Stephanie Ericsson The Ways We Lie Summary

In this essay, The Ways We Lie, Ericsson writes examples of lies we tell daily. She explains that not all the lies we tell are intentional. We choose to make life easier by lying. This essay also highlights situations that occur in everyday life. Ericson explains that “The white lie assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple, harmless untruth.” (89) She then continue to explain that a “white lie” can be dangerous simply because telling the truth could ease a lot of pain.

When describing these different types of lies, Ericsson uses a lot of logos to appeal to the reader by providing concrete evidence and facts to prove her ideas. For example, when she describes how people ignore the plain facts, Ericsson uses a real-life example stating,

“The Ways We Lie” is an essay written by Stephanie Ericsson, first published in the Utne Reader in 1993. The Utne Reader is an American magazine that publishes pieces from alternative media sources. However, the essay was mostly directed toward people who have told a lie at least once in their life and have may have felt guilty about it. The purpose for the piece was developed using original syntax, logical appeals, and descriptive tropes, the purpose being that one should think twice before telling a lie.

In the essay The Ways We Lie, author Stephanie Ericsson writes in depth about the different types of lies used by most people everyday. While listing examples of them, Ericsson questions her own experiences with lying and whether or not it was appropriate. By using hypothetical situations, true accounts, and personal occurrences, she highlights the moral conflicts and consequences that are a result of harmless fibs or impactful deceptions. In an essay detailing the lies told to ourselves and others, Ericsson points out one bold truth; everyone lies. Through her writing, Ericsson causes the reader to look into how they’ve lied in the past and how to effects others and the general greater good of society.

In discussions on the topic of lying, a controversial issue has been whether there is justification of lying or not. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of if there is ever a time when a lie can be told for the good of someone else. Whereas some are convinced that lies should never be told, others agree that there are certain instances where lying is acceptable because the liar protects the one lied to. In the essay “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, she explores the types of lies and how they affect everyday people. In Anton Chekhov’s fictional story, “The Lady with the Dog,” he displays two characters, Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, lying for love and to avoid consequence by their spouses. I stand against lying for the benefit of oneself because I think that it has the ability to ruin relationships or friendships and is hard to keep up the lies which leads to creating more lies. Although some people think that there are circumstances that warrant lying, I claim that no one should lie because lies end up hurting both people involved: the liar and the person lied to.

“Like most people, I indulge in small falsehoods and still think of myself as an honest person. Sure I lie, but it doesn’t hurt anything. Or does it” (3)? The selection lists ten types of lies. Those types are: the white lie, facades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and cliché, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissal, and delusion. The white lie is used when the truth is more harmful than a lie. A facade is when you hide your true self and put on a mask for

In Stephanie Ericsson’s essay, “The Ways We Lie”, she describes the many ways we create miscommunication individually and as a community. Lies that affect us individually are lies we commit between ourselves and a small group, like, “your hair looks great” to a friend, knowing you meant the opposite. Meanwhile, lies that affects society is on a more severe consequence scale – Adolf Hitler, world famous anarchist, persuaded his soldiers into believing obliterating the life of massive amount of Jewish believers had a good cause, when it actually disrupted society itself. Her main topic is how we are consumed by lies and deceptions abused by oneself and society. She categorizes each lie which she later elaborates the different consequences they

In “The Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson draws on her experience as a screenwriter and self-help author to examine the usage and effects of lies in modern society. Written during a time of presidential indiscretions and published in a magazine centered on cultural trends, the piece delineates lying into specific categories and describes each one’s prevalence. Ericsson makes use of a matter-of-fact and forthright tone which contributes to credibility and reflects her confidence in discussing such morally grey topics. Throughout the piece, she explicates the implications of lying by making use of personal anecdotes, supporting quotes, and rhetorical questions.

It is very true that we lie. We lie everyday conscious or unconsciously, anywhere and to anyone. It has become a way of life to many people, when one lies it feels completely normal, actually they don’t feel anything at all. One can be couth lying in any place like work, home and to different person’s friends, family, clients, teachers and even authority. In the preface of the story the author had describe how in a day she had lied a minimum of four times to various people. In spite of this the authors tried a different approach she tried now to go a week without consciously lying, she discovered that it is merely impossible and of course as various negative consequences. So the main topic here could be why do we lie? Thus to know the reason why we like we must first examine the ways we lie, the so commonly ways we lie daily fashion. And to these there are several ways to lie, let’s examine two: The so called “White Lies” and of course the common stereotypes and Clichés.

Stephanie Ericcson’s definition of a white lie in “The Ways We Lie” is that it’s a common everyday lie. It’s used to make someone feel good instead of telling them the truth and hurting their feelings. The white lie is also used so we won’t feel guilty about lying because we think we are going something good. Everyone lies one way or another but that lie still does harm in some y way even if it doesn’t feel like it. It does more harm than good.

- Untruths are commonly propelled by a yearning to get other individuals to either accomplish something or not accomplish something, or to settle on a choice in the support of the individual doing the lying. They utilize it to no end more than an apparatus to make a positive picture of themselves. This prompts to misrepresentation, which is a type of

Deception. When asked to response to the word deception many people think of heinous crimes such as fraud and theft. Little white lies seem to slip the mind, why is that? The social norms of lying have been accepted by society as a whole. It is essential in order to live a healthy life, lying is necessary. As a people we have acknowledged and allowed this deception to continue to a certain degree.

Knowing when to identify when a person is being deceiving or lying to another person is an advantage when living in the world today. Within this paper there will be tactics to spotting certain lies, whether it is through verbally or nonverbally instances. This will be useful if one was hiring a new employee, speaking to their child about problems, confronting their girlfriend or boyfriend about affairs that might be happening, or maybe even dating a new person, having the ability to tell if there is a lie could have life altering consequences. One would also get the policing aspect on how they conduct police interviews and interrogations. Later, I will be discussing the insight of liar and what they are thinking. If one wants to beat the liar, they have to understand why and how the liar is doing their deceitful ways. It would also be to the advantage of the victim of a deceiver to know how liar is deceiving people in human affairs, this will also be covered. The topic will be brought up if “lying” should be considered a criminal offense in certain situations and how to go about that. Sometimes lying can also come from a positive side; the question arises if it is even moral or ethically right to deceive another not only for your own advantage, but maybe for another. A common criminal act that is involved with lying and deceit is crime fraud, it will be discussed how they are linked. Police are not the only profession that needs to determine if people are lying, I will be

People lie about almost everything; should some lies be determined better or more ethical than another? The definition of a lie is a deliberately artificial statement. When a person lies they believe that the truth is worse to say. The truth may hurt another 's future, reputation, or worse, the liar 's future or reputation. Why does a lie carry more guilt on one liar but an equal or even greater lie may not effect some other liar as much? The answer may be found in a person 's moral beliefs. Deception can also be a key factor in lying because deceit is the truth with some misrepresentation so it can be easier to remember because it is not entirely fabricated or made up.

Let’s say that, we always hear lies everywhere. Lies can hurt other people, and lies can be a joke to have fun with everyone. Lies can also be a way to glossing over the fact. Lies can protect who are telling the lie. Everyone lies, although the ideas of lying to people are wrong, but people still lie about anything in their life. In this essay, it will talk about which ways people will lie and how they lie.