Developing writing skills
My journey as a writer I have evolved from being someone who could hardly an application correctly till standard 9th to the stage that I have been published in the Ascent Times of India, have contributed many words and phrases that are part of research in English lexicography ( the science of creating, accepting, new words in dictionaries). On the ground, my writings have had visible impact and have been very result oriented.
How did the change happen ?
Make a beginning - Somewhere in standard 9th or 10th I thought of improving my English. Yah nahi chalega or this state of affairs has to change was the dominating thought. Till you do not feel bad about the present, you would not strive for a good future. Today there are n number of online, free tools, to know your state of writing skills, which you can use. So, first measure the present status of your grammar, vocabulary. It's like weight loss. First measure and do not assume or ask others what they feel ?
Understand the process - You are trying to master a skill in a language which is not your mother tongue that you learn involuntarily. Here, you will have to make focused efforts over a period of time. I did 9th in 1973, nearly 50 years ago and my profession too demands good writing skills. So, it is important for you to know the stages of developing a language. The stages are listening, speaking, reading, writing. The more you do each of them, the better you will be as a writer. Moreover, the more you do all four together, the faster you will learn the ropes of being an effective, published, respected, writer.
Stages of developing writing skills
Listening Right from the time the baby is the embryo stage, she hears sounds of all types. You see very young kids banging spoons, bowls, plates, at will. They are trying to make sense of sounds, developing their own perception of cause - effect of various sounds. But, to develop good writing skills, you can listen to good English. But go for public oriented programs like the news, YouTube videos by Dan Lok, others who are speaking to educate others. You will develop language sense.
Speaking is the most dreaded thing I have seen. People, even though very good at English, are scared to speak. But you could come off this through recording your own voice in the phone. Listen to it. Start small. Speak about yourself, your family, daily routine, describe a happening. Gradually you will come up and words will start making sense to you. You will start feeling the words. That is where you will understand that though large, big, huge, magnificent, enormous, all mean more than normal size, you will never write the building is enormous. Listening and speaking together help you rough out these possible errors.
Reading Who would read you if you do not read others ? What goes around comes around. Here, a word of caution is not to be a perfectionist that you would begin by reading a Shakespeare play or the Hindu from day 1. Like you grew to till now from being a baby, take baby steps. Read publicly displayed hoardings, newspaper advertisements. People are paid a huge fortune to write that for you to read and do the needful. After a while, once reading these seems trivial, read blogs on topics of your interest. It could be a hobby, career, today hundreds and thousands of blogs are there on practically any topic under the sun. Many for going beyond the sun too…..but read and read a variety of topics, authors. You may soon graduate to read bigger works, novels, thriller series and so on.
Writing Now comes the final act of writing. It will be very useful if you do all the four activities concurrently. But, once again, start early. Do not wait to jump into the swimming pool till you have mastered swimming. It will never happen. Just begin writing short notes. WhatsApp has made more writers than most universities have made. Start messaging, reply mails, inform small decisions, daily routine things through texting. I am undermining the importance of talking or socialising, I am suggesting different ways you can make a beginning without risking much. Once you are through with the routine writings, go for formal mails, install,Grammarly or other online corrections softwares to guide you on the way.
I have WhatsApp Groups named Write Better where we keep helping members on writing skills. You may as well join for a one on one help in becoming a better writer.
Dr Prakash Moghe
Moghe Education Consultancy
8085906062, 7489447223
Same is true for any skill we wanna learn, be it maths, programming, anything
ReplyDeleteIT rightly said that practice makes a man perfect
Core truths are universal, but skill components are different each time
Delete