130 THE SHAME OF AMERICAN EDUCATION

assigned to education. Each of us is born needing to learn

what others have learned before us, and much of it needs to be
taught. We would ali be better oíf if education played a far
chapter 9
more important part in transmitting our culture. Not only
would that make for a stronger America (remember Sputnik),
but we might also look forward to the day when the same
issues could be discussed about the world as a whole—when,
for example, ali people produce the goods they consume and How to Discouer What
behave well toward each other, not because they are forced to
do só but because they have been taught something of the You Haue to Say:
ultimate advantages of a rích and peaceful world.
A Talk to Students

My title will serve as an outline. It begins with "How to," and

this is a "How to" talk. It is about a problem we ali face, and
the solution I propose is an example of verbal self-manage-
ment, an example that uses my Verbal Behavior as the basis
oTa technology.1 At issue is how we can manage our own
verbal behavior more effectively. (I may note in passing that
psycholinguistics, a very different kind of analysis, largely
structural and developmental, hás given rise to no compara-
ble technology, in part because it só often devotes itself to the
listener rather than the speaker.)
s Verbal behavior begins almost always in spoken form.
Even when we write, we usually speak first, either overtly or
covertly. What_goes dp_wnjmj)aper is then _a Jund. of self-
dictation. Í am concerned here only with written behavior and
even só with only a special kind, the kind of writing at the
heart of a pager, a thesis, or a book in a field such as the
analysis ot behavior. What such writing is "about" is hard to
say—indeed, that is just the probíem. Certain complex cir-
1 B. F. Skinner, Verbal Behavior (New York: Appleton-Century, 1957).
131
 132 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS 133

cumstances call for verbal action. You have a sheet of paper encing a certain discomfort.) Certainly many writers have
and a pen: What happens next? How do you arrive at the best testified to the importance of diet, exercise, and rest.
possible account? Descartes, one of the heroes of psychology, said that he slept
Do I mean how are you to "think" about those circum- ten hours every night and "never employed more than a few
stances, to "have ideas" about them? Yes, if those terms are hours a year at those thoughts which engage the understand-
properly defined. In the last chapter of Verbal Behavior, I ing . . . I have consecrated ali the rest of my life to relaxation
argue that thinking is simply behaving, and it may not be too and rest." Good physical conditionjg rplpvnnt to gll kinds of
misleading to say that verbal responses do not express ideas .gjFective behavior but particularly to that subtle form we call
but are the ideas themselves. They are what "occur to us" as verbal.
we consider a set of circumstances. If I have forgotten the key Imagine that you are to play a piano concerto tomorrow
to my house and "it occurs to me" to look under the mat, it is night with a symphony orchestra. What will you do between
not an idea that hás occurred to me but rather the behavior of now and then? You will get to bed early for a good nighfs rest.
looking, and it occurs because under similar circumstances I Tomorrow morning you may practice a little but not too much.
have found a key under the mat or have heard someone say, During the day you will eat lightly, take a nap, and in other
"The key is under the mat." What verbal responses "express" ways try to put yourself in the best possible condi tion for your
are not preverbal ideas but the past history and present cir- performance in the evening.
cumstances of the speaker. But h_ow_are_we_to arrivei at the Thinking effectively about a complex _ggt nf circum-
mostegective expression? gow can we behave yerbally in a stances is more demanding than playing a piano, yet how
way that isjtnogt relevant to a problem at hand? often do you prepare vourself to do só in ajguniiar way? Jçfl
It is hard to give a "how to" talk without posing as an pften you sit down to think after everything else hás been
authority. I hasten to saythat I know that I could write better done, You are encouraged to do this by the cognitive metaphor
than I do, but I alsó know that I could write worse. Over the of thinking as the expression of ideas. The ideas are there; the
years I believe I have analyzed my verbal behavior to my writer is simply a repórter.
advantage. What distresses me is that I should have done só What about drugs? Alcohol? Tobacco? Marijuana? There
só late. Possibly some of what I have learned may help you at are authentic cases of their productive effects in poetry and
an éarlier age. fiction, but very few in which they have had a good effect on
serious thinking. Tacitus said that the Germans made their
decisions when drunk but acted upon them when sober. and
"DISCOVER" Herodotus said the same of the Persians. In other words, it
may be possible to solve an intellectual problem when drunk
The next key word in my title is "discover." If that word sug- or stoned, but only if the solution is reviewed soberly. In spite
gests that verbal behavior lurks inside us waitlng to be of much talk of expanded consciousness, good examples of
uncovered, it is a bad term. We do not really "search our work produced with the help of drugs are still lacking.
memory" for forgotten names. Verbal behavior, like ali Só much for the condition of your body. Equally impor-
behavior, is not inside the speaker or writer before it appears. tant are the conditions in which the behavior ocgurs. A conve-
A first step_js_ta-mit yourselLin-the b_est,BQ8SÍbl£-eon- nient place is important. It should have ali the facilities
ditipn for hehavingr ve^ballv. La Mettrie thought that he had needed for the execution of writing: pjns, typewiTters^recprd:
supporting evidence for his contention that men were desk andchair. It should be a
machines. He could not think clearly when he was ill. (Freud, pleasant place and should jmell jopd.TõurcIõthing should be
on the other hand, said that he could write only when experi- comfortable. Since the place is to take control of a particular
 134 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS 135

