P runing down to the barest minimum, and putting punctuation marks at the right places, no doubt, still remains some writer’s nightmare, or that most people who aspire to take to writing as career do not sometime communicate their ideas and opinions clearly. Particularly so for the novice and new comers to the writers’ club who are still learning the ropes. The battle indeed, is herculean; but I encourage them with the old saying that slow and steady wins the race, though, it doesn’t apply in all cases. For one to be a successful writer, he or she needs to work hard just as it applies to any other profession or business. The world dislike or hate those who are lazy, lay-about or the lay-backs, with no clear direction, if any, when they try to venture into business. In this case, do what the experts in personal development and appraisal call self-awareness or self-examination to see where you belong, especially for those who attended the Leading for Mission training, and still ongoing, organised by the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos for Lay leaders. Are you the fast or slow learner? Don’t worry, you would still achieve your aim in life, if you stay focused and believe in yourself that there is no limit to what you can achieve. Every successful writer, or business man or woman who sees no obstacle or barrier on the way to achieving his or her goal in life operate on the same principle.
Set your goal or plan using the SMART acronym-is your goal specific and clear? Is it measurable, attainable, realistic, and with a timeframe in mind? Even for the students who are just going back to school after the long strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), this is not the time to play about but set your goal of coming out with good result, and with the understanding that you can’t stop the hand of the clock from ticking away; just as the saying goes, time waits for no one. Get busy right now, having a short timeframe in mind. Do the necessary assignments and be thorough in doing your work. The banters and celebrations would then come later. Still, on the main focus of this piece, shortening or cutting down on long winding sentences or phrases helps the writer to communicate effectively, and of course, the consumer of the information to also assimilate it without struggling or straining his or her ears, or eyes to understand the message at first time of hearing or reading it. This is what the purists and masters of the language describe as effective or clear communication from the encoder to the decoder. Therefore, ambiguity is avoided. Jargons and pompous statements, as I often advice, hinders or distorts free flow of information.
That is why the maxim, KISS- Keep it short and simple guides jealously the conduct of the journalist or reporter when covering events or occasions for public consumption. The On-air-personalities or anchors are also reminded to observe the rules to keep longer the attention span of the listener. Write and speak to the extent that the kindergarten or the not-too-educated would understand the information you are passing across through the different channels of communication-the print and electronic media. For the avoidance of doubt, when we write or speak, we should have it in mind to be brief, concise and straight to the point, and as a matter of fact, not to be tempted to swim in the murky water of grandiloquence or big grammar. These examples set here are not exhaustive, but to guide us to do better. The examples are taken from the Penmen’s Media Studies Manual. Instead, speak or write for example, when somebody or a close friend of yours is “hospitalised,” simply write, “He or she went to hospital,” or “admitted into clinic”; “in advance of his meeting with,” sounds boring and uninspiring. Take a close look at this, and the brevity intended, “before meeting… ahead of,” “inferno,” simplify write or speak “fire,” “in spite of the fact that,” yet another dull construction, be precise and write “despite, although.” “Fill to capacity,” a better substitution is “full,” and several of them I would be drawing attention to, from time to time. In all, clear or penetrating writing, if you like, would only be possible if we choose to engage simple words or vocabularies, and not flowery words and jargons that would make it difficult for the audience to understand our story. The golden rule is to keep it short and simple at every given moment you put pen on paper to state your stand.
