The Writing Lab: Write to Think

Not all nouns are replaceable. Some are inevitable to make your existence clear and concrete.

It is, or like that, very common amongst teachers of English, which is obvious in students too, that pronouns are used to lessen the repetition of the nouns, in a sentence or in a paragraph. She, he, her, my and their, etc.—the pronouns are the replacers of nouns to make writing less repetitive and more smooth, which is correct in both senses: meaning and structure. There comes, however, the awkward flaw when they, teachers and students, make such constructions ambiguous and unclear for the readers.

To give such one random example: HE ARRIVED AT THE AIRPORT, WHERE HE CAME TO KNOW ABOUT THE CAR. That might seem a correct sentence, but it has structural flaw that creates problem in meaning. Whose car is that? Is it of the author's or of someone who is being mentioned with the pronoun, 'HE'?

That article 'THE', before CAR, in the first sentence of the previous paragraph has put some serious concern. To make it clear, it would be correct to say 'his car' if he is the owner of it, or it should be 'proper noun's car'. Let's say of Ahmad's. I have seen and attempted enough to get writing students to avoid such constructions, an endeavour that has resulted in serious failure.

That construction is one, among many, that needs to be resolved to make writing clear that WHO says WHAT, and WHO and WHAT is being referred to in that particular passage or sentence.

Unapologetic words are the result of apologetic learning.

When good teachers—the teachers who really want to make the teaching worth learning—start teaching, they begin without aiming at what they are teaching might be unattractive to whom they are teaching. They love the subject. They love the idea. They do not see if their teaching has any pleasure. They just do, not to worry about what the market is demanding at the time. They do not commercialise their teaching by considering what works today and do give thoughts to what apprehends to the mind of learners. Good teachers do that, and that is worth doing.

On the other hand, fish catchers see the place, see the moment, see the air's flow, see what works, then start throwing their nets to catch, of any sort of fish, as many as they wish to be caught with the aim they were preoccupied with. That is where learning impedes, growth ends, and then all together the love of learning dies. The unnecessary people take up room and are thus unnecessary results in the field of learning.

They cheat, demanding attention by hinting at profoundities and sophistication they do not deliver. Seeming to mean something, those so-called-teachers mislead students about the learning. They just do so because they think more people with them make them more authentic. No matter if they have anything to say or not, they just say because they have nothing to ponder about what they say, other than they feel they are doing a task, the task just to entertain the audience nothing has to do with learning.

Every time we sit to write on something or answer a question about our work and what we have been finding or thinking, our choice of words affects the way we describe it while revising, perhaps when we are writing notes or making outlines.

There arise two problems. The first is the need to feel sophisticated by using long and legato words to make the impression that we are in charge of doing something great. The second is the need to feel stronger by using short and simple words to make the impression that we are clear in what we are doing and have a strong grip on the matter we are dealing. While dealing with both cumbersome activities, we strive to find the one right way to do it, and we lead ourselves to either start making mistakes to eliminate the essence of the work or to stop making efforts to finish what we have started at first.

Either way we are in trouble, the trouble costs our energy and time.

Reading any masterpiece in a language for which you do not have a background knowledge is in itself a journey you are supposed to take without any guidance, without any support, and without any roadmap.

All you have is a path and you yourself. That might, at first, seem hard, but, in the end, that would be worth exploring, something for which you have sacrificed so much: your past, your future, and to some extent yourself.

After going through all words, emotions, and sentences filled with lines that have a meaning, you have now. You have you with you.

Keep turning the pages. Keep taking the steps. Everything, once finished, will make sense, a complete sense. You may see a new world. You may find a new self of you.

Find the apposition and the noun being modified.

1. Isaac Chotiner speaks to Jon Meacham, Joe Biden’s friend and informal adviser, about the President’s legacy and his decision to end his campaign.

Learning without satire feels boring. And, when it comes to satire, Anwar Masood smiles best.