Writing is just like courting the woman of your dreams. You try to find the right words, the right phrases, the right idioms, the right rhythm of ideas and meaning.
Sometimes, the words don’t turn out the way we mean or intend them to be. You try to speak the right words and often end up conveying the wrong message; and thus, the woman leaves you. And you find yourself back in square one on the dating game.
That is writing. You can never court the right words all the time. But you can at least try knowing who it is you are courting those words for.
Really, knowing the audience is the beginning of writing for understanding. It is the beginning of really taking a concept and expressing it to another in ways so clear no one can misunderstand. That, after all, is the end goal of writing: to express and to make understood, and to be understood so clearly the misunderstanding itself vanishes.
The more a writer knows about the audience, the more can he write and be understood. It is really just like courting. The more you know, the more chances you have of winning the woman of your dreams. So it is with audiences.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Reading is Writing: Writing is Reading
Writers play with words. They use words to convey; to convince; to communicate. It is by reading that a writer buds into someone who knows words and knows how to use them the way they are created for: enlightening the intellect, inspiring the human mind.
For by reading, we learn how words dance and fit together in an orchestra of ideas and alphabetical and grammatical constructs. It is by observing how words are used to convey certain meanings and ideas that we learn how to use them to convey our own meanings and ideas.
Just like Michael Silverblaat, we will gain a wider perspective and deeper sensibilities if we read—if we take a lot of time to read. Silverblaat makes preparation a priority in his job as a radio host. He learns about his program guests before he interviews them. Preparation brings power and preparation in writing is reading.
Writing science articles requires a lot of reading on the part of the journalist. Science topics are naturally comprehensive and very technical in nature that journalists need to read and learn about the topic as much as they can. John Taylor once said, “It is pure intelligence for a man to take a subject mysterious in itself and unfold it so a child can understand.” That is what science writers do. And for them to do that they must understand the subject they are writing about.
The more we know about a subject or an idea, the more clearly we can express it to others. In the article “You Can’t Fight Violence With Violence” (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727684.700-you-cant-fight-violence-with-violence.html), the understanding of the writer is very evident from the comprehensive coverage and completeness of the topic. This understanding, expressed in clear and simple language gave me understanding of the topic at hand.
The more we read, the more we can write. The more we understand, the more we can help others understand.
For by reading, we learn how words dance and fit together in an orchestra of ideas and alphabetical and grammatical constructs. It is by observing how words are used to convey certain meanings and ideas that we learn how to use them to convey our own meanings and ideas.
Just like Michael Silverblaat, we will gain a wider perspective and deeper sensibilities if we read—if we take a lot of time to read. Silverblaat makes preparation a priority in his job as a radio host. He learns about his program guests before he interviews them. Preparation brings power and preparation in writing is reading.
Writing science articles requires a lot of reading on the part of the journalist. Science topics are naturally comprehensive and very technical in nature that journalists need to read and learn about the topic as much as they can. John Taylor once said, “It is pure intelligence for a man to take a subject mysterious in itself and unfold it so a child can understand.” That is what science writers do. And for them to do that they must understand the subject they are writing about.
The more we know about a subject or an idea, the more clearly we can express it to others. In the article “You Can’t Fight Violence With Violence” (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727684.700-you-cant-fight-violence-with-violence.html), the understanding of the writer is very evident from the comprehensive coverage and completeness of the topic. This understanding, expressed in clear and simple language gave me understanding of the topic at hand.
The more we read, the more we can write. The more we understand, the more we can help others understand.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saving Science
Science really has its peculiarities. There are a billion things in this world that are fascinating. Science is the method we use to discover those billion other things. But in the course of it all, I realized science can have a challenge in telling us laymen what it discovers.
Sometimes, science just doesn’t know how to tell a good story. Well, at least some scientists, if not most of them. It has all the elements it needs: action, drama, suspense. But somehow, it often misses the whole point of telling a story.
“Realities in RP Science” did a good job of telling by its structure and style of writing the reason people don’t read science stories: the narrative is boring, boring, boring. There is no flavour: it is outright bland. The first sentence sends me a chill: boring; can’t relate; don’t care anyway.
The other three articles have done a great job of really telling a story. They all incorporate in the story all the elements each topic has: drama, suspense, action.
Science is very interesting. It is with the telling that scientists do a disservice to science: they sometimes just cannot tell a good story. Thanks to skilled science writers, there is a way to save science and make it interesting as it really is.
Sometimes, science just doesn’t know how to tell a good story. Well, at least some scientists, if not most of them. It has all the elements it needs: action, drama, suspense. But somehow, it often misses the whole point of telling a story.
“Realities in RP Science” did a good job of telling by its structure and style of writing the reason people don’t read science stories: the narrative is boring, boring, boring. There is no flavour: it is outright bland. The first sentence sends me a chill: boring; can’t relate; don’t care anyway.
