Hints for better writing

K S SIVAKUMARAN

Teachers and examiners have defined ‘literary style’ on the lines of what Jonathan Swift had described it: “Proper words in proper places make the true definition of style.”

In a piece of good writing we can notice the appropriate adjectives and adverbs. They make our meaning more precise and clear. To make an impact, effective use of these two parts of speech becomes useful. Even in sentence construction the syntax should be observed. That means the orderly arrangement of subject, predicate, object and complement in sentences.

As Bruce Frazer has rightly said, “A Literary Style has grace, wit, eloquence, force, astringency, grandeur”. It is desirable that we keep our sentences short. As we know clear thinking results in clear writing. Short sentences will help us to think clearly. Sometimes we have a tendency to write long sentences and forget to put the finite verbs. Sometimes we construct complex sentences, even to the extent of almost one paragraph, and that may result in a messy construction. Therefore simple sentences are always safer, but to write in a simple manner is really a difficult task for many of us. It is by constant training that we could write in a natural and simple way.

Everybody knows that we must have a purpose in writing something. The main idea is to communicate what we want to say clearly so that the reader could understand us instantly. At the same time the sentences should be compact. Writing should not be a strain on the reader. It is better to break a long sentence with more than one idea into more simple sentences. We must not write more than what is necessary. Remember the maxim ‘Brevity is the soul of wisdom’.

Sometimes we find it difficult to explain simply, technical terms, but we must try not to be vague and aim at precision which will help the readers to understand these terms. As we all know everything is subject to change. Even languages should be dynamic, meaning not being static. Vocabulary, grammar, style - all change from time to time. In the eyes of a westerner we in this part of the world speak ‘bookish English’. This is because English is not our main language.

We would have noticed that older words are not in use. They are either omitted or changed in their meaning. Hackneyed words are replaced with new words. Language becomes flexible and new fashions in usage emerge. In some instances prose writing is ornate and sometimes it is plain. Sometimes we observe that current usages and even colloquial grammar is admitted especially in journalese. Again punctuation takes a different form these days.

In formal writing we try to stick to what the grammarians expect us to observe. But in informal writing ‘permanent code of rules of grammar’ are disregarded. Again to quote Bruce Frazer: “What was stigmatized by the purists of one generation as a corruption of the language may a few generations later be accepted as enrichment and what was then common currency may have been pompous archaism or acquired a new significance.”

Remember what a great grammarian like Fowler himself has said: “Anyone who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous and lucid.”

Another point we could remember is that a familiar word communicates better than an unfamiliar word. Our construction of sentences should be concrete than abstract, short than long and relevant to the point for smooth flow of communication.

Let us conclude this piece with another quotation from another specialist in English studies – G M Young: “The final cause of speech is to get an idea as exactly as possible out of the mind into another. Its formal cause therefore is such choice and disposition of words as will achieve this end most economically.”