One day, during a discussion about the human nature, a bookish individual asked me where I had read what I said. I ad-libbed an answer that became my catch phrase in similar circumstances: ?Life is in life before being in books!’

My readings aside – concerned with philosophy, to say nothing of science, in which I had developed a lively interest – one mental discipline was instrumental in acquiring the insights necessary to write about the human nature: self-observation. This discipline yielded self-knowledge that was relevant to this nature inasmuch as my individuality was human and my humanity universal. The verification of this relevance was to be performed first by myself, who could compare my thinking with that of experienced and educated minds before being published, then by readers, who no less than writers were the gatekeepers of truth.

Just as researchers, in pursuit of objectivity, tested the hypotheses of other researchers by means of their own experimentation, knowledge, and reasoning, readers could support or challenge my statements on the basis of their personal experiences, studies, and reflections.

These experiences and related reflections, like this experimentation and related reasoning, were of prime importance since they constituted a direct and intelligent grasp of reality, indispensable to the evaluation of theoretical thinking. Moreover, since time immemorial throughout the world, the direct and intelligent grasp of reality had been the heart of knowledge, without which studies could never have existed for want of a content. It even was the raw material behind the fanciful aspects of primitive knowledge, which included an array of projections, such as the act of ascribing human characteristics to universal forces.

Having said that, no one could know everything firsthand, from facts versus from statements. This was especially true as regards history and science. Their objects of study usually belonged to the distant past and were treated by historians who relied on a variety of olden archives and chronicles, or they belonged to the present but were often small or far in the extreme, open to observation by scientists who had special instruments like microscopes and telescopes at their disposal.

By contrast, in the field of philosophy, with particular reference to generalities derived from common realities, there was no excuse for subscribing blindly to the affirmations of others. One had the freedom, even the duty, to investigate them both empirically and rationally to estimate their level of conformity or applicability to these realities. In the end, one had to use one’s own judgment and form one’s own opinion, which was bound to disagree in some ways with other ones. Human limitations and fallibility were a source of relativity and oppositions.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I have always enjoyed writing. Sometimes it’s a problem for me to just sit down and write something. There are days when I choose “procrastinating” over “proactive.” Putting things off is common with everyone. I am very gifted in this area.

Here are 4 areas to focus on to jumpstart your next writing session.

* Concentration

* Preparation

* The First Word

* Use your notebook

Concentration:

There are way too many distractions. Cell phones ringing, blaring car alarms and unexpected visitors are just a few things that can disrupt your concentration. It then becomes easier to justify not writing today.

The best thing to do to encourage creative writing is to make it a ritual. Find a nice spot to write, maybe, in a quiet room in your home where you will be left undisturbed for a period of time. Set a time to work; a scheduled time to write. Stick to it.

Keep reference books and materials close to hand.

Focus on one idea at a time.

View your next writing session as an opportunity; an opportunity to do something you enjoy. It can be fun. And when you are having fun nobody ever has to tell you to “concentrate!”

Preparation

Once you have your topic: Google it. Read everything you can online and offline related to your idea. Search the net for testimonials, reviews and articles about your topic. Brainstorm related sub-topics.

Give it a rest. Let your subconscious mind percolate and play with the information you provided. Get some exercise. Some of my best ideas come to me while I am out walking around in the evening.

Getting Started

Where to begin? That blank page staring back can be intimidating.

Just dive right in there!

Type the word “The.”

Type the next word (the first thing that pops into your mind) and the next word.

At this point, quality is not important. You just want to create a “flow” where the words come easily.

Don’t stop to edit. Save all your corrections for the second draft. Resist the impulse to rewrite. That will only interrupt the flow and is another way to avoid the task at hand.

If you are like me you will have a 2nd, third and fourth draft. You have to get your first draft completed before your have anything to rewrite! Stay focused.

Carry a Notebook

As a creative writer, you will be “hit” by odd ideas and notions in the oddest of places.

Maybe you are stuck in traffic or brushing your teeth when inspiration strikes.

You could wake from a dream and have a killer idea.

