Principle of Good Writing by L.A.Hills. || Text | Summary| Notes

PRINCIPLE OF GOOD WRITING
                    .....L.A.Hills.....

INTRODUCTION:

SUMMARY:

TEXT:
To write well, you have to be able to write dearly and logically , and you
cannot do this unless you can think clearly and logically too if you cannot do
this yet, you should train yourself to do it by taking particular problems and
following them through, point by point, to a solution, without leaving anything
out and without avoiding any difficulties that you meet.

For example, you may take the problem, what do mean when I say that
I am a free person ?" And then try to find a solution along something like the
following lines: 'An I free to do anything like: No, I am not free to fly to
Mars, for example. My freedom is limited to what it possible. Am I then free to
do anything that it is possible for me to do? No, I am not free to kill my
neighbour for example. My freedom is limited to what is possible and legal
found out, yes in fact I am. My freedom is therefore limited to what is
possible and legal, unless limitations to my freedomBecause if I were free to
do harm, and under these conditions, I would have less chance of freedom
than if and everybody else accepted certain legal chance legal limitations on
our freedom in order to protect the latter against arbitrary interference by
others, etc',

At first, you may find clear, step-up-step thought very difficult. You may
find that your mind containually wander. But practice will improve your ability
to think clearly and logically.

In order to increase your vocabulary and to improve your powers of
expression, you should read widely and carefully, and keep a note boos in
which to write down words and expressions that particular strike you/ for
example, sparkle, glitter , owinkle, blame, glean, butcherblue eyes, relax into
delicious indolence. Use a good dictionary to help you with the exact meaning
and uses of words.

Always remember that regular and frequent practice is essential if you are
to learn to write well. You learn to write by writing. It is no good waiting until
you have an inspiration before you write. Even with the most famous writers,
inspiration is rare. Writing is 90 percent hard work and percent inspiration
to the sooner you get into the habit of disciplining yourself to write the better.

If you keep your eyes and ears Open, you will find plenty of things to write
about around you. Often a little piece of conversation heard in the street can
start you thinking along interesting new lines. Imagine that you are a stranger
who is not familiar with the thing that you see around you, and start from
there.

Read the newspapers carefully. Everyday there are example of human joy
and human tragedy in it which give you ideas for articles, essays or short
stories.

Keep a notebook in which to put down things that you notice or ideas
that comes to you when you are out walking, when you are reading a book or
magazine, or at any other time. Some people get ideas in the bath, or when
they wake up during the night. Unless they write down these ideas down at
Once, they often forget them.

Try to develop a warn, understanding of people, their problems, joys and
their sorrows, so that you are genuinely interested in everyone you meet
and where before you could perhaps see nothing of interest.

To be a successful writer, you must write interestingly; but different kinds
of people have different interests, and it is most unlikely that you will be able
to appeal to all of them. You therefore have to know exactly what types of
reader you are writing for, and exactly what kind of thing interest such a
reader. By carefully reading magazines for teenagers, magazines for well
educatalted men, you can find out the thing that interest particular type ot
readers .

Most people are interested in the present. Even when they read about the
past or the future, it is atter'connections with, or relevance to the present
that particularly interest them.You should therefore choose subjects of topical
interest ~ the latest fashions in some particular field, problems which wory
people are making preparations for this festivaland about summer holidays
when the summer is approaching.

As much as possible, choose subjects of which you have personal experience
Your will be able to write on these much more convincingly and with greater
authority than on subjects about which you have only second-hand information.

Presentation is of very great importance in good writing. Your opening
Paragraph should arrest the readers attention and show him what you are
riting about and why. If you are going to give the reader some information
 tell him what subject you are going to deal with. If you are going to argue in
support of a particularly point of view, say what this point of view is.There is
no harm in starting the reader in this first paragraph by putting forward a new
and apparently paradoxical point of view, provided you have convincing
arguments to support in it the rest of what you write.

The main body of your piece of writing should collect together and present
the ideas pronted in the first paragraph or give good arguments to support
the view put forward there. You should come to the point at once, say what
you promised to say, avoiding irrelevant omaterial, and then finish.

Your last paragraph or sentence should bring what you have written to a
neat, satisfying end, leaving the reader with a clearidea of what you have been
saying.

To write interestingly, you must yourself be intensely interested in what
you are writingand you must convey this feeling to eagerness to your readers,
You must also believe intensely in what you are wrioing, and convince your
readers of your honesty. You cannot aroused their interest and sympathy unless
they feel that you are interested , and that you feel strongly about what you are saying.

Do not, however, force upon the reader those of your own private problem
which few, if any other people share People are very interested in problems
which they too face, or which they may easily have to face in the near future,
but they do not want to read the personal complaining and protest of someone
whom they consider a crank , or whom they suspect of being mentally unbalanced.

Do not strive to create impression. Forget about yourself. Think only a
the reader, and write naturally avoiding self-consciousnes.If you have something
interesting to write about and can express it clearly, simply and with the human
touch, it is sure to appeal to some classes of readers. But if you deliberately try
to copy a style which is not your ownthis will quickly become obvious to the
reader, he will feel that you are not sincere, and he will not go on reading what
you have written. As you read more and more works written in particular
style, your own will gradually change; but this will be a natural proces, and
your new style will be yours, because it comes up from your unconscious self,
unlike a style which you are deliberately copying.

