Better Writing Principles

Chief JK John Kasaipwalova and Russell Soaba making the point: 'Read before you write.'  Read Drusilla's Modjeska's book, The Mountain.

I was born speaking Nagum Boiken, a Sepik language for the best part of my early seven years. The village I was born into had no speakers of English language. Everyone spoke and communicated in the vernacular. Between 1964 and 1972 I was a simple village boy with no dreams of going beyond the forest hamlet I was born into. I found the life of forest hunting, gardening, sago pounding, feasting, and gift exchange more enticing than the lures of the outside world.

My parents had other ideas that saw them enroll me in Mongniol Primary School in Wewak. The year was 1972, the year PNG became a Self-Governing Territory, a move towards early Independence in 1975.

It was a government school with all instructions given in English, but which I could not even understand everything taught to me from Grade 1-4, which fortunately for me it did not really matter. It did matter for my father though, who thought I was a dumb and would not even get any prizes at the end of the year. My father gave up on my education since then. It was mother who hung in there as if her prayers would be answered one day. For what it’s worth, my mother was thrilled when it was revealed that I was one of the first two students to get accepted into St Xavier’s High School. The other was the Paul Unas Markus, the current CEO of National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA).

Three things I helped me to succeed in education: great teachers, books, and a great library. If I did not get myself into books very early in life I would not have succeeded. I borrowed books from the school library and also from the Wewak Public Library every week. I took books home and read them at home. In the night I had lamps made from old milo cans to provide light for reading. It was not the best situation, but the world of books made up for the depressing environment.

Reading books was seen as a lazy person’s habit in the days I was growing up. It was not the ideal environment to develop habits of reading. I was expected to work like everyone else in order to get fed. Reading habits were shunned. So it was a relief I was selected to go to a boarding school for boys only. It turned out to be the best thing to have happened to me to go away from home to get educated in a Catholic mission high school.

By the time I got into high school I quickly developed an appetite for reading stories and books written by Papua New Guineans. Thinking back, the exposure to Papua New Guinean writers gave me the writing bug, which  affected my whole life in ways I have never imagined or seen before hand. The pioneer PNG writers prepared the way for me to become a writer one day.

I have written a lot about this experience, but the two points I want to make now are important. Books and libraries are the critical links in improving our written expressions. Reading books helped me transit from a vernacular world to the world of English and beyond. Schools with libraries help set the foundation for young children to develop their independent skills and habits of reading. Encouraging students to read and getting them to use the libraries as repositories of knowledge help develop competent written expressions.

Melissa Donovan writing in her book 10 Core Principles for Better Writing says similar things: “To write well, there are only two things you absolutely must do: read and write. Everything else will flow from these two activities, which are essentially yin and yang. Without each other, reading and writing cannot exist. They rely on one another. They are two parts of a greater whole. Writing is a complex and complicated skill. While basic writing skills can be taught, it’s impossible to teach the art of fine writing. It is possible to learn, but this learning is only fully achieved through reading.”

Stephen King, the novelist, also points out that writing and reading work together: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

Reading and writing defined my life. Writers, scholars, libraries, teachers, parents, guardians, and successful people see the importance of reading and writing as tools of survival in the modern world.  

Melissa Donovan writes: “If you want to write well, you must read well, and you must read widely. Through reading you will gain knowledge and you will find inspiration. As you read more, you will be learning to read with a writer’s eye. Even grammar sinks in when you read. If you’re worried about memorizing all the rules of grammar, then just read books written by adept writers. Eventually, it will become part of your mental makeup.”

William Faulkner the great American novelist writes: “Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it.”

I could not have expressed it better than the masters of written literature as cited above.

“Well-read writer has a better handle on vocabulary, understands the nuances of language, and recognizes the difference between poor and quality writing…All the grammar guides, writing tips, and books on writing will not make you a better writer if you never read. Reading is just as crucial as actually writing, if not more so, and the work you produce will only be as good as the work you read,” says Melissa Donovan.

Reading and writing are human behaviors that come with personal development and sense of how important they are to one’s life.

Forcing people to develop and refine these skills can only go far, unless the learners develop these habits as part of their survival skills in this competitive world.