Improve your writing

by K.K.D. Premalal -Matugama Sp.Corr.

We need to improve four language skills to master any language. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, writing plays a major role to pass examinations. Despite the fact that writing is very essential for our day-to-day life, we tend to pay scant attention for writing. Eloquent speakers can spell bound the audience where as a good writer can grasp the attention of the readers.

You cannot master any skill overnight. Likewise one's writing cannot be improved within a short period of time. It should be a continuous process. You tend to make less mistakes, if you write very regularly. You can produce a good piece of writing, if you do so.

You must be pondering what to write, It depends on the interest you have. Some are capable of writing short stories and others are interested in writing poems.

Knack for writing

Some others have a knack for writing essay type articles. Whatever you wish to write on, you must have a clear picture of what you are going to write. If you write on various subjects, you will certainly stand the chance of enriching your vocabulary and you will be familiar with different subject areas.

Most of us love to see our names in print. This is the very reason why people write to newspapers and magazines. After writing an essay or any other piece of literature, you should self-edit it.

This cannot be done immediately. After writing it, leave your writing for a day or two. Then come back to it.

It will help you to spot your own mistakes and rewrite it in a better way. In the alternation, it is always advisable to show your piece of writing to a friend or a teacher who will guide you to rewrite certain areas.

Read aloud what you have written in order to ascertain whether your writing sounds correct. This gives you a sense of satisfaction. In many countries, there are writers-clubs to help young writers.

The senior members of the club will evaluate what the juniors write. This is a constant learning process in writing.

Good writer

To become a good writer, you need to read books written on different subjects. When you read a book or a magazine, you should underline the difficult words and phrases and learn their meanings. In writing courses, this is known as reading, marking and digesting. So you must read, mark and digest to get the maximum benefit out of reading.

Whatever you learn from reading should go into your journal. This should be the book that you should read regularly to refresh your mind.

However, reading cannot be done in a hurry. If you read a

textbook, read a chapter fast without pausing to learn the meanings of difficult words. When you read the chapter for the second time, do it slowly.

Stop your reading when you come across a difficult word or a phrase and learn its meaning by referring to a standard dictionary. Never skip over a difficult word or a phrase without learning its meaning. When you read a book or a magazine, you should have a constant dialogue with the author or the writer. Sometimes you may disagree with him or her for various reasons.

The margins in books are meant for you to write your comments.

For instance, eminent historian Lord Macaulay wrote his comments on the margins of the books to read regularly. Once he wrote the word "rubbish" while reading an authoritarian book on history.

On the other hand, when you have a dialogue with the author, you can keep track with his line of argument.

This shows we should develop critical reading and not passive reading.

Every word has many shades of meaning or nuances.

When you learn different meaning of a single word it enriches your vocabulary.

Budding writer

There are certain books that a budding writer needs. A standard dictionary such as the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary is vade mecum.

The other book you need is a good edition of Roget's thesaurus. The dictionary should be a new one printed within the past ten years.

The difference between the dictionary and the thesaurus is that the former helps you to find the meanings of words while the latter will help you to find synonyms and antonyms.

Many people ask whether they should read everything written by others. The answers is yes. Without reading everything, you cannot choose what you want to read. We all have different taste in reading.

Present day children do not engage in writing.

They do not write letters to their kiths and kins. Instead they call or send SMS messages for their convenience.

Teachers and parents

Teachers and parents have a very big role to encourage their children to write. Some children send their contributions to newspapers.

If their contributions are not carried in the newspapers, they get discouraged and give up writing for good.

However, some children take rejection slips as a challenge and keep on writing until their contributions appear in print. It is undoubtedly a healthy sign, and, keep on writing!