” I’ll remember that.” We say to ourselves, but when next we write there is no access to that memory file.

Just use a notebook. Jot those things down as they come to you. It only takes a moment.

Capture all your of your ideas as they transpire. Who knows? One of them may be the “Next Big Thing!”

-David Parton
Copyright 2005

Popularity: 18% [?]

Today, is as good as any to give you a real B-I-G challenge.
I know you can do it, but you will need to put some energy
and your mind into this one. And, of course, your pen.

Let’s go ahead and dive in…

This is a journaling exercise to learn to write in an
“autobiographic voice.” Okay, you want to know what is an
autobiographic voice. Fair question. Let’s begin by
defining voice. Our voice is the way you choose to express
yourself either verbal or written. A voice comprises of
tone, attitude, choice of words, and the person’s point of
view.

There are various types of voices. Each voice comprises of
numerous elements and each as unique as DNA. You can use an
encouraging voice to build your creative self. Or a
judgmental voice to assess an issue. Or, use a voice of
history, like Alex Haley, to speak to future generations, or
Martin Luther King’s, “I have a dream” speech. Voices in
writing come from your feelings at the time recorded. Voice
expresses your message and in turn determines your audience,
even if the audience is only you.

Expressing our autobiographic voice in writing is different
than other voices because you are writing in the “every-
moving present.” Autobiographic writing is in retrospect.
It is a voice of recollection in which you look back at your
memories and use them to tell the story of your life. You
are the main character with goals and desires. Your
autobiography is the story of those desires, of what you
wanted, how you struggled and what you learned in the
process.

Let’s take this process one step at a time…

Step 1: First you need to access a memory. Just for fun,
return to your earliest memory as a child. For me, it was
when I was four years old. Place yourself in a particular
place and date. Can you remember the date? Was there music
playing somewhere? What about smells? Was Mama cooking?
Were there any body memories? I remember having a scraped
knee, I could see and feel the band-aid, but I don’t
remember the fall.

During this step, my first preference is to write one or two
word details. You could complete this in a list format or
continuous with comma separations. As you begin to return
to that particular point, and as the smallest, largest
details pop up, and the details continue, the list will grow
and the memory will grow stronger.

Memories aren’t hard to remember, they just get placed in
storage box. It’s like going up into grandma’s attic,
finding the right box, and then opening it. As you pull
from the top, the next appear but not until the top one
goes. You will want to continue going through the box until
its empty.

If the childhood memory is too vague, use one that is
stronger, or maybe there is a picture somewhere in the scrap
album you can revisit. You can use your wedding day, or a
birth, graduation, or some other particular period or date.

Step 2: Continue adding more and more items that are
uncovered in the box as you begin to pull things out. Even
if all you can pull out are fragments. Even if need to add
blanks for missing names or other gaps. Use all your senses
to make the memory come alive, both in your mind, and on
paper. You can even interview a parent about your memory
and include their feedback in a small dialogue illustration.

Keep the writing in the present tense. Nevertheless, don’t
panic if you accidentally write in the past tense.
Sometimes that is the only way I can get the thought on
paper. If that occurs, don’t stop after writing in the past
tense. Rewrite the sentence or paragraph in the present
tense. This is a good way to practice anyway. Remember,
present tense means: as if you are actually right there at
that time.

As you progress through the memory, you will discover that
your early perceptions and your mature perspective will
overlap. This occurs because the memory is about the past
as seen from the present with all the insight and
perspective that time inflicts.

You can also choose to address a conflict memory for this
exercise. Conflict memories many times form major themes in
journals, especially relationships that need tending, issues
you need to confront or change in your inner self, for
instance spirituality. These are all loose ends that need
tidying up. And journaling through it is a great way to
heal and forgive.

Step 3: Use real experiences with real people. Don’t play
make believe with the people or places. If there are blanks
at the time you write, leave space. Continue building as
the memory expands. Tidbits will appear from the darnedest
places and triggers.

Also know, that it is easy to take a particular memory and
transfer it into a structured framework, like an article.

