What is a composition
i) It is a piece of creative writing.
ii) It is a way of communicating through writing with intent to:
a) Give a clear mental picture to the reader i.e. the reader should be able to perceive in his or her mind, as clearly as possible, what the writer is communicating. The reader should not ask such questions as why? What? When? and How? The story should answer all these questions by itself.
b) Entertain - apart from convincing, a good piece of writing should be able to entertain as well. The reader should be able to enjoy the story to its fullest depth such that if it is a happy story, the reader should 'smile' or 'laugh' with the writer, likewise if it is a sad story, the reader should be able to 'cry' with the writer.
How does one achieve the above?
a) Choice of story
This will depend on the type of story one is given to write on (in an examination situation for example). Never begin writing if you are not sure of the direction the story will take. Take time to digest, understand and internalise the given topic or beginning, whatever' Like a doctor, who first understands a patient by taking the temperature, heartbeat e.t.c: so should a good writer understand the question asked. Do not pick a story if you do not know how it will end. Many times when writers rush to write their stories, they get midway and do not know how to continue and because they have to achieve length, they end up just putting in words that make no sense to the story, at times they write two or more stories in one.
b) Choice of words
The words in a story are very important. Remember fine feathers make fine words, like a house, they are the bricks used, if they are of fine quality, the end product will also be fine. Do not just use any words when writing. Choose the appropriate words that suit the occasion. For example if the story is about a happy event like a wedding ceremony or a birthday party the words used by the writer should reflect this, the dressing should be neat and beautiful, the food should be good, the weather should be fine and warm. All these end up making the occasion a happy moment you do not want to forget.
c) Flow
A well thought story should be made
up of a sequence of events that are related to each other. A sentence must have
something to do with the one before or after it. *Since sentences make
paragraphs, a paragraph should be a fully developed, convincing group of sentences.
The ideas in one paragraph should prepare the reader for the next paragraph
such that by the end of the story, what the writer wanted to communicate should
be clear and understandable. Sample these two writers writing about the same
things:
d) Give detail but do not over do
it.
A good writer gives all basic
necessary detail. A poor writer assumes that the reader knows what he or she
wants to talk about and just moves on. An example of a writer who does riot
give detail is one whose reader will ask questions like why' How' When' Who'
What'
e) Be real
Unless you have been asked to write
science fiction or stories from mars, do not write things that cannot happen.
Write things that are possible to human beings. Remember the examiner knows
your age and level of experience and does not expect you to write outside that.
A pupil once wrote this;
f) Choose a story that you can
handle
It is said that you should only bite
what you can chew. To protect yourself from getting stranded midway your story,
take time to think of a story from the places, events and experiences, that you
are familiar with. Take stories from home, the market or supermarket, the
school (library, dining hall, assembly).
g) Be simple in your writing:
The use of pompous (big) words does
not make you a good writer. Good writing is all about effective communication.
One does not have to send the reader to the dictionary many times to show that
he or she is a good writer.
h) Be unique
Many candidates are tempted to read
other people's good stories and produce the same. Some with photographic
memories even reproduce particular names of characters. Apart from the sin of
reproducing somebody else's work, this is a suppression of one's own mental
development. You have put yourself in a situation where you do not think for
yourself, you want to use someone's ideas.
It is very good to read other
people's work but why' What is the aim'
i) You get to know various styles of
writing.
ii) You get to know how people
handle various topics.
iii) You enrich yourself in the use
of various writing methods and grammatical styles.
To be unique therefore borrow only
what is good from various people, add to yours and come up with something that
is yours when an examiner marks a composition that he or she had read somewhere,
he or she automatically develops a low opinion on the writer.
i) Do not be obvious
There are stories that are obvious
from the word go. An experienced reader can see the conclusion before he reads
halfway. This makes the story boring. Surprise the reader with events. When
armed gangsters walk into a bank to rob, many writers will say that they shot
people, there was bloodshed before they sped away in a get-away vehicle. A good
writer will not think along these obvious lines. The writer can just say they
walked in, scared people, robbed and went away without firing a single shot.
Definitely the examiner/reader hadn't expected this. The art of surprise makes
even a movie more thrilling and captivating, if it is obvious one can as well
switch off and go to sleep. Take the reader up the hill and down the valley at
will, do not put him on a straight, flat, smooth road, he will be bored.
j) Strike the iron while it is still
red hot
Many writers do not go straight to
answer what they have been asked. An examiner gave , candidates the following
instructions:
k) Handwriting
Can you imagine two scenes:
i) a highly educated person with a
good degree in medicine goes to look for a job as a doctor in a big hospital.
On the day of the interview, he appears dressed in a buttonless coat, tom
shoes, unkempt hair and bloodshot eyes.
ii) Another person who wants the
same job but got a degree of far less quality than the first one. On the day of
the interview, he appears with his weak papers but he is dressed in a neatly
pressed suit and shirt, well polished shoes and tidy well combed hair, he looks
quite cheerful with a bright, warm smile.
Who of the two is likely to impress
the interviewer' By all logic, it is the second person with an inferior degree.
First impression gives a permanent opinion to the person who sees you for the
first time, it should be the best On that note, markers are also human beings;
if one writer presents handwritings that look like the first doctor, however
rich and entertaining the story is, the examiner already has a bad impression
in his or her mind and this translates into bad marks. The second writer, like
the second doctor can walk away with so many mistakes in his or her story
because the reader has already h$/en cheated by impression and is likely to
score better marks. Pupils must work very hard to have impressive, tidy work
with proportional paragraphs.
I) Length
The length of a composition at this
level should be at least two pages and quarter.
A short story gives a bad impression
to the examiner. It reflects inadequacy in language, thought and ideas. The
forty minutes given allows a good candidate to write the required length and go
over the story once or twice to make corrections. A composition that goes
beyond this length i.e. three pages or more cannot be a winner because this
time (40 minutes) does not allow this and again a candidate is likely to bore
the examiner or repeat himself or herself.
m) Correct English
At the end of the day even if a
candidate meets all the above, he or she has to avoid grammatical errors.
Mistakes in tense, spellings, punctuations and other aspects of grammar are a
big hindrance to all the above. Good writers must be extremely careful.
n) Language
The language used in ' story should
not be vulgar or obscene. Polite language that does not put across a reader as
gentle in manners is necessary for a good writer. Dirty language gives a
negative impression of a writer.
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