Have you started writing yet? Or have you given up because it is difficult to put your thoughts down on paper. I know that you have tried. You want to get good grades, to impress your boss or to express your opinions in a blog. It could even be because you want to leave a well thought out comment in someone else’s blog. With the spread of social media, the reasons for writing now are no longer limited to letters.
I believe it is possible to start writing immediately with only a few basic knowledge of grammar, and I also know from experience that you will be forced to struggle with every single word, especially if English is not your mother tongue. Yet being a non-English native does not mean that you should compromise your grammar and vocabulary skills because ultimately your end product will decide who will read your work. If your article is fraught with colloquial styles of expression, you may turn away a big number of readers.
Let’s try to rephrase that last sentence in Minglish (Malaysian-English): If your article full of common local words, many readers may not want to read it. Notice the difference in feel and meaning. The Minglish sentence feels a lot less academic and serious (good for a blog, bad for your thesis). Also the phrase ‘colloquial styles of expression’ (she go eating) and ‘common local words’ (she go makan) carry different meanings. Hence knowing the exact meaning of words is important else your opinions will be misunderstood. (I used to think that ‘noisome’ means noisy, until an editor asked why I use a word that means ‘stinky’ to describe sound. Can you feel me blush?)
The next important element to writing is self-knowledge. You must know what makes you tick. For example, I find it easy to write stories but I struggle with articles, sometimes taking weeks just to write one. I deal with this problem by asking myself questions. Since I don’t ‘structure’ the flow in my stories, I also don’t ‘structure’ the type of questions I ask myself. This is because, the ideas I write will come out with their own questions, and all I have to do is to continue entertaining this imaginary conversation.
When an idea is particularly difficult to explain, I just keep asking myself ‘why’ until I get a satisfactory answer. Grammar is fun – why – it helps me connect ideas – why – to make my ideas more coherent – why – some ideas are emotional, not logical – why – these are life experiences – why – my experience is important – why – someone else may be inspired – why – to increase public awareness etc. etc. The system may appear tedious, but it is a good way to vocalize your thoughts in coherent words. In addition to that, the explanations you come out with will be uniquely yours.
Using the example above, I may write: I love grammar because it helps me connect emotional ideas that are difficult to explain logically. Grammar helps me express these ideas through my life experiences, and this is important because my experience may inspire someone else. At the very least, my thoughts will create awareness to any problem I write about.
Before I end this post, I would like to tell you about my e-book Iban Dream which narrates the life and adventures of a headhunter in Borneo, and where the word ‘noisome’ is now properly replaced with ‘noisy’. You can get a copy at Amazon UK or Kobobooks. You can also read a description of the e-book here. I hope that you will support me by visiting one of these links as well as recommend the e-book to your friends. Thank you so much for reading my posts.