This does not mean that you should not cultivate wivid expression, if you
train yourself to see and hear thing keenly responsively as an artist or a
musician does, you will be able to describe them vividly yet without artificially.
It is best to write simply and in a conversational tone. Clean, plain, English is
the fashion these days, and an elaborate, decorated style is quite out of date.
Avoid jargon (e.g, 're your letter to hand 'meaning with reference to the letter
 Which I have received from you') and oficialese (eg it is a appreheneded that
meaning I suppose) hackneyed expressions (e.g. Adams ale forwater" and
do ones level best ' for do the best one can) rhetorically flournishes (eg . This is
a subject of great importance to many people now-a-days, and therefore one
which I fe I should discuss seriously and honestly'The readers know whether
he thinks it important or notand he certainly does not need to be told that, if
it is of great importance, it deserves to be discussed seriously and honestly)
empty verbiage (e.g, fell obliged to add that, doubtless, many people appreciate
that it is a the matter of greatest importance that information about possible
cases about curely to children should be passed on to the appropriate authorities
immediately, in which the first 20 words are empty verbiage) and
circumlocutions (e.g. I will cause investigations to be made with a view to
ascertaining the information, instead of will find out).

Prefer the concrete to the abstact word whenever possible; be definite, call
pade a spade, and avoid euphemisms. The latter have been called the Cult of
Cosiness, which means the pretence that everything is all right when it is not,
In Hitlers Germanye, for example the expression of special treatment .

Here is an example, taken from Dickens novel David Coppeাiিeld, of the
ort things to avoid:


My dear Sir,
Years have elapsed, since I had an opportunity of ocularly per using the
lineaments, now familiar to the imagination of a considerable portion of the
onlized world. But, my dear si, though escranged (by the force of circumstance
er which I have had no control) from the no control for the personal
ociety of the friend and companion ofy youth, I have not been unmmindfiul
of his soaring flight. Nor I have been debarred from participating in the
intellectual feasts he has spread before us.

I can not therefore, allow of the departure from this place of an individual
whom we mutually respect and esteem, without, my dear si, taking this public
opportunity of thinking you, on my own behalf, and, may undertake to add,
on that of the whole of the inhabitants of Port Middlebay, for the grandification
of which you are the ministering agent .

Go on, my dear sir! You are not unknown here, you are not unappreciated
Though remote we are neither "unfriended", 'melancholy", nor ( may add) 'slow'.
Go on, my dear sir, in your eagle course! The inhabitants of Port
Middlebay may at least aspire to watch it, with delight, with entertainment,
it instruction! Among the eyes elevated towards you from this end of the
globe, can be found, while it has light and life.

The

Eye

Appertaining to

Wilkins Micawber

Magistrare,

we should now write, instead of the above, something like this:

Dear Sir,
It is many years since 1 last had an opportunity to see you, and you have
now become famous throughout a considerable part of the citized world.
Although circumstances beyond my control have made it impossible for me to
continue the close association with you which I enjoyed in my youth, I have
followed your progress and read your books with great pleasure.

Now that you are leaving Port Middlebay, I would therefore like to think
you, on my own behalf and on behalf of the inhabitants of this town for the
pleasure you have given us, and wish you even greater success in the future.

Yours faithfully

Avoid starting the obvious; eg your readers do not want to be told that
aeroplane someomes crash, or that children learn from their parent as well as
from their teachers.

Use the same style throughout whatever you are writing you are writing
formally, do not introduce sang expressions, and if you are writing in a
conversational boyle, do not introduce literary or learned expressions. A mixture
of syles such as the following is abaund:In the absence, on home leave of my
books your application for empathcoc consideration of your claim to a pension
has been pushed on to me I had no alternative but to give in the thumb down
owing to the fact that your old man and ceased to be in the service of Her
Majesty when he kicked the bucket.

If, while you are writing, you cannot think of the rght word at once it is
a good idea to put in another, or to leave a blank, so as not to interrupt your
now of thought. Then, when you have inched, you can go back and find
exactly the right word for what you were were trying to say.

In any case, read your work or critically at you have finished is replacing
welk, vague, inexact word by others which may use what you mean,

WORD NOTES:

• Cult of cosiness- Sugar coated expression
• 
  

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:


1. One can improve one's vocabulary by-

A) Extensive and careful reading
B) Keeping a notebook to write down the striking words
C) Only A
D) Both A and B

2. How can one change his style?

A) By imitating famous style
B) By continuous efforts
C) By reading famous books
D) All the above

3. How can one gather materials for writing?

A) Read others works widely
B) Keep eyes and ears open
C) Try to imitate popular writers
D) All the above

4. What did Hill say about the mixture of different styles?

A) A writer should avoid mixture of different styles
B) A writer should know well to mix different styles
C) A writer must adopt mixture of different styles
D) None of the above

5. How can one write interestingly?

A) He should try to write for everybody
B) He should try to write about everything
C) He should choose the class of readers for whom he is writing
D) He should avoid easy and commonplace things.

6. What should be the nature of language of writing?

A) Language should be elaborate and ornamental
B) Should be simple and in a conversational tone
C) The language should be rhythmic and metaphoric
D) None of these

7. What does Hill mean by topical interest?

A) Subject related to topical events or facts
B) Subject related to current events or facts
C) Subject related to current thought
D) Subject related to the interest of a group of people

8. One can get ideas for his articles,essys or short stories from?

A) News papers
B) Daily life
C) Roadside stalls
D) Nature

9. According to Hill, writing is 99% perspiration and --

A) 1% inspiration
B) 1% imitation
C) 1% experience
D) 1% permutation

10. What does the phrase ' kicked the bucket' means?

A) Steal the things
B) Dies
C) Cancel the matter
D) Hit the bucket with leg

11. What is jargon?

A) Use of foreign language
B) Use of regional language
C) Use of local language
D) Use of technical language

12. What is circumlocution?

 A) Using of few words for a large ideas
B) Using too many words for a single idea
C) Using critical words to express an easy idea
D) Using different worlds to make one idea.

Previous Page :

Home Page: About WBSSC