[form] "LEARNING HOW TO THINK STRAIGHT" Your Name please: [text,r_name,30] Email: [text,r_email,30] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ More Notes on Conditionals and Qualifiers REMEMBER that adding something like a conditional part, helps you shift it away from being an absolute statement which does not allow for anything less. A qualifier does a similar job. There are some other ways of qualifying a statement. You can add phrases like "I THINK..." or "IT SEEMS TO ME..." or "I BELIEVE..." or "IT APPEARS..." or "AS FAR AS I CAN TELL..." or "I GUESS..." or "I SEE..." Other common qualifiers are words like: IF ... BUT ... HOWEVER ... ON THE OTHER HAND ... ALTHOUGH ... EVEN THOUGH... EVEN IF ... MAYBE ... PERHAPS ... POSSIBLY ... PROBABLY ... Here are TWO suggestions you may consider that have helped several groups and individuals I know to sort out their own set of absolute and conditional statements: ONE: 1. Make a wall chart of all the qualifying words and phrases you can think of and hang it up so you'll see it every day. 2. Begin to point to and use the qualifying words and phrases in the written and spoken words of your people group. 3. Don't make a big deal of it, but if you do it a little bit at a time, persistently, you'll notice a difference in your language - AND IN YOUR THINKING. TWO: 1. KEEP a journal for a week and see if you can catch which words on the list up there that you DO use and which ones you DO NOT. At the end of the week try and write some sentences using the words you have NOT used, to show you know what they mean. COME BACK HERE AND REPORT AFTER doing either of these activities. If you can commit to doing the exercise for ONE week you'll benefit from it. ASSIGNMENT ACTIVITY 1. Make a list of all the conditionals or qualifying words and phrases you DO USE. [textarea,qualifiers I use,3,70] 2. Write out some of your sentences here that contain the conditionals or qualifiers from the list that you DO NOT use often. 1. [text,sentence01,80] 2. [text,sentence02,80] 3. [text,sentence03,80] 4. [text,sentence04,80] 5. [text,sentence05,80] 6. [text,sentence06,80] 7. [text,sentence07,80] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Questions or Comments? [textarea,questions or comments,3,70] [checkbox,send copy,checked] To receive a copy of your work here. Uncheck it if you have printed off a hardcopy for yourself. [submit,SEND this Entry][reset,Start Over again] [/form]