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  LEARNING FROM THE 'MASTERS'
  by A.W. Tozer
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Summary: To improve your verbal skills, you must learn to imitate the
style and artistry of those who use English with elegance and clarity.

Topics: "Communication", "Learning from Others"
Scripture References: Proverbs 1:5, Proverbs 18:15, Ecclesiastes 12:12, Colossians 3:16, James 1:19

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A.W. Tozer emphasizes the importance of learning from literary 'masters'
to enhance our speaking and writing skills. He explains that effective
communication involves elements like pitch, tempo, and tone, which can
be absorbed through attentive listening and reading. Tozer recommends
various authors, including John Bunyan and Charles Dickens, whose works
exemplify clarity, elegance, and artistry. He encourages readers to
engage with these texts to develop their own verbal skills and
appreciate the beauty of language. Ultimately, Tozer highlights that
reading is a form of listening that enriches our understanding and
expression.

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CONTENT
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Good speaking as well as good writing has its pitch, its tempo, its
balance and rhythm, its tone and timbre. And these things cannot be
learned in the popular sense of the word; they can only be acquired by
unconscious imitation. If we listen long and sympathetically to someone
who uses English with style and artistry, something of his art will seep
through the pores of our minds and improve our own style greatly. And
remember that reading is hearing with the mind. We listen to a man when
we read his book with a congenial spirit.

Some of my younger readers may want to know who the "masters" are to
whom I have referred, and what books I recommend to develop verbal
skill. Here are a few: John Bunyan for simplicity; Joseph Addison for
clarity and elegance; John Milton for nobility and consistent elevation
of thought; Dickens for sprightliness (start with the Christmas Carol);
Bacon for conciseness and dignity.

In addition to these I would recommend Robert Louis Stevenson, John
Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Also the poetry of
Wordsworth, Bryant, Blake, Keats and Shelley. . . .

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/aw-tozer/learning-from-the-masters/
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