One of Philadelphia’s most famous movies, Rocky, always makes me chuckle when I have those fat days. Ya know, those days when my stomach droops prominently over my loose/tight belt. Slotting that belt rung through the tightest possible hole at 7 am in the morning is supposed to make me feel svelt, but by 1:00 pm after those two slices of pizza, my method fails. The belt has to be adjusted, and I remain discouraged and unimpressive. Akward, I know. But, there is truth to this.
Rocky’s soon to be trainer, Micky, calls Rocky a bum. Micky believes in Rocky but is sickened by Rocky for being out of shape, poor, and not living up to his boxing potential. Rocky is not credible. His form is not inspiring, and his demeanor is less than persuasive. Where else do we see this in life? How do students, athletes, or professionals fail to live up to potential and in return be ineffective? What causes this?
One possible answer is that we forget about the tools or format of our profession or expertise, and then when we attempt anything at all, we are not in shape or in form to get the job done. The same is true in writing. When we’ve not practiced, worked out, or battled with words or basic sentence structure, our writing will not be able to communicate, persuade, or even come close to making our readers adjust themselves in their seat. Instead, our readers will simply fall asleep.
