"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence
to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word
that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb,
every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is
doing what -- these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength
of a sentence."
The “Master’s
Proficiency in (written) English” course, ie, a writer’s workshop, is for
students, who wish to excel, ie, write well, in English.
At the end of
the course, besides learning how to write well, students may wish to work on, prepare
or complete a body of writing:
- Auto-biography, memoir, biography
- Series of articles / features / essays
- Collection of miscellaneous writings
- Blog, diary or journal.
No age bar. No
educational qualifications required, except basic writing skills and knowledge
of English.
An intense
desire to write is essential. I cannot teach this attitude. I promise, however,
that during the course U will learn only what U may want to learn: not a word
more, nor a word less.
Content and methodology:
The course
consists of two parts:
- Generic: common for the entire batch.
- Tailor-made: for each student.
The generic
part will include learning to write sentences, paragraphs; reports, features,
essays and other short forms; also how to prepare and follow one’s own a style
guide.
Other areas to
be covered: meaning & usage; the difference between fact and opinion;
description; précis-writing;
The genres to
be covered will include non-fiction and fiction, with a preference for
non-fiction writing. The relationship of English with Indian languages will
also be discussed.
This is NOT
(NOT) a “creative” writing workshop. Too much is made of “creative” writing
nowadays, in my opinion. If U are looking for a creative writing workshop, this
is NOT (NOT) the course for U.
Preference
will be given to values like:
- sincerity & honesty;
- listening to one’s conscience or inner voice;
- dissent and tolerance;
- accuracy;
- effective communication and impact;
- respect for the reader; readability;
- a sense of history.
No lectures.
Since I have been a trainer for the last 45 years, the methodology will be
interactive and participatory.
*****
The basic
texts are:
- Elements of Style by Strunk & White.
- On Writing Well by William Zinnser.
The dictionary
of choice for the course:
- Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD). We will try to ensure that students achieve a mastery of the Oxford 3000, the defining vocabulary of the OALD.
The course
emphasises clear thinking as a pre-condition for clear writing and encourages
the use of plain and simple language.
We will share
and discuss various writers and their writing. Selections from the following
sampling of works and authors (and others, suggested by students) may be
studied (not in order), depending on the interest of students:
The Old Man
and the Sea – Hemingway
Grapes of
Wrath, East of Eden – Steinbeck
David
Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities – Dickens
The Story of
my Experiments with Truth – Gandhi
I. Isaac –
Isaac Asimov
Lessons of
History – Will & Ariel Durant
The Paris Review Interviews.
The Economist
and The Guardian Obituaries.
*****
R.K. Narayan,
William
Hazlitt, G.B. Shaw, G.K. Chesterton,
George Orwell
D.H. Lawrence,
Somerset
Maugham, Graham Greene,
Virginia
Woolf,
Marcel Proust,
Victor Hugo, Maupassant, Emile Zola,
Lev Tolstoy,
Chekhov, Dostoevsky,
John McPhee,
e e cummings,
Emily Dickinson, Shelley, Keats
What it is NOT:
This is NOT
(NOT) a “creative” writing workshop. Too much is made of “creative” writing
nowadays, in my opinion. If U are looking for a creative writing workshop, this
is NOT (NOT) the course for U.
This is also
NOT (NOT) a course in spoken English, except that the medium of instruction
will be English.
About the teacher:
Joseph M.
Pinto is a human being, by birth; a journalist and editor, by profession; a
trainer and teacher, by choice.
He has worked
in journalism since 1973; since 1983, full-time editing on the desk. He has
taught editing and print journalism at the Dept of Communication &
Journalism, Savitribai
Phule Pune
University (since 1987);
at Symbiosis (since 1990); and various institutions in Pune.
During
1973-83, he has variously:
- Worked on drought relief programs, in villages, as a full-timer;
- Taught adult literacy classes, in villages and slums;
- Worked in trade unions, with CITU;
- Taken science to the working people, with Lok Vidnyan Sanghatana, as a full-timer;
- Conducted teacher and principal training programs, as well as trustee empowerment programs, with Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana.
Any queries?
Personal email:
sangatizuzay@gmail.com
Email for the
MPE-17 course: editjoepinto@gmail.com
Land-line:
020-2563-4392, between 9 & 11pm.
Mobile &
WhatsApp: +91-94037-66122.