The other three articles have done a great job of really telling a story. They all incorporate in the story all the elements each topic has: drama, suspense, action.
Science is very interesting. It is with the telling that scientists do a disservice to science: they sometimes just cannot tell a good story. Thanks to skilled science writers, there is a way to save science and make it interesting as it really is.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Sekyu: Life of the Calm-headed Guard
I never really thought of seeing him again. Yes, him. And his pistol, his handcuffs, his flashlight. Yes, him. And his uniform, his badge, his desk, his radio, his fan, his No-ID-No-Entry sign.
Mang Boy is still there—his desk and fan and radio to keep him awake through his night shift as security guard of the University of the Philippines Faculty Center. I saw him and struck up a conversation with this classic figure of authority, someone I always saw since my freshman year. I was lucky to have known his name this time—I finally had the courage to ask him despite his colossal, imposing figure.
With a warm smile that can tear through a wall as much as his knuckles can break fist-fights, he surprised me with the kind friendliness he displayed as he let me sit and chat with him. He never even asked to see my ID. He was, by the way the meanest, fiercest guard to strictly implement the no ID, no entry policy when it was first done in the UP campus. His smile tore down every memory I had of him.
So I sat with him, watching the janitors sweep the floor in the early morning before students start coming in.
As I guarded the building with him, I saw a different man. I saw Mang Boy, not the security guard, but the man he is.
Manning a building is no joke especially at night and in an area with fratmen ever busy to wreck frat-wars. Surprisingly, he responds with a coolness and a calm displayed by the jaded. But Mang Boy is not hopeless. The calm he has comes from just being calm himself.
As I sat at his guard post, I saw how calm and peaceful a security guard’s life is. The fan was buzzing and blowing the refreshing air caressing the skin to an almost lullaby-like aura ready to lull one to sleep. The radio was on and the ceaseless chatter of the announcer was dimmed by the silence of the early morning as students start to pile in. The desk was large enough to hold a dinner for a family of four and even fit in a few more visitors.
Imagine getting paid to sit and listen to the rhythm of feet falling to the ground in the busy goings of scholars; to watch the beauty of the early morning sun rising through the smog and mists of the previous night; to smell the graciously endowed fragrance of flowers in the little garden just outside the desk where the log book lies silent through the night; to think of how beautiful life is and how magical it is to be alive sitting on a desk, guarding, watching through the night till the cock crows.
Mang Boy really loves manning the gate of the faculty center. “Sikat talaga pagka UP. Kaya pati guwardya sa UP sikat.” And sure enough, everybody knows him: the authoritative guard, the silent sentinel guarding the books and things pertaining to scholarly things when things scholarly and scholars sleep through the night.
The usual ups and downs of the job do not even create a stir in his soul. He admits being nervous whenever something in the night stirs his senses to an alertness only a dedicated guard knows. But these things in the end do not matter. As a pillar he stands still, unmoved.
I ask him how he feels after successfully busting a crime or stopping the usual fraternity-related fistfights in the university. He shrugs off my question and just tells me, “Wala lang.” And he goes home, ready to listen to more radio and get some sleep.
Mang Boy is still there—his desk and fan and radio to keep him awake through his night shift as security guard of the University of the Philippines Faculty Center. I saw him and struck up a conversation with this classic figure of authority, someone I always saw since my freshman year. I was lucky to have known his name this time—I finally had the courage to ask him despite his colossal, imposing figure.
With a warm smile that can tear through a wall as much as his knuckles can break fist-fights, he surprised me with the kind friendliness he displayed as he let me sit and chat with him. He never even asked to see my ID. He was, by the way the meanest, fiercest guard to strictly implement the no ID, no entry policy when it was first done in the UP campus. His smile tore down every memory I had of him.
So I sat with him, watching the janitors sweep the floor in the early morning before students start coming in.
As I guarded the building with him, I saw a different man. I saw Mang Boy, not the security guard, but the man he is.
Manning a building is no joke especially at night and in an area with fratmen ever busy to wreck frat-wars. Surprisingly, he responds with a coolness and a calm displayed by the jaded. But Mang Boy is not hopeless. The calm he has comes from just being calm himself.
As I sat at his guard post, I saw how calm and peaceful a security guard’s life is. The fan was buzzing and blowing the refreshing air caressing the skin to an almost lullaby-like aura ready to lull one to sleep. The radio was on and the ceaseless chatter of the announcer was dimmed by the silence of the early morning as students start to pile in. The desk was large enough to hold a dinner for a family of four and even fit in a few more visitors.
