to work through this book with the aim of emerging profoundly eloquent! 

Bon voyage!