Week 6 news writing

Natalia Schack
Prof. Peter Lindmark
Comm 200
Newwritting 6 

  1.  "BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD."

  • According to Mental Floss, this quote was posted on their website in 2015. Ghandi actually never said this, but The New York Times changed it. The original was, “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do”. The changed verison is, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. The only difference between the two is one is longer and one is shortened. The NYT’s shortened it so other people who aren't as intelligent as Ghandi could understand what he was trying to say. Misquoting someone can take away the significance of that person, and Gandhi isn't someone who had everyone's respect. 

  1. "MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL."

  • This quote had originated from the bible, and the actual quote was, “The love of money is the root of all evil”, however, people changed it to something people could remember. Looking at the altered quote, “Money is the root to all evil” it is almost the same, but it is taking out the love of the money which was the problem, not the money itself. The difference is the whole aspect of love has impacted the life of people over and over again, and it is the same for this quote. Love changes the whole thing, yet someone decided to take it out. This quote appeared on  Mental Floss in 2015 along with 49 others. 

  1. "THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND."

  • According to  Mental Floss, the quote, “that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” is not the original statement that Neil Armstrong made when he landed on the moon. The actual quote was, "One small step for a man”. Mental Floss explains that the altered quote doesn't even make sense since man and mankind are synonyms and mean exactly the same thing. They also explain that the transmission between the space station and Neil had blurred, and that is why they reported the wrong quote. There are hundreds of people in the station. Would one of them understand that the radio went out and they may have missed what Neil had actually said.  
  1. "Well-behaved women rarely make history."
  • According to Wikidedia this quote was often used to explain Marilyn Monroe, however, the quote was actually written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Dr. Ulrich was a professor at Harvard University. The original quote came from an academic article that was written in 1976. The article it came from was about the concerns of well behaved women commemorated in Puritan funeral sermons.  This quote was changed to fit in with the ever changing world and society. They changed the word seldom to rarely even though seldom means rarely. However, most people didn't know what seldom means, so changed it to something that was comprehensible. The article that Wikidedia has provided was written in 2015 but has been updated and added to in 2020.
  1. "Blood, Sweat, and Tears"
Blood, sweat, and tears was a quote said by Winston Churchill, but it is a version of another quote that appeared in the book Metropolis. This book was written by Thea von Harbou and was published in 1926. The quote in the book is, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”. When Winston Churchill gave a speech to the House of Commons, he said, “I have never promised anything but blood, sweat and tears, now however we have a new experience”. According to Wikidedia, the article was written in 2015, but was updated and added to in 2020. The quote from Winston Churchill was a version of the original from the Metropolis, and he should have said where he had heard part of the quote from.

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