kind of behavior, you should do nothing else there at any and you must catch it on the wing. Jotting down a brief
time^ reminder to develop the point later is seldom enough, because
It is helpful to wríte always at the same time of day. the conditions under which it occurred to you are the best
Scheduled obligations often raise problema, but an hour or conditions for writing a further account. A longer note written
two can almost always be found in the early morning— when at the time will often develop into something that would be
the telephone never rings and no one knocks at the door. And lost if the writing were postponed. The first thing that occurs
it is important that you wríte something, regardless of quan- to you may not be the most important response in a given
tity, every day. As the Romans put it, Nulla dies sine linea— situation, and writing a note gives other verbal behavior a
No day without a line. (They were speaking of lines drawn by chance to emerge.
artists, but the rule applies as well to the writer.) As notes accumulate they can be classified and rear-
As_aj-esult of ali this, the setting almost automaticaljy ranged, and they will supply some of the most important
eyokes verbal behavjor. No warm-up is needed. A circadian materiais for your papers or books. One of the most widely
rhythm develops that is extremely powerful. At a certain time reprinted and translated papers of mine, "Freedom and the
every day, you will be highly disposed to engage in serious Control of Men,"2 was first written almost entirely in the form
verbal behavior. You will find evidence of this when traveling of notes. When I was asked for a paper on that theme, I found
to other time zones, when a strong tendency to engage in that it was practically written. Notes left over can of course be
serious verbal behavior appears at the usual time, though it is published in a notebook, as I have recently found.3 The meta-
now a different time by the clock. phor of discovery redeems itself at this point. When you have
Jt may be a mistake to try to do too much at first. Such a constructed the best possible conditions for the production of
situation onlv slowly acquires control. It is enough to begin verbal behavior and have provided for catching occasional
with short sessions, perhaps fifteen minutes a day. And do not verbal responses on the wing, you are often surpriseãby what
look for instant quality. Stendhal once remarked, "If when I turns up. There is no way you can see ali of your verbal
was young I had been willing to talk about wanting to be a behavior before you emit it.
writer, some sensible person might have said to me: 'Write for I am not talking about how to find something to say. Tjie
two hours every day, genius or not.' That would have saved easiest wav to do that is to collect experiences. as bv moving
ten years of my life, stupidly wasted in waiting to become a about in the world and bv reading and listening tn wTiat
genius." ers sav. A college education is largely a process of collecting in
How should you spend the rest of the day? Usually you that sense. And só, of course, is exploration, research, or a
will have little choice, for other demands must be met. But_ full exposure to daily life. Nor am I talking about the produc-
there is uanallv snmg |pignre time, and a fundamental rule is tion of ideas through the permutations and combinations of
not to try to do more writing. You may tease out a few more other material. A very different kind of idea is generated, for
words, but you will pay the price the next morning. The example, by playing with contradictions or antinomies. The
Greeks spoke of eutrapelia —the productive use of leisure._A_ young Marx was addicted: "The world's becoming philosophi-
little experimentation will reveal the kinds of divergion that cal is at the same time philosophy's becoming worldly, . . ."
maximize your subsequent producjivity^ "That the rational is real is proved even in the contradiction
There is an exception to the rule against writing away of irrational reality that is at ali points the opposite of what it
from your desk. Verbal behavior may occur to you at other proclaims, and proclaims the opposite of what it is." "History
times of day, and it is important to put it down in lasting form.
A notebook or a pocket recorder is a kind of portable study. 2B. F. Skinner, "Freedom and the control of men," American Scholar, Winter 1955-56.
Something you see, hear, or read sets off something relevant, »B. F. Skinner, Notebookt (Englewood Cliffs, N J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980).
 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS 137
136 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT VOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS

"HAVE TO SAY" II
hás long enough been resolved into superstition, but now we
can resolve superstition into history." I daresay Marx thought
he was discovering something worth saying, and the verbal A second meaning is what ypu, hpve to say in the sense ofmust
play suggests profundity, but it is a dangerous practice. §ay. It is usually easy to distinguish between the things we
want to do and those we have to do to avoid the consequences
of not doing them, where have to refers to aversive control. A
familiar example is the pause in conversation that must be
"YOU"
filled and that leads, too often, to verbal behavior about
trivia—the weather, the latest news, what someone is wear-
ing. It is also the occasion for hasty and ungrammatical
The next key word is "You." Who is the you who hás some-__ speech, or nonsense, or revealing slips. We feel much the same
thing to say? You aref of course. a member of the human aversive pressure when, say, we prematurely exhaust our
notes during an hour lecture. It is then that weiend to borrow
identical twin- You_also have a personal history that is abso- thç verbal hehqvinr nf nfhorg nnrl resnr|: tn clichés and phrases
lutely unique. Your identity depends upon the coherence of or sentencfR f-naf cimply çjf^H ffír fímp ("It is interesting_to.
that history. More than one history in one lifetime leads to notejhgt. . . ." "Let us now turn to . . . .").
multiple selves, no one of which can be said to be the real you. The results are not always bad. Many famous writers
The writer of fiction profits from the multiplicity of selves in have worked mostly under aversive pressure. Balzac wrote
the invention of character. only when he needed money, Dostoevski only in return for
We also display different selves when we are fresh or advances he had received. Aversive control may keep you at
fatigued, loving or angry, and só on. But it is ptíll mpapin^f|]] work, but what you write will be traceable to other variables
to ask what you have to sav «bmit. « gívon topic as^anindivid-
^ if it is any good. Moreover, ifc is under such conditions that
ual, The you that you discover is the you that existe over a writers report that writing is hell. and if you write primarilv
period of time. By reviewing what vou have alraadv writter». to avoid the consequences of not writing. you may find it hard
going overjtotes. rewnrking a manusçnpt, vou keep vour ver- to res^st pther fprmi^nf escapt»—sf^pping to ^et a cup of cofíee.
bal behavior fresh in ycrn^ mindi)i jtnfl needlesslv rereading somethinp already written. sharpening_
- likejy to jay ali that you have to say pencils. calling it a day.
respect to a giyen situation or tõpic. Qhviõusly, itwill.nnf.hj* There may be an aversive element in maintaining the
jsiropJv what vou have read gr heard. ft ^s easy to getjbopkg QuJ; schedule that builds a circadian rhythm. It is not always easy
jofjthe Jbooks of other.peQp]e. but they• gilLaot be to get up at five o'clock in the morning and start writing. Even
though you make the space in which you work só attractive
that it reinforces your behavior in going to it, some aversive
control may be needed. But other variables must take over if
"HAVE TO SAY" l anything worthwhile is to be written. Positive reinforcement
may be as irresistible as negative, and it is more likely to lead
The last three key words of my title are "Have to Say," and you to say effectively what you have to say.
they have at least three meanings. The first is the verbal The great generalized reinforcer, money, is usually
behavior I have just identified—the thing we referto_whenwe poorly contingent upon behavior at your desk. It controls too
ask a person^What do you have to say to that?" We are simply effectively when a writer begins to write only the kinds of
aikíng "WTíãTíisyour verbal behavior with respect to that?" things that have sold well. Prestige and fame are also long-
 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS 139
138 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS

deferred consequences inadequately contingent upon the pro- student had brought his parents. My behavior changed dra-
duction of sentences. But progress toward the completion of a matically under the influence of that new audience. Searching
book that may lead to money or prestige and fame may help, if for good audiences may be worthwhile.
the progress is made clear. Some kind of record of the number Just as those who write for money may begin to wríte
of words or pages you wríte may act as a reinforcing con- things that sell rather than write what they have to say as
sequence. For years, an electric clock on my desk ran only individuais, só an audience may have too strong an effect. I
when the light was on, and I added a point to a cumulativa once gave what was supposed to be the same lecture to fifteen
record whenever the clock completed twelve hours. The slope audiences. I used a good many slides that served as an outline,
of the curve show?H m? frnw mnrh t,ÍTP$J was spending each but I began to abbreviate or drop comments that did not seem
day (and how damaging it was to go off nn a í). A to arouse interest and retain everything that brought a clean-
simple calculation reinforces that reinforcer. Suppose you are cut response or a laugh. Near the end of the series, I had to
at your desk two hours a day and produce on the average 50 struggle to say anything worthwhile.
words an hour. That is not much, but it is about 35,000 words That verbal behavior is sustained by the prevailing con-
a year, and a book every two or three years. I have found this tingencies is clear from the fact that writing shows many
to be reinforcing enough. effects of scheduling. Fixed-ratio reinforcement often pro-
Other immediate consequences are more effective in dis- duces a "snowball effect": The closer one comes to finishing a
covering what you have to say. Saying something for the first piece of work, the easier it is to work on it (where eosy means
time that surprises you, clearing up a confusing point, enjoy- that one works without moving to escape or without "forcing
ing what you have written as you read it over—these are the oneself ' to remain at work). Writing papers, articles, or sto-
things that in the long run are the most likely to produce ries one after the other "for a living" tends to be on a ratio
verbal behavior that is your own. The best reasorí for {iking schedule, and the "post reinforcement pause" takes the form
what vou have written is that it savs what you have to say. of abulia, or "not being able to get started on something new."
An audience as a source of reinforcers is not to be over- There are many reasons why you may stop writing or
looked. As Pascal put it, 'There are those who speak well and "find it difficult" to go on. When something is not going well,
write badlv. The occasionr the gudience fires them and draws when you are not saying anything important, when matters
frpm them more than thev find in themselves without this remain as confusing as ever, extinction sets in. You may con-
heat." Writing often suífers when it is not directed toward a tinue, but only because aversive consequences take over.
particular kind of reader. Just as in writing a letter to a close Punishment in the form of frequent criticig.nj je,çreases pro-
friend you may find a picture helpful, or at least a warm duction, a point not recognizecfl bv teachers of compo^^inn
salutation at the head of the letter, só some visible sign of an t of their time pointin^ to the faults in their stu-
audience may help. Reading what someone else hás said
about you sometimes strengthens behavior, since one is sel- Satiation also weakens behavior. Many novelists never
dom at a loss for words in a warm discussion. I once used E. G. tell a story before they write it. Just as you cannot tell the
Boring's The Physical Dimensions of Consciousness* as an same story to the same company a second time (or at least
instrument of self-management. I djjsflgreed só violently with with the same effect!), só you are less likely to get a novel
the author's position that after reading a page or twn T woultj written if you have already told the plot. Enforced silençe is a
finjjt,my_yerbal behavjor verv strong. And one day when I was
lecturing to a class but was not speaking well, I noticed that a
SJ. S. Vargas, "A behavioral approach to the teaching of composition," Behavior Ana-
4E. G. Boríng, Physical dimensiona ofconsciousness (New York: Century, 1933). lytt, l (1978), 16-24.
 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS 141
140 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS
A new situation may strengthen dozens—possibly hun-
useful practice. Satiation also sets in when one writes more or dreds—of verbal responses that have never before been
less to the same effect again and again. strengthened together at the same time. They may lack
There is also a kind of subject-matter fatigue. One starts organization. Relations among them may be unclear. They
to write in excellent condition but eventually becomes "sick of will have little effect on the reader who hás not had the same
the Biibjftct.TOne solution is to work on two subjects at the, history and is not confronted by the same situation. They
same time. It is easier to write short sections of two papers must therefore be ordered and interrelated in an effective
during a session than to spend the whole aegpinn nn way. That is what you do as you compose sentences, para-
graphs, and at last a book. Only then will your verbal
behavior lead to successful action on the part of your reader or
to a less active but still behavioral "understanding" of what
"HAVE TO SAY" III you are saying.
Verbal Behavior takes up these stages in order. The first
A third sense of "have to say" is the heart of the matter. In a half of the book descríbes the kinds of verbal operants pro-
paper called "On 'Having* a Põem."6 I compare^ ? pppt *<* *- duced by different contingencies of reinforcement. Although
mother. Although the mnther hears Çhe child and we call it these are more than structures, because they have proba-
her child. she is not resoonsible for anv pf ífa» fisatiiraa. She bilities of reinforcement, they are not assertions. The second
gave it half its genes, but she got those from her parents. I half describes how these operants are fashioned into effective
argued that the same thing could be said of the poet. Critics verbal discourse as they are asserted, qualified, denied, and só
who trace the origins and influences of a põem seem to agree, on, in such a way that the reader responds effectively. The
at least to the extent that they can account for features of a ' writer thus generates sentences as effective sequencés of the
põem by pointing to the verbal or nonverbal history of the material emerging upon a given occasion.
poet. Samuel Butler's comment that "A hen is simply an egg's I have found the following rules helpful in discovering
way pf making another egg" holds for the human egg as well what one hás to say in this sense.
à[forthejgoet. A poet is a literary tradition's way of making Rule 1. Stay out of prose as long as possible. The verbal
more of a literary tradition. (Much the same thing could be behavior evoked by the setting you are writing about does not
said of the scholar. A psychologist is just psychology's way of yet exist in the form of sentences, and if you start by compos-
making more psychology.) ing sentences, much will be irrelevant to the final product. By
But the mother does make a contribution: She nourishes. composing too early you introduce a certain amount of trash
protects. and in the end gives birth to the babv. and só does that must later be thrown away. The important parts of what
the poet and só does the scholar. Th«*rp is q orocess of verbal you have to say are manipulated more easily if they have not
gestation. Your history as a writer lacks the structure and yet become parts of sentences.
coherence of the behavior that eventually emerges from it. Rule 2. Indicate valid relations among responses by con-
Sentences and paragraphs are not lurking inside you waiting structing an outline. Very large sheets of paper (say, 22 by 34)
to be born. You possess some behavior in the form of prefabri- are helpful. Your final verbal product (sentence, paragraph,
cated sentences, and may often do little more than utter them chapter, book) must be linear—with a bit of branching—but
as such, possibly with minor changes, but that is not discover- the variables contributing to your behavior are arranged in
ing what you have to say. many dimensions. Numbering the parts of a composition deci-
mally is helpful in making cross-references and temporary
6B.F. Skinner, "On Tiaving" a põem," Saturday Review, July 15, 1972. Reprinted in indexes and in noting connections among parts. As bits of
Cumulative Record (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972).
 142 HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY: A TALK TO STUDENTS 143

