Ms Lydia Teh and Professor Dr. Ahmad Murad Merican at the PLF-MPH Essay Competition Public Talk @MPH One Utama
Another fabulous talk on writing took place at MPH 1Utama on Sunday, 22nd August 2010, with Lydia Teh (author of six books including the best-selling Honk! If you are Malaysian) and Professor Murad Merican (Universiti Petronas Professor and author of Media History: Worldviews and Communication Futures) generously sharing advice on essay writing tips and techniques.
Ms Lydia Teh showing her acronym "ICE SASH
Lydia kicked off the session with a catchy acronym that encapsulates her guide to personalising essays: A SASH ICE, which stands for:
A : Using the ACTIVE voice rather than the passive to power up your writing
S : SIMPLIFYING your narrative by avoiding jargon, obscure words and convoluted sentences
A : Ensuring your facts and figures are ACCURATE
S : Appealing to all the five SENSES (sight, smell, touch, audio and taste)
H : Opening with a HOOK (an intriguing situation or interesting premise to draw readers in)
I : ILLUSTRATING with anecdotes and personal insights
C : Making the CONNECTION between anecdotes and stories with the subject matter
E : Injecting your own EXPERIENCE into the narrative
Professor Dr. Ahmad Murad Merican sharing his writing tips with the audience
Dr. Murad then elaborated on the writing process, explaining that writing is an “art” and is a manifestation of the writer’s self. He started writing 37 years back, he told the audience, and from that time, he has since written more than 200 essays on various subjects.
Dr. Murad likened the writing process to that of cooking: the dish will turn out right if the ingredients and temperature are “right” and when the “cook’s” own imagination influences the cooking process through the selection of ingredients, colours, etc. If the combination is right, then the output will be a flavourful, colourful and altogether interesting “dish”!
He advised the twenty-odd audience to put themselves in their writing and to not be too detached from the process and the output. In other words, the writer has got to personally connect with the writing that he or she is producing. To have this connection, a writer needs to have full consciousness of the world around him, to notice the elements of his world, and to ask the right questions.
Dr. Murad, who is also a regular NST Learning Curve contributor, finished his talk by reminding the audience that writing, or prose, has the power to influence the world.
During question and answer session
During the Question and Answer session, a student posed the question of whether adding personality would detract from the seriousness of the issue, to which the panelists responded that a good way to add a personal dimension to a serious issue is to create composite characters who are affected by the issue or situation in question. This would make the issue come alive for the reader without making light of the issue.
On the issue of Writer’s Block, both writers urged the audience to write everyday, and to write through so-called mental blocks, even if the output seems to be gibberish. It’s also important, Dr. Murad stressed, to engage both left brain and right brain in the writing process.
Among the audience attending the public talk
The two writers then also shared with the audience their research organisation tips and techniques, where Lydia keeps a virtual file on all the research materials she comes across on the Internet, and Dr. Murad keeps physical files of contacts as well as sources of research.
To end the session, the audience were advised to check the verifiability, authority and validity of all facts they include in their essays; to always read back and reflect on what they have written, and to edit as often as necessary. “Bad writing,” said Dr. Murad, “is bad reflection.”
This Public Talk was organised in conjunction with the PLF-MPH Essay Competition 2010 “Nurturing the Minds of Future Leaders” which is currently running until the 30th of September 2010.
