Writing to Be Understood Part II

By: DR. UCHE ONYEBADI
Published July 9, 2009

In the first part of this discussion, we cautioned against the idea of writing away the meaning and importance of your message. In this segment, we shall reiterate the same message. If you must write, remember that you have an audience and you are not part of it. So, you must make sense to that audience or risk talking to yourself!

Here’s Rule 7: Avoid ambiguity. At times, we write and assume that readers will understand what we mean! Why should they, if things are not quite clear? Here’s an example: Armed robbery is on the increase in Nairobi! So, you beat your chest in triumph and say “I did it!” But, what does that mean? As a potential tourist, that sentence might scare me to death. However, you did not mean to do that.

All you wanted to say is that there has been a marginal increase in cases of armed robbery in that city. Perhaps, the new figure is 100 cases of the crime, from 90 in the previous year! Yet, you put things in such a way that one might conclude that armed robbers have hijacked the city.

True, armed robbery is evidently on the increase, based on the above figures, but have you put the incidents in proper perspective? The word “marginal” calms down nerves. You must also report what “marginal” means. That is where the use of numbers comes in to wipe away all doubts regarding what you actually mean.

This means you must endeavor to get all the details before you put pen to paper, as the cliché goes!

Rule 8: Go for the facts, check and triple check them to ensure that facts are facts, so to speak. Do not mix comments with facts. You can use facts to support your comments, but do not dress up comments or dangle them as facts. If your style is to have your comments masquerade as facts, sooner than later people are going to see through your antics and you lose your audience. Always remember this: Facts are sacred; comments are free!

Rule 9: There is something called: Show, don’t just tell when you write, especially in news writing. Don’t just tell your audience that members of parliament passed a bill on increasing school fees for university students. well, we know that. But, how was the bill passed? Did anybody oppose it? If it came from the ruling party, how did members of the opposition respond to it? There are several things about the passing of this bill that should be availed to the readers. They need to have a mental picture of what happened in the process of passing the bill, not just the fact that it was passed. Make the issue more vivid to them than the mere information that the bill was passed.

Rule 10: Add some spice to your writing, instead of presenting bland messages. Use figures of speech if you have to. Here, similes and metaphors will come handy. Use examples. But, here is a warning: Don’t overuse them! What is important is that you must write in elegant prose. Follow the rules of grammar. If your writing is not compelling, it will just appear like sour milk; who wants to drink it?

Finally, here is something I don’t want to call a Rule because it is more than that: Re read and re-write your script until you get the best you can produce. Some people get their first draft and congratulate themselves for an excellent job. This is called vanity! Take your time to read it again and you might even be ashamed at what you wrote! Don’t be afraid to re-write your stuff. Don’t be afraid to give it to your colleague or friend to read and offer suggestions about making the script better than it is. People who have won Nobel prizes in literature give their work to other people for an evaluation.

These are by no means all the rules you need to observe when you write. What I’ve presented are some of the salient issues you cannot ignore. So, consider this as a crucial first step. It is now up to you to go beyond this and expand your horizon. Good luck.

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