MAKING A GOOD WRITE-UP BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA

               MAKING A GOOD WRITE-UP 

                                   
                              BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA

Since man has learnt how to read and write, at least, have the ability to put something down, in black and write, in the form of information dissemination or giving instruction to others, we can say that he has attained a level of civilization. For civilization is a mark to judge a people’s progress. As I said before in one of my articles: ‘The Art of Writing, where we looked at the writer and his writings and understand why he writes. Here, we shall consider some important steps to making a good write-up:

·        Choose a subject that is suited to your abilities, you who aspire to be a writer.

·        Give long thought to what you are capable of understanding.

·        A writer who chooses a subject within his powers will never be at lost for words and his thought will be clear and orderly.

·        A writer who uses simple and clear words in writing is always able to drive home his point.

The writer must choose a subject which suits his ability when he is writing when he is writing, so that he could generate more facts regarding what he is writing about. When a writer writes within his scope of understanding he will be able to bring out more facts about what he is talking on. When he writes on a subject he knows little or nothing about he will never make a good write-up because what he is writing on may be strange to him or no fact there on. That explains why we can notice good and bad write-up today.

A writer who chooses a subject within his powers will never be at a loss for words and his thought will be clear and orderly. I have come across people who write a few paragraphs and gets confused thereon and disclose that they cannot continue writing because they do not know what they will write next. Well, it is either they choose to write on topics or subjects they only know little about or they are loss for the appropriate words to use. If that is the case, then, we should write on what we know, so that you can bring out your best when you write. Writing within your scope makes a work clear and orderly.

Before starting to write, you must at least, give a long thought to what you are capable of understanding. Think on the topic you are capable to write without stress so that you can come out with a good result. It is exactly what the scriptures states in II Timothy 2:15, “Study to show your self approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” When you write on issues you know well enough there is every tendency to make a good yield from it. Your write-up will be clear and orderly. Every successful writer always follows the aforementioned steps when they are writing their articles.

More so, when a writer uses simple and clear words in writing his works he is always able to drive home his points with ease. This will make your audience to have easy understanding and it also create potential audience or readers for your work. When readers easily understand a writer it is because they easily comprehend where he is going to when he or she writes.  That gives a writer a hedge over others. The joy of every writer is too see that people understand what he is addressing with his writing.

Just as the sword is a powerful tool in the hands of a soldier so are words in the hands of a writer. If, they are so powerful then they should be used rightly.

THE WRITER’S MOOD

The writer’s mood refers to the conditions, whether sad or happy when he is writing a particular work. The writer can be influenced by a very pleasant situation and likewise by an unpleasant one when he is writing. Both situations show in every write-up today: just as smiling faces are turned on those who smile, so is sympathy show shown with those who weep. If you want me to be moved to tears, you must first feel grief yourself, whereas, if your speeches are out of harmony with your feelings, I shall either fall asleep or burst out laughing. Pathetic language is appropriate to the face of sorrow, and violent language to the face of anger. A sportive diction goes with a merry look, and a serious diction with a grave look.

Diction is referred to the writer’s language and this can fit in both situations as the case may be. When a writer is writing about a happy event, be sure that his diction will reflect happiness. Likewise, when he writes about a sad one, he uses sad languages or dictions to describe the events.  A writer can be influenced by the forces of happiness or sadness when he writes. That is what you see when he ridicules. That is what you see when he praises. Those are reflective in his mood and his mood is not separated from his writing.

HIS SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Many factors can be a writer’s source of information. A writer may look at an object and see what the other person may not see from it or ever imagine from it. To that writer, he can get more interested in that object and take a deeper thought of it and begins to writer on it. That particular object has been transformed into an inspirational source; something aiding you to do. If a river inspires me to writes that river is my source of inspiration. that river awakes a desire in me to write.

Writers are artist who can be stimulated by creative forces or influences to act, or bring a mind thought into reality with his writings. He can imagine things and bring it alive; as the painter would do. Just anything could inspire him to write. I have been inspired by objects to write before by mere passing by it, it awoke a strong desire to write. Sometimes they serve as mind pictures to a particular thing or write-up. Sometimes they make you remember what to write giving a clear picture of it. That is, how writers can writer about a person, a place and an animal.

His personal experiences can also serve as his source of information, that is, why it is often said that life is a teacher. Our own experience may teach others a good or a bitter lesson, if he writes them down for others to learn. For instance, a writer may write down his mistakes or repercussions, he got from an evil act for others to learn from, so that, others should learn and avoid falling into that same mistake and suffer from that same costly repercussion.  A wise man once said, ”When a man stop learning, he starts dying”, from this we know that learning is a continuous process and writers are the ‘fuel’ that keep the learning process going on and on.

More so, his environment can give him vivid information on what to write on. A writer can draw inspiration from his environment, especially, when he writes on environmental issues, like, floods, drills, sanitation etc., in all cases, it is what he is present in his environment that informs his write-up.

HIS REASONS FOR WRITING    

·        His desire to pass a message or hand down information.

·        His desire to teach a moral lesson.

·        His desire to correct a prevailing situation.

·        His desire to ridicule societal ills.

·        You can’t do what you don’t have passion for. So writing may be his passion.

·        Writers deserves to living decently as other professionals in the society.

All the elements discussed above will make a writer achieve the best and write well when they are giving serious thoughts or considerations.

By

Eguriase S. M. Okaka