verbal behavior are moved about, valid arrangements will ble to tell you ali you need to know. No two people are alike;
appear and sentences will begin to emerge. It is then time to your personal histories will lead you to respond in different
"go into prose." ways. You will have to work out your own rules. As in any
Rule 3. Construct the first prose draft without looking too application of a behavioral analysis, the secret of successful
closely at style. "Full speed ahead, and damn the stylebook." verbal self-management is understanding what verbal
(How hard that will be depends upon the extent to which behavior is ali about.
aversive control hás been used in teaching you to write.)
When what you have to say about a given state of affairs
exists at last in prose, rewrite as you please, removing unnec-
essary words, articulating sentences with better connectives,
rearranging. as seems necessary, and só on. At this stage,
some advice on style is helpful. I read Folletfs Modern Amer-
ican Usage7 straight through every two or three years.
There is an old distinction between ecstatic and euplastic
composition. There have been times when ecstatic verbal
behavior (impulsive, unreasoned) was particularly admired,
because it seemed more genuine, less contrived. In poetry and
some forms of fiction it may be particularly effective. But in
writing about a complex subject matter, it is too much to
expect that adequate statements will appear fully formed.
Neither phylogenically nor ontogenically hás verbal behavior
evolved to the point at which a complex combination of per-
sonal history and a current situation will give rise to a pas-
sage having an appropriate effect upon the reader. Only the
most_skillful euplastic (reasonedj^management of verbal
behavior will suffice.

CONCLUSION

Possibly I am confessing some special need for crutches. No

doubt other people arrive more quickly at effective state-
ments. They do not need to work as hard to say important
things. I myself did not need to work as hard when I was
younger. I am simply telling you how I succeed in saying what
I have to say. Of course I wish I had had more to say and that I
had said it better, and I wish I could tell you more clearly
what I have learned about saying it, but it would be impossi-
7Wilson Follett, Modern American Usage (New York: 1966).