THE ART OF WRITING BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA

                           THE ART OF WRITING

                     BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA

Writing is the art and science of putting words together to make a complete sense. The art and science include the use of words and grammatical applications to communicates ideals or the delivery of a message for our benefits. It also involves the ability to design and construct words into edifices which will stand the test of time. So we can say of a Writer, as any person who have  the ability, that is, the art and science of putting words to together to make a complete sense and use his or her writings to idealized a situation or pass an ideology or conveys a message to his immediate community and beyond.

Conveying a message across can be noticed in our everyday conversation. Every day, we talk to someone; majority of what we say is either passing information to others on how to tackle a problem or handling down history. Whatever way do this, we are transporting ideals. That is, the foremost function of every write-up we make or get involved in.

Transporting ideas simply means ‘passing a message across’ from individual to individual or place to place, which involves our day to day conversation, example: ‘I am going to the market’.  That tells everybody around where you are going to.  It conveys my message to all who cares to listen. In the same way I can decides to keep mute whereby leaving everybody around me in the dark. That simply demonstrates how a writer can pass or conveys his message via his writings. Let us now consider those tools that can make you a good writer.

THE WRITER’S TOOL

One important tool of a writer is comprehension which means understanding. Understanding his topic or subject, (what he is writing on) this simply means that he should write on those ‘topics’ he knows much about. There is no point writing about things you do not have ideal of. When a writer writes on topics he knows much he is bound to tackle that topic very well rather than writing on a topic he knows little of. This can also be the case of writing a good essay or letter writing in an examination. You’ll find out that a student who understands his topic very well will produce more facts and writes his essays well than his fellow student who knows little of what they may be writing about.

Both are writers, when they can put words and sentences together to make a complete sense, but, the only difference between them is that one is better than the other.   

A writer must understand what he writes about. The simple analogy is this: the cup containing water to drink is the container that carries the water to us so is the water when he writes. When he demands for a cup of water to drink, it is the cup that first tastes the water before him.  Again, if what, I write cannot make me laugh; know that, it can’t make my reader laugh, that is, how it is.

Everyone who aspires to be a writer should first understand a given topic on what he aspires to write on. If he knows less or nothing about a topic then he should not write about that it, well, he can move to another.

If a writer writes on a topic or subject he knows little about he’ll always be at lost for appropriate words to use.  Having a good knowledge of words will always show in your write-up. This will reveal the bad and the good writers in every writing situation. That explains why people have started a write-up and stops half way. Let us say here that a writer’s limitation in the use of appropriate words in a write-up shows a writer’s inability in the use of words. However, you may sometimes write and stop half way,

I urge you to stop for a moment, read more of other work and continue writing again. In a short while you will discover that the appropriate words to use is just waiting at the corner for you to make use of. On the other hand, there is always a flow or fountain of words in every writer because of this it is always difficult for him to be short of words when writing.

A good writer must always read one thing or the other daily; this will help him a lot in writing. You must let everything you do points towards reading and writing even your recreation activities. A writer who hardly reads may become like a farmer without a cutlass, so reading updates you and help greatly in your work. Greater numbers of writers are teachers in their rights because they are involved in academic work every now and then. The teaching profession supplements what the writer is doing. A writer must always appreciate the works of other authors, that will make him blossom in his works.

A good writer, is any person who can generate ideals at any time when he is writing. This is, where we will mention the journalist as a powerful writer because of the ability to generate ideals when writing their news stories.   Writing story is often very difficult because most write-ups fall into these groups: Fiction and Non-Fiction, whichever category he may be writing from. When the story is fictional, it means it is imaginative. But when it is Non-Fiction, it means it is a true story. In either way, a writer should be able to generate words or ideals to embellish his write-up.

A good knowledge of figurative expressions will help to embellish your work and make it look more and more pleasant to the reader. Figurative expressions are like ‘paints added on a building’, when applied properly, it adds to your write-up and give it a beautiful meaning. Though, a writer can make a successful point without using them, yes, but when it is used, it beautifies a work and gives more advance meaning to it.

Understanding your tenses is very important as well. Looking vividly to your story or write-up, and telling the story as it is, requires the writer’s knowledge of the tenses he intends to use, i.e. present tense, past tense, future tense, past participle as the case may be. Knowing your tenses will help you narrate your story well and give it coherence.  A good write-up is adjudged to be one that has its tenses and grammatical construction in the proper place.

Above all, the purpose of your write-up is to pass a message or give an instruction or advice to your readers/audience. That is why a writer writes with the mind of passing a message across when this thought is there, it will serve as his driving force to make him drive his point home successfully well. For example, when you are writing a letter with a strong desire in you that a need should be met urgently. You go all out to see that your letter is delivered to the right person who might meet that need. That is the writer’s thought, too.   

  I hope that sounds correct?

By:

Eguriase S.M. Okaka