Mendicant Order

Mendicants are people who take vow of poverty, disown all personal property, exclusively relies on charity from others to survive and spend all their energy on preaching and practicing the religion.

Mendicants mean beggars. Some Hindu ascetics, Sufi saints, Buddhist bhikkus, Jain monks and Christian friars live as mendicants.  In catholic church, Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Servites and Augustinians are mendicant orders.


References
Mendicants
Mendicant orders

Occam's razor

Occam's razor is a guiding principle to verify a hypothesis, to propose a theory, to solve a problem or to deduce logical conclusions. Other things being equal, simpler explanations are better than the complex ones.  More things should not be used than are necessary. It is a law of briefness that says that it is not worth it to do with more what is done with less.

Ockham was a town in England. William of Ockham was an early 15th century English theologian and philosopher. Jis original words are "plurality must never be posited without necessity". Razor was referred to shaving away unneeded assumptions to prove a hypothesis. It is a tool to encourage parsimony in argument or simplicity in logic. It says that simplest explanation is usually the right one.

It is used in many number of fields in science, medicine, logic, mathematics, philosophy, theology and law. It can also be used in context of simple things and observations in every day life. It helps in reasoning to slice through the problem or situation. If you find a fallen tree, most possible claim to verify first is that some wind would have blown it down rather than some meteorite hit it which requires several other rare things to happen.

References
Wikipedia Occam's razor
HowStuffWorks Occam's razor

Elements of Style

Read the following two sentences and the second part of each of them looks like an afterthought or twist on the first part of it.  The compound sentences formed with conjunctions like "and" and "but" are sometimes vague in explaining the relationship. Such style of writing trigger the minds of the reader to recall something said earlier and form some relationship between the two parts.

"The early records of the city have disappeared, and the story of its first years can no longer be found."

"The situation is perilous, but there is still one chance of escape."


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The relationship between the two parts of the compound sentence can be made more clearer with better words like "as" or "although". This style helps the reader to keep his mind calm and relaxed.

"As the early records of the city have disappeared, the story of its first years can no longer be found."

"Although the situation is perilous, there is still one chance of escape."

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Using subordinate clauses and a complex statement is even better than any compound statement in terms of words it required or time it takes to parse it. The disadvantage of such compaction gives impression that it is too formally written.

"Owing to disappearance of the early records of the city, the story of its first years can no longer be found."

"In this perilous situation, there is still one chance of escape."


References:

Elements of Style