Imagine getting paid to sit and listen to the rhythm of feet falling to the ground in the busy goings of scholars; to watch the beauty of the early morning sun rising through the smog and mists of the previous night; to smell the graciously endowed fragrance of flowers in the little garden just outside the desk where the log book lies silent through the night; to think of how beautiful life is and how magical it is to be alive sitting on a desk, guarding, watching through the night till the cock crows.
Mang Boy really loves manning the gate of the faculty center. “Sikat talaga pagka UP. Kaya pati guwardya sa UP sikat.” And sure enough, everybody knows him: the authoritative guard, the silent sentinel guarding the books and things pertaining to scholarly things when things scholarly and scholars sleep through the night.
The usual ups and downs of the job do not even create a stir in his soul. He admits being nervous whenever something in the night stirs his senses to an alertness only a dedicated guard knows. But these things in the end do not matter. As a pillar he stands still, unmoved.
I ask him how he feels after successfully busting a crime or stopping the usual fraternity-related fistfights in the university. He shrugs off my question and just tells me, “Wala lang.” And he goes home, ready to listen to more radio and get some sleep.
Talking to YOU
Reaction about the articles “Big Phone, Big Screen, Big Pleasure,” “How I Used Twitter to Live-Blog the Opera,” “Riding the Rails of Malaysia, in Singapore,” “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved,” and “The String Theory”
It is paramount that I talk to YOU. Yes YOU. Nobody, nobody, but YOU.
Writing takes a great deal of thinking about who I am talking to.
The articles listed show a wonderful work of really talking to the reader on a personal level. They all have one thing in common: talking openly and personally to the reader. This technique is very helpful in writing. It takes the reader on a different plane and literally tells him he is important and valued. It shows confidence on the part of the writer in himself and his experiences and also to the reader, the recipient of all the information on a personal level.
As a reader of these articles, it empowered me to know that the writer really is talking to me. I felt it. And it made me soar with the ideas, the places, the people in words written.
A very striking technique used is the asking of questions on a personal level to begin the narrative. This, coupled with engaging writing, brought all these stories to really talk to me, the reader. The words spoke to me; nobody but me. And for that I am grateful.
It is paramount that I talk to YOU. Yes YOU. Nobody, nobody, but YOU.
Writing takes a great deal of thinking about who I am talking to.
The articles listed show a wonderful work of really talking to the reader on a personal level. They all have one thing in common: talking openly and personally to the reader. This technique is very helpful in writing. It takes the reader on a different plane and literally tells him he is important and valued. It shows confidence on the part of the writer in himself and his experiences and also to the reader, the recipient of all the information on a personal level.
As a reader of these articles, it empowered me to know that the writer really is talking to me. I felt it. And it made me soar with the ideas, the places, the people in words written.
A very striking technique used is the asking of questions on a personal level to begin the narrative. This, coupled with engaging writing, brought all these stories to really talk to me, the reader. The words spoke to me; nobody but me. And for that I am grateful.
Painting a Picture: Engaging the Audience
Reaction to the articles “The LittleThe Biggest Little Man in the World,” “Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains,” “The Networker,” and “Oprah Talks to Ellen DeGeneres”
You need a paintbrush to write. The pen is simply not enough.
Painting a picture and not merely telling is a very exceptional skill to have as a writer.
The ultimate satisfaction of writing is taking the reader with you into the minds of people, the lives of the subjects, the heart of ideas and discovery, the interesting niches of places and things.
The articles all show a great mastery of the art of painting a picture rather than telling a story. Although The Web Shatters Focus is a factual and a technical article, it employs writing and literary techniques that helps the average reader enjoy and really understand a subject as complex as the human brain and the Internet.
Overall, these articles display a wonderfully crafted structure that shows the authors’ mastery of the craft of telling a story by painting a picture and taking the reader into the story. Reading these articles left me wondering how beautiful and wonderfully awesome the world we live in. they awakened in me an inner sense of my being and a deeper appreciation of life and the diversity and beauty of the world I live in.
You need a paintbrush to write. The pen is simply not enough.
Painting a picture and not merely telling is a very exceptional skill to have as a writer.
The ultimate satisfaction of writing is taking the reader with you into the minds of people, the lives of the subjects, the heart of ideas and discovery, the interesting niches of places and things.
The articles all show a great mastery of the art of painting a picture rather than telling a story. Although The Web Shatters Focus is a factual and a technical article, it employs writing and literary techniques that helps the average reader enjoy and really understand a subject as complex as the human brain and the Internet.
Overall, these articles display a wonderfully crafted structure that shows the authors’ mastery of the craft of telling a story by painting a picture and taking the reader into the story. Reading these articles left me wondering how beautiful and wonderfully awesome the world we live in. they awakened in me an inner sense of my being and a deeper appreciation of life and the diversity and beauty of the world I live in.
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