What does the writing of Katy Perry, Hemingway, and The Bible have in common? Mark Forsyth has the answer. He studied history's greatest writers and noticed how they used the same rhetorical formulas. Here's what you need to know: 1. The formulas are timeless (and still work). 2. Where to begin? Try taking the last word of one sentence and repeating it as the first word in the next. It gives the illusion of logic. Like this one from Yoda: "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to suffering." 3. An example from Malcolm X: "Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern. Once you change your thought pattern, you change your attitude. Once you change your attitude, it changes your behavior pattern and then you go on into some action." 4. It's a mystery why, but people love to hear a string of words that begins with the same letter. "Two to Tango" is a heck of a lot more memorable than "Two to Waltz." 5. From his book, Elements of Eloquence: "Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun." 6. People will tell you to write only what's necessary, but endless repetition can be a way to emphasize something. Katy Perry's repetition of opposites is logically unnecessary, but it works: "'Cause you're hot then you're cold, You're yes then you're no, You're in then you're out, You're up then you're down, You're wrong when it's right, It's black and it's white, We fight, we break up, We kiss, we make up." 7. Wedding vows have the same kind of repetition: "For better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health..." 8. JFK leaned on a rhetorical device called a Chiasmus, where you take the first half of a sentence and say it backward. You see it in sentences like "Mankind must put an end to war—or war will put an end to mankind" and "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." 9. I like the Chiasmus because it's so easy to implement. Here's another example of a Chiasmus, like when Cormac McCarthy wrote: "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget." 10. Language is ruled by the mob. Doesn't matter what the committees think. If everybody uses a word in a certain way, then that's what it means. 11. Most of Shakespeare's famous lines are simply examples of famous formulas. 12. Shakespeare often "stole" content from other people, but he improved what he stole by using rhetorical formulas and figures of speech. Mark insists that he had Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch open while writing Julius Caesar. 13. Write two things that connect, then add a twist for the third thing. The magic comes from the surprise. An example is: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." Another is: "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 14. Sometimes, the things that stick will simply surprise you. One of the most famous lines in film history only has three words: "Bond. James Bond." 15. The James Bond-style line is called a Diacope. Other examples are "Burn, baby, burn" and "Zed’s dead, baby, Zed’s dead." If nerding out on beautiful writing is your thing, you will love this episode. By the time you're done listening, you'll have X-ray vision for the English language. I've shared the full interview with @Inkyfool below. You can also listen on Apple or Spotify, or watch on YouTube. Check the links in the reply tweets.

Did phones kill reading? "The data shows that both boys and girls are reading less, and they're both saying they like reading less, and it's way worse for boys. And that's existential. If people don't read as kids, the chance of them reading as adults goes way down. It also has a huge impact on our society because there's no better way to develop analytical skills than reading. And the research shows that kids who aren't reading at grade level by the 3rd or 4th grade have less successful life outcomes, too." — Jon Yaged, CEO of Macmillan (And the quote is lightly edited)