The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one Book
– Samuel Johnson
I have trained thousands of students in southern Africa in English writing and other communication skills over the last 27 years. Only a minute portion of them came from English-speaking homes. Let me make that even clearer: very few of them were raised by English parents, lived in English homes, attended English schools and mixed predominantly with English friends. In essence I am suggesting that 90% of South Africans who are expected to write good English at work have at best experienced the language as a second or third language.
To make matters worse, the level of English learners are exposed to through the South African educational system leaves much to be desired. Many students entering the world of public relations, for example, can hardly string a proper English sentence together.
The good news is that many of them, through perseverance and self-study, eventually get it right and go on to become really competent and prolific writers. One of the most important tools at our disposal to improve our English writing skills is the art of constructive reading. By adhering to a few simple provisos, learners of English writing can accelerate the tempo of their learning significantly and become proficient much faster.
Why through reading? And reading what?
· Nothing inundates the human mind more richly with new words, concepts, thoughts and experiences of others, than the written word. By reading more, you allow yourself access to new English words, many of which will establish themselves in your vocabulary, either by choice or by convenience. We fall in love with words that better describe what we want to say and we embrace terminology that enriches our souls and our frameworks of reference.
· Reading opens new doors of knowledge and insight. Competent writers need sound general knowledge in order to contextualise their content for their target readers. Through the books that avid readers devour, they exponentially increase their general knowledge, often unknowingly, to become intellectually richer and wiser human beings. That, in turn, influences our views of life, living and death while at the same time honing our social skills.
· In the worlds of business, science and the arts we call certain forms of focussed and pre-planned reading research. How can a South African writer write a meaningful article on Peruvian culture without reading and researching the topic comprehensively? The good news is that those who generally read more, accumulate this knowledge continuously without extra effort. It is a by-product of the habit of reading.
· By reading we expose ourselves to the good habits (and the bad, I might add!) of established writers. We see their sentence and paragraph constructions work effectively or fail dismally; we savour the beauty of their metaphors and analogies; we taste the bitter and the sweet of their words in our mouths and emulate them. We escape our dreary existence through their words and minds and lead richer lives – and we learn to do the same to our readers.
· Learning a new language is like marriage: first fall in love with her and only then work out why she acts the way she does. Reading makes us live and experience the language vividly without the burden that the rules of grammar bring. As we mature and become more conversant with the language, we also become more tolerant with the grammar that so essentially dictates its constructs. But fall in love with language first; then refine your knowledge of its grammar. The wonderful thing is that so much of the grammar is assimilated automatically, that the reader and writer eventually only have to contend with exceptions that present themselves over time.
Having said all of the wonderful things above, I must hasten to add the provisos:
· Just reading more is not going to deliver the magic. We need to read more, both vertically and horizontally. Horizontally it requires reading more in volume and frequency. Never go anywhere without a book.
· Vertically dictates the level on which we read more of. Just reading more of whatever it is that you normally read, will not make an iota of difference to your English writing skills. You need to take your reading to a next, higher level of sophistication. Read more volumes of ‘better’ English means making a transition from the weekly copies of You and Drum magazines to Time magazine, The Economist or National Geographic. It requires replacing Danielle Steele and Wilbur Smith with literature of more substance such as the works of Arundathi Roy, Khaled Hosseini, JM Coetzee, Barbara Kingsolver, and many, many others
· Create your own “to read” lists and carry them with you wherever you go. I compiled a list of Booker and Orange prize winning novels over the past three decades and gradually bought them all from second hand bookshops. Every now and again new novels find their way on my list, each contributing richly to my glorious reading adventure through life. Without this list I may never have met Harold from The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce or the unbearable sadness of life for women in Afghanistan that I have experienced through the beautiful prose of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. I would never have had the joy of reading the beautiful words crafted so masterfully by Arundathi Roy in A God of Small Things.
And I would always have thought that the Captain Corelli's Mandolin was just another action movie with a mediocre love story thrown in for good measure. Louis de Bernieres’s book changed all of that and now holds a very special place on my bookshelf.
· Just reading more is not going to deliver the magic. We need to read more, both vertically and horizontally. Horizontally it requires reading more in volume and frequency. Never go anywhere without a book.
· Vertically dictates the level on which we read more of. Just reading more of whatever it is that you normally read, will not make an iota of difference to your English writing skills. You need to take your reading to a next, higher level of sophistication. Read more volumes of ‘better’ English means making a transition from the weekly copies of You and Drum magazines to Time magazine, The Economist or National Geographic. It requires replacing Danielle Steele and Wilbur Smith with literature of more substance such as the works of Arundathi Roy, Khaled Hosseini, JM Coetzee, Barbara Kingsolver, and many, many others
· Create your own “to read” lists and carry them with you wherever you go. I compiled a list of Booker and Orange prize winning novels over the past three decades and gradually bought them all from second hand bookshops. Every now and again new novels find their way on my list, each contributing richly to my glorious reading adventure through life. Without this list I may never have met Harold from The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce or the unbearable sadness of life for women in Afghanistan that I have experienced through the beautiful prose of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. I would never have had the joy of reading the beautiful words crafted so masterfully by Arundathi Roy in A God of Small Things.
And I would always have thought that the Captain Corelli's Mandolin was just another action movie with a mediocre love story thrown in for good measure. Louis de Bernieres’s book changed all of that and now holds a very special place on my bookshelf.
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