Words...are continually shifting their meanings and connotations and hence their status. A word which has dignity, say, in the vocabulary of an older person may go down in other people's estimation. Like fetch. The older speaker is not likely to be aware of this and will probably be inclined to ascribe the snickers of the young at his speech to that degeneration of manners which every generation has deplored in its juniors. But a word which is coming up in the scale, like jazz, will strike his ear at once. We are much more aware of offenses given us than of those we give. And if he turns to a dictionary and finds the offending word listed as standard==or even listed, apparently--his response is likely to be an outburst of indignation.

But the dictionary can neither snicker nor fulminate. It records. It will offend many, no doubt, to find the expression wise up, meaning to inform or to become informed, listed in the Third International with no restricting label. To my aging ears it still sounds like slang. But the evidence--quotations from the Kiplinger Washinton Letter and the Wall Street Journal--convinces me that it is I who am out of step, lagging behind. If such publications have taken to using wise up in serious contexts, with no punctuational indication of irregularity, then it is obviously respectable. And finding it so listed and supported, I can only say that it's nice to be informed and sigh to realize that I am becoming an old fogy. But of course, I don't have to use it....

In part, the trouble is due to the fact that there is no standard for standard. Ideas of what is proper to use in serious, dignified speech and writing are changing--and with breathtaking rapidity. This is one of the major facts of contemporary American English. but it is no more the dictionary's business to oppose this process than to speed it up.

STATE THE IDEA IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT WAYS.  In order to make clear to others the soundness of an idea you present in writing, you often need to state it in a variety of ways. Your reader may not understand or believe your idea in it initial  presentation. A restatement, with a substitution of new words or different sentence construction, may make details more clear and help to establish the idea in the reader's mind. This technique of stating a thought in several different ways is of special importance when you are developing new and complex ideas.

DEVELOP THE CENTRAL IDEA THROUGH THE USE OF EXAMPLES.  To present an idea effectively in writing, it is also often helpful to emphasize and expand the central point through the use of specific, clarifying examples, particularly when you are attempting to convince your reader of the truth of an idea.  Illustrations frequently answer questions and can help remove doubt from the reader's mind.  They establish common ground between you and your reader. Evans uses two words in the first paragraph as examples of words that have changed their connotations, but also as examples of words that are changing status for a large number of Americans; he knows these words will establish common ground between him and his readers, regardless of their age.
 

ASSIGNMENT.   Write a paragraph in which you state and restate your ideas and use supporting examples on the following subject: More than ever before, the world needs a universal language (religion, currency) that everyone speaks and understands.