Beauty is not just about how one looks physically, or acts, or what manners they have, even.

One thing you might want to do - especially if you're in high school or grade school - is think about how your peers sound, and how some adults sound, and the fact that the sound alone makes the difference in some things. Certainly, you're more comfortable talking with your peers. But that's in part because they don't seem to know any better. The older people, on the other hand, have authority, even if their ideas are the exact same as your friends.

Most schools nowadays focus on the sciences or skills; the idea behind both is production. To the degree that people study music, there is a product in mind: one can perform a piece and be part of a human production, an orchestra or band.

Once upon a time, though, schools taught rhetoric (speech) and were much more writing intensive. The idea was that if you could persuade another person, you'd have a lot of power: the current analogue is what a lawyer does. And in fact, that we don't teach these things nowadays means that a lot of us are taken in by the slightest impression - we have bad taste, and are persuaded all too easily. There is no production in these arts, really, but it is possible to make communicating beautiful.

So what I want to do now is give some general advice about speaking and writing, both of which are tied to reading, and hope that helps you be more attentive to how you present your thoughts.

1. Think before you speak. If this means you speak a lot less, that's not a bad thing. The mere fact you will speak less means your words will have more impact.

2. Recognize that all the things you read are not equal. If you read Hemingway or poetry, you're going to be a lot more eloquent than someone who reads comic books. I know schools are into this thing where they say reading is important, no matter what it is. But some reading is garbage nowadays.

I spend a lot of time writing on poetry, and if you want something good to read - i.e. see the best uses of the language in action - here are some poems, with the content explained.

3. You write the way you speak. And if you're cleaning up your speech, your writing shouldn't be so divorced from it that it feels unnatural to write. I recommend blogging daily about the things you learn in school, so that way papers flow more easily.

That's my general advice, I hope it helps. Thanks so much for reading through that.