Terry O’Brien [O’Brien - Modern Writing Skills

Little Red Book
of
Modern Writing Skills

By the same author

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Read Write Right: Common Errors in English

The Students'Companion

Little Red Book
of
Modern Writing Skills

Terry O'Brien

Published by

Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2011
7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj
New Delhi 110002

Copyright Terry O'Brien 2011

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-81-291-1851-6

Third impression 2014

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher's prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

I dedicate this book to late Prof. A.P. O'Brien, my father, friend, guide and mentor, who inspired me to the canon of excellence: re-imagining what's essential

PREFACE

English writing skills include formal and informal style, rsums, cover letters, and other business documents, essays and much more. Learning is a skill and it can be improved.

In this age where communication is the key, few skills are more important for a person to master than writing. If you don't think you're a good writer or would like to become a better one, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your writing. Little Red Book of Modern Writing Skills gives some ways how you can hone your writing skills and become better at communicating via the written word.

1.Write every day. If you want to be a better writer, write more. Write every day if possibleeven a journal entry, an email or a letter will do. The best way to develop effective writing skills is to practice, practice, practice.

2.Read--a lot! Reading offers writers a lot of benefits: you see how great writers construct their work: Style, diction, construction of sentences, paragraphs, whole pieces. Reading helps you expand your vocabulary. Often, even simple articles or stories contain new words or terms that you can tuck away for your own future use. Reading expands the world you know aboutthe more you know, the more fodder you have for writing of any kind. If you want to be a good writer, be a good reader.

3.Commit certain basic rules to memory and force yourself to use them: 3 R's: Read, Record, Recall. While many of the minute peculiarities of grammar may not come into play everyday, the basic grammar and writing skills do. And one way to develop writing skills is to learn these basics and make sure you use them all the time. The person who has a run-on sentence, writes in fragments, or throws in random commas all the time, will not have the same success as a writer who knows the basics.

Good writers should know how to write short, concise, complete sentences. They should know when to use commas to separate ideas in a sentenceand when not to do so. They should know how to get a subject and verb to agree. They should know how to use pronouns clearly. And they should know the difference between jargon and real words.

Little Red Book of Modern Writing Skills will help you know the basics that can help your writing to improve. And once you have the basics, you can go on acquiring more skills.

Wishing you great success!

Best of luck!

Terry O'Brien

The Modern Writer: Quills to Skills

Today, when we think of writing, the image of a man sitting in front of his desk with sheets of paper before him, a pen in his hand and an inkwell on the table, rarely comes to mind. But that was how writers practiced their craft in the olden days. In those days, the only tools a writer needed were an imaginative and creative mind, a powerful vocabulary, flair and passion for writing, a pen and sheets of paper.

Quill was the writing instrument that dominated the early years of writing for more than 1400 years. Even now, some calligraphers use quill pens for their craft. Later, the quill was replaced by the fountain pen. Lewis Waterman invented the fountain pen and got a patent for it in 1884. With the invention of fountain pens writers could spend more time thinking and writing rather than preparing their writing instruments and inks. The ballpoint pen made its appearance in 1938; it was invented by Laszlo Biro, a journalist from Hungary. The writing instruments continued to evolve and got better thus making writing less cumbersome. But the power of the words still remains unchanged and the pen still plays a crucial role in shaping and changing the history of mankind and the lives of many.

Writers inspire, motivate, inform, engage, excite, empower, and take their readers through a range of emotions from absolute bliss to utter dismay with their words. Wars start and end, treaties and pacts get signed, people become famous or notorious, heroes are praised and villains punished, courtships start, love bloom and blossom, lovers get married, and some marriages end in divorces, authors are born and influence generations, people gossip, spy on each other, countries flourish and perish, all at the stroke of the pen.

Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is quoted as saying "The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr."

It was in 1839, the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton coined the adage "The pen is mightier than the sword." This is undoubtedly the Truth.

The power of words cannot be overemphasised. According to Lord Byron: "Words are things; and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew upon a thought, Produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions think."

Writers should master the words and should learn everything that will make their writing more accurate, effective, captivating, attractive, and influential.

The modern writers need all the skills their predecessors possessed. The skills remain the same - an imaginative and creative mind, powerful vocabulary, and flair and passion for writing.

But the tools have changed. The quill got replaced by the pen long time back. Now even the pen is slowly being replaced by computers.

It is true once a new technology rolls over you, if you are not part of the steamroller, you are not part of the road. This is very true in the case of computers and information technology. In today's information age, knowledge of computers is a must. We use computers, either directly or indirectly, in each and every aspect of our lives. We use computers on many different occasions in our day-to-day life. Computers, Internet, and Information Technology (IT) are changing the way writers write, copy-editors edit, reviewers review, and even readers read.