A word is a unit of language, consisting of many spoken words. A word can occur in a speech, sentence, statement, story, or news. Words give us the ability to communicate. Words have played an important role in our world today. Whether a word is spoken or written, words have the power to change our world. As you improve your critical thinking, reading, and writing skills by looking at the stories, you will understand how words play a major impact. Try and use your words and respond and think critically. You might want to try bringing you own knowledge, opinions, and experiences, and try and relate them to what you are reading. For example, In Mortimer J. Alder’s short story “ How to Mark a Book” he is trying to persuade us to “write between the lines” (Alder 2). When you are reading a story, you are reading between the lines. By reading or writing between the lines, that gives you a better understanding of what the author is trying to tell you. Alder mentions in his text the importance of marking up a book (Alder 9). First it keeps you awake. In the second place, reading if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written (Alder 9). Finally writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts you expressed (Alder 9). This can relate to responding critically. By marking up the book, this gives you a chance to relate your own thoughts and opinions to the text. Another example of why words have so much power is in Robin Tolmach Lakoff’s story “ From Ancient Greece to Iraq, the Power of Words in Wartime”. Think about reading critically. This means reading with the goal of finding an understanding of the text whether its fiction or non-fiction. As your reading pay attention to the use of words, such as the language the author uses. For example, in Lakoff’s story language played an important role in the war. These