Kingsley Amis once said ‘There is little point in writing if it doesn’t annoy anyone’. The same does not go for speaking however, and yet we see all around us examples of speaking to annoy unnecessarily.

Once upon a time, the maxim was ‘no news is good news’. Not any more. Now, ‘Indifference is death’. All the celebrities for the right or wrong reasons want to remain in the news. The more controversial their remark, the better attention they get. What is true for people in the lime-light is also true for those who know that the spot light these days travels to reach the speaker of a smart remark.

The idea that I am trying to convey is not that you have to offend anyone deliberately but the right choice of words can definitely get you the attention which would elude you on plain speaking. The ability to articulate one’s feelings and emotions is an art that the writers, public speakers, celebrities and politicians possess and others appreciate.

‘Dog biting the man is not news. Man biting the dog is’. A careful choice of words can make you jump the bar below which you run the risk of being unnoticed. Consciously or sub-consciously, in every social setting, every person is trying to score over the other by coming up with a clever quip. The appreciative nods of a receptive audience makes it worthwhile to think and come up with a bright remark.

If you don’t know know what to say, chances are that you don’t know how to say it either. In a world of cut-throat competition, an original sin is to be at the loss of words. Some degree of preparation goes into making yourself a quick-wit. If there is one thing that can be said certainly about a wit is that such a person cannot be forgotten whether or not liked. Keeping yourself in public memory is a challenge given the limited attention span the people have because of the neck-break speed of the changes in the emerging society.

__ To get attention

__ To drive your point across

__ To evoke the other person to respond

Scoreven is the bridge between wit and wisdom