For some joy and purpose

WRITING IN schools has the infamous reputation of being something to be aspired for, with the inbuilt clause that it is also, rather like high moral standards, not universally achievable. For teachers, it means marking a pile of compositions that are always worse than expected and for many students it is a bore, a chore with mistakes in built in all output.

Writing does not come easily to anybody. It is a skill less natural than speaking and yet in the Indian subcontinent, the reverse is true. Writing is less public than reading and hence in this situation, where the receptive skills of listening and reading comprehension are well developed, writing comes forth and note making and translation are areas in which many `natives' have excelled.

What is writing?

Writing is a process and a product. It starts with gathering ideas and organising them, writing itself, checking and rewriting onto a final edit. Writing is also a product and as a product it is a text and hence a medium of communication.

The process of all independent writing includes:

* Brainstorming with jottings, notes, stray and connected ideas, words and phrases put down in the order they come to mind.

* Planning and categorising and ordering these.

* Drafting

* Revision until time runs out.

As a product, the text, most importantly, must have meaningful content and accuracy in the aspects of vocabulary, grammatical structure, punctuation, capitalisation, spelling and above all, appropriacy.

How can we, as teachers, help our students enjoy writing and write with skill?

While in reality the exercise may well be one in futility, like leading a horse to water but not being able to make it drink, the school teacher cannot but be the eternal optimist. Most literature on writing is of no help because the experts deal with ``how to'' aspects and depend on the teacher with whom students are expected to automatically comply.

Like with all things, recourse to an old adage is a pointer. ``APPLY GLUE''

Enforced daily writing can come in the form of maintaining a diary or making entries in a journal in the language of instruction that in India is two and three languages.

This lends a sense of purpose, with the added attraction that it can be done whenever the learner wants to. Most important, it becomes an ongoing record of life, as the learner views it - completely personal to establish a teacher-student bond of confidentiality.

From the initial entries of, ``woke up at 6 a.m. had breakfast at 8, went to school; returned at 4, went to play, watched a serial, had dinner, went to bed.'', kind of entries, learners can be introduced to writing descriptions of people - those that they like, people whom they dislike, places, situations, dreams, disappointments, cheers, tears and the list goes on.

By the time the term comes to an end, students in middle school (classes VI, VII, VIII) are ready to read and enjoy simplified accounts of foreign travellers and the diaries of geographical explorers.

Some that come readily to mind are the journeys of Fahien and Huan Tsang and explorations to the Arctic and the Antarctic.

Experiments with diary writing will not only establish a real purpose in writing, and make learning in other subjects enjoyable, but also establish a `good habit' for life.

LAKSHMI RAMESHWAR RAO

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