Let Dr. Mike Zizzi teach you to uplift your world via truly *authentic* writing (and speaking! and listening!) We need more of YOUR voice (not AI's).
Yes, I’ve taught a lot of writing classes and, since trained as a communication theorist, I’ve developed my own method (my “Activated Writing” system) of re-thinking how you (or any writer) approaches writing sentences (and whole messages). I consider this system the “heart” of the Up-Wordz.com website/blog, because it’s the most powerful — and original…
Read More “Get ready for some great tips in speech (public speaking)” »
Certainly, I, like most people, can easily conjure up quick and semi-informed (if informed at all) opinions on just about any topic. But on this site, you will find only things I’ve given much thought to and, in most cases, have studied formally and quite likely taught, written, and/or discussed publicly, aided by my love…
Stage 1-a: The Essence of a Sentence – “Introduction” As I will remind you elsewhere (sorry to nag, but it’s vitally important), your learning will benefit greatly if you read and study my system — all three “stages” — in their sequential order. So start here, then work your way through all the Stage 1…
Read More “Stage 1-a: The Essence of a Sentence – “Introduction”” »
Don’t let that knee jerk! I want to get an early start on demonstrating the lack of political side taking that I will demonstrate and also hope you will be able to emulate, when that would help you, which is often, in our present times of unprecedented (at least in the past century) divisiveness. For…
In this post — a continuation of Part 1 — I am heading, with a critical eye but also a fix-it mentality, straight into a trend (grammatical? sociological?) of growing dominance in publishing and other mainstream settings. Motivationally speaking . . . I would like to clarify my motivation for “targeting” this this topic (“pronoun…
Read More “Ending Pronoun Madness – 2 — incl. HOW (to *do* it, graciously!)” »
“Words Matter” — that’s my mantra for curing “pronoun madness.” Ironically, it’s the same (unexplained, unsupported, and unconvincing) mantra used/misused/abused by the shallow and misguided advocates of the very pronoun madness I wish to eradicate from our language, especially in public use. Note: Elsewhere in the Writing Lessons, section of this blog (under Grammar &…
Read More “Ending Pronoun madness #1 — the WHY (b/c “Words Matter”?)” »
You say you want a “revelation” . . . Apologies to John Lennon, but you, Reader-student, are now about to emerge out of the “Helter Skelter” of your piecemeal knowledge of grammar. And, to get started on the transformation, you can, right now, dig in to the first “stage” of my three-stage program of learning…
Read More “Stage 1-b: What “one thing” does every sentence need?” »
Subjects and predicates — “simple” or “complete”? While we’re defining technical grammatical terms, let me point out that subjects and predicates, both, come in two forms: simple and complete. That’s a pretty minor technicality, but understanding the difference will soon prove helpful. So let’s differentiate. The simple forms of both subject (S) and predicate (P)…
Read More “Stage 1-c: “Simple” vs. “complete” subjects & predicates” »
Q: Are there exceptions to this “foundational” rule? A: Yes. Before we move on to Stage 2, where we will explore the possibilities (and rules) regarding using more than one main clause in your sentences, let me point out right now that English grammar allows for several quite-common exceptions to our foundational (and I might even…
Read More “Stage 1- d: Exceptions to the rule (that MCs are “essential”)” »
Get ready to take a closer — and fuller — look at the predicate. Crucially, it makes for “half” of the all-important (not to mention essential) grammatical building block of the sentence, the main clause. Yes, our sentences usually present the subject first, then the predicate, as shown and exemplified throughout my Stage 1-b post,…