[F]irst comes the thing, then the idea, then the word. If our ideas are sound to the extent that they faithfully represent the thing, they will be clearly communicable only if we clothe them in words that accurately signify them . Ideas as such are not communicable from one mind to another. They have to be carefully fitted to words, so that the words might communicate them faithfully … How do we ensure that our words are adequate to the ideas they seek to convey? The process is essentially the same as the one we follow when confirming the clarity and soundness of our ideas. We must go back to the sources of the ideas . Often we cannot come up with the right word for the idea because we don't have a firm grasp on the idea itself. Usually, when we clarify the idea by checking it against its source in the objective world, the right word will come to us. Even though this quote is about good communication in general, D.Q. McInerny's advice could well be applied to how we...