Which of the two options would you go for if you were asked to write on “ Water crisis in India” or “ Why voluntary labour campaign at the Upper Lake in Bhopal not yielding desired results"?
You can write reams and reams of papers on the first. To write meaningfully on the second subject, you must be more informed and focussed. The first theme has little chances of impressing the reader, no matter howsoever painstakingly it is written ; the second has great potential to become eminently readable if the writer has actually observed the Upper Lake and followed media reports on the campaign.
I recently evaluated 57 essays on water. Students of a journalism institute wrote the essays on the theme “ Bin Paani Sab Soon”. I felt the students’ writing skills could have been judged better, had the theme been less vague and vast. Because of the broad canvas , the subject astounded the students.
Most of them had to resort to generalizations like what percentage of the Planet Earth is filled with water, the threat to ecological balance, spectre of growing global –warming, myriad awareness campaigns etc.
They also tried to embellish their essays with statistics, which are often boring, no matter their usefulness.
Such sweeping generalizations take the sheen off a write- up, whether it is a college essay or a soft feature or a hard newspaper story.
The more focussed the subject, the more scope for effective expression it affords. It doesn’t mean that write-up should be one-dimensional.
A story on Upper Lake can touch upon global water crisis as well. It all depends on how beautifully you weave the story, marshal your facts and keep readers interest alive.
Brevity and focus are the keys to holding the reader’s interest. I have been telling this to my colleagues for years.
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hmmm...As your colleagues and fellow media persons are concerned, your concern can be understood. Focussed writing is very much necessary and only few work hard enough to hone this skill. Even senior journalists (many of them) have poor writing skills.
ReplyDeleteBut i would like to comment on the students's part. Students are students, they will do mistakes. You also know that you...and every one learns and grows by time. We people took so many year...all the time that we invested in reading, writing and learning the craft of journalism. How can be expect them to be so good at such an eary stage. We should think how were we, when were 20-21 year old? We also took our time and so we should generously allow them to take their time.
You have mentioned in one of your posts that u wished to teach. Let me tell you...One has to be immensely Patient with students.
The institute should have given a more precise topic to the students....i agree.
But such complaints are natural when experienced people check copies of navies without remembering all those long year of learning and toil...which they have lived ---and the students have not.
No post from long time??????
ReplyDeletewhat happened?? I check your blog regularly...please dont disapponit your readers.
Brevity and focus comes through experience and circumstantial understandings, one can't expect from the students who rarely work in field and often have negligible knowledge on the government policies on social issues and various socio-economic factors running in parallel.
ReplyDeleteIf you are so well informed why have you not expressed yourself or written anything about the sham taking place at the Upper Lake. Your newspaper is among the ones that keep regularly posting big pictures of the "jokers" cleaning the lake. Practice what you preach first.
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