총 36페이지

CoverStory
21
Judge’scomments
JonH.Bahk-Halberg
AlexPole
Dept.ofEnglishInterpretationandTranslationofHUFS
Dept.ofEnglishLiteratureofAnyangUniversity
T
T
heessaysinthiscompetitionwereallinteresting,eachinitsownuniqueway.
o write well is not easy. Writing is a real art.
ButonethingaboutthemallstoodoutinmymindasIreadthroughthem.No
Writingagoodessayismuchlikeconstructinga
matterhowIratedthem,everyoneofthewritersoftheseessaysisasuccess.
beautifulbuilding. Itisonepartarchitect’sblue
“Writingisahardwork,”aswritingauthorityWilliamZinsserputit.Iknowfrom
print (a plan that we must follow), one part brick-layer
experiencethatthosewordsaretrue,andhowharditistowriteinEnglish.Ihavean
(we must cement the constituent linguistic parts
immenseadmiration?evenawe?forstudentswhosefirstlanguageisnotEnglish,yet
together), one part brick-maker (we must be full of
havethegutstotakeonthishardjob.
concrete knowledge and insight) and one part sculptor
That’sthefirstthingtosayaboutwritingifoneisaskedtogiveadvice,asIwas.Like
(knowing how to use the plans, constituent parts and
Zinssersaid,puttingwordsdownonpaperisahardwork.Don’tmakethemistakeof
concrete-ideasto“constructthedelicatelines”thatmake
tryingtopretendit’snot. Giveitenoughtime,focus,andsweattomakeyourwriting
thereadersee,feelandunderstand). Itiseasytoseethat
sing.Sometimesittakesmeseveralrevisionsjusttogetsomethingtomakesense.
there is much more to good writing then understanding
Tooffermorespecificsuggestionstothewritersoftheseessays,andtootherreaders
grammar rules and memorizing vocabulary. We must
whomightbeinterestedinimprovingtheirEnglishwriting,I’dturntoanotherexpert
learnandpracticetheprocess,organizationandfiguresof
guidebook on writing, The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White. It should be on
speechofaparticularculture’swritingstyle.
every writer’s bookshelf. It’s been judged by many as the clearest and best writing
If this is true, then how does one know what is good
guideeverwritten.
writing? Isitenoughtosaythatoneknowsitwhenthey
Inthislittlebook,theauthorsofferupsuggestiononbasicmechanics,suchas“Form
see(orinthiscaseread)it? Theanswerisprobablynot,
the possessive singular of nouns by adding’s; do not break sentences in two; enclose
ifwearediscerningandwanttoknowthereasonsmore
parentheticexpressionsbetweencommas,”toprinciplesofcomposition,formandstyle
precisely. We want a criterion by which we can judge
Use the active voice; use definite, specific, concrete language; omit needless words.
good writing. In this case, I have decided upon the
Anyoneofthesesuggestionscanimproveone’swriting.Takenalltogetherinoneslim
following criteria: organization (including paragraph
volume,theycanhelpallofusbecomebetterwriters.
formation, use of topic sentences, paragraph cohesion,
In judging these essays and evaluating writing generally, I make mental notes of
transitions and essay cohesion), accuracy (including
positive and negative points. Assuming that readers want the bad news first, I’ll start
varied and accurate vocabulary and correct grammar,
withthenegatives:
punctuation,andspelling),andcontent(includinghaving
First, mechanics are very important. Simple things like spelling or punctuation
interesting ideas, expressed and/or argued well, with
problems canbeeasilycorrectedbylookingapaperoverafteryou’vefinishedwriting.
goodstyleandclarity).
Ifthesekindsoferrorsremainafterastudenthandsinapaper,Iassumethatheorshe
Ofcourse,writinginalanguagethatisnotyournative
didn’tcareenoughtogiveitasecondlookbeforehandingitin. WhenI’mevaluating,
tongue is not easy. Even for native-speakers, it takes
those careless errors get the biggest penalty from me. If the student doesn’t care
yearsofformaleducationtowritewell. But,therearea
enough to check for simple errors, I certainly don’t care enough to give them a high
number of things you can take heart in. Many of the
score.
strategiesyouusetowriteinyournativetonguesuchas
AnotherproblemI’veseeninstudentwritersislackofclarity.Thiscancomefrom
brainstorming, outlining, writing introductions and
severalcauses,includingtryingtouseimpressivewordswhosemeaningthewriteris
conclusions apply to writing in English as well. Also,
notreallysureof,tryingtousebuzzwords,cliches,labels,orabbreviatedformsrather
wordprocessingprogramscanhelpyoutoidentifyerrors
than just saying what they mean in plain words, or simply using pronouns like “it”
in your essay when it underlines in red and green
withoutaclearreferent. Manyoftheseproblemsareasmuchmechanicalaslogical,
problemareas. Lastly,asyoudopracticewriting,make
and can be easily improved on with practice. Anyone can learn to write. They just
notesoferrors. Asyoudothis,starttolookforpatterns
havetowrite,andwrite,andwrite.
in the problems you make. For example, if you
Asforthepositives,thebestwritersandteachersofwritingthatIknowofagreethat
commonly forget to add an “s” at the end of nouns to
writingsimplyandspecifically,usingtheactivevoiceinsteadofthepassivevoice,and
form the plural, write that down in your “check list of
using lots of examples will make others want to read what you write. Along with
commonerrors.” Then,whenyouwrite,gothroughyour
examples, using metaphors and similes rather than adjectives will make your writng
essayusingyourchecklistanddoublechecktoseeifyou
moreinteresting.Anditcanbedoneinanykindofwriting,notjustdescriptiveessays.
madethaterrorornot. Ibetintimeyourwritingwillbe
Can good writing be taught? Maybe not, as Zinsser noted. But a lot of it can be
muchbetterifnotperfect!
learned.
DECEMBER 2008

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