Keep expanding the memory in additional journal entries.
Add dialogue or humor. As children, we see things as
mysteries. Was there missing information that looked like a
mystery before? Can you ask someone what their memory is?
Ask after you finished flushing your memory so it doesn’t
influence yours.

At some point, usually when you are tired of deepening, or
the memory feels closed, you will want to stop and reflect
how this changed your life or other people’s lives involved.
Are there any special connections between then and now?

Okay, I did give you a warning; this isn’t an objective for
the weak. Autobiographic voice writing is an exercise that
can bring exceptional value to your current life. It isn’t
a dump and go journaling exercise. Over the years, the
results of this exercise have oozed into speeches and
presentations, shared stories to my children and siblings,
and found their way into many conversations, books, and
articles. You, too, will find yourself having the same
experience.

(c) Copyright 2005, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Over the years, Chinese were evolved and developed in the following different ways:

Pictographs

The original written format were found on the markings scratched onto tortoise shells and animal bones, the so-called “oracle bones”. These ancient writings were pictures or Pictographs.

Many people tend to think that Chinese characters are all pictographs. Actually, pictographic characters are only one kind of Chinese character, there are only about 600 pictograph characters.

Pictographic Chinese characters are pictures of concrete objects, they are the basic units for forming other Chinese characters.

These are a few examples showing the pictographic characters:

山 Mountain ; 羊 sheep ; 月 moon

Ideographs

As time went on and people needed to express more complex ideas or concepts, pictographs were extended or combined to form ideographs. Ideographs are graphical representations of abstract ideas.

For example:

a sun 日 and a moon 月 together means ‘bright’ 明

a woman 女 and with a child 子 beside means ‘good’ 好

The single character ? stands for a tree, two trees together ? refers to a group of trees-grove
the character made up of three trees ? means a place full of trees – a forest
Phonetic-Semantic Compounds

Over 90% of current Chinese characters are semantic-phonetic compounds.

There are many objects, abstract and ideas that are difficult to express through Pictographs or Ideographs.

For example, 鸟 is the general term for birds, but there are thousands of types of birds in the world, and it is impossible to differentiate each of them by way of pictography or ideography. But this is easily achieved in phonetic-semantic compounds by adding different phonetics to the radical 鸟, e.g. 鸽 ( pigeon ), 鹊 ( crane ), 鸡 ( chicken ) or 鹅 ( goose ).

A phonetic compound consists of a semantic radical and a phonetic radical, the semantic radical indicates its semantic field and the phonetic radical its pronunciation.

The meaning component of the semantic-phonetic compound Chinese character is also called the ‘radical’. For example, ‘ 足 ‘ is a popular Chinese radical that means ‘foot’. The meanings of those characters that contain this radical are related to ‘foot’ in a certain way.

The phonetic component indicates at least part of the sound. Characters that contain the same phonetic component tend to have similar sounds.

For example, for the character ‘ 跳’ ( jump ), the right part ‘ 兆’ indicates the sound. They share the same vowel.

Phonetic Loans

The phonetic loan is another way of using existing characters. It is an internal borrowing on the basis of pronunciation: a character is used in a new meaning which is expressed by a similar sound in the spoken form. In this way an existing character has acquired a new meaning, but no new character is created.

For example, the character自in the Oracle-Bone Inscriptions was originally pictograph and referred to the nose, but it is now used in the sense of “self” as a result of phonetic loan. The character 来 in the Oracle-Bone Inscriptions was also a pictograph, referring to the wheat, but is now used in the sense of “come” as a phonetic loan.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Technical Writing in India: Is it as good as anywhere else?

Technical Writing generally translates to a piece of writing that conjures up an image in the mind of a layman about any device or software application.

In other words, the job profile of a technical writer involves writing and designing user guides, brochures and white papers for a plethora of products.

Though these procedures are not new, their categorisation under the term “Technical Writing” is quite recent. The latest entrant in the software field is not a whiz kid from IIT, but might be a journalist or an English literature graduate. This option is here to stay, what with India slowly accepting the prospect of technical writing as a full-fledged career at par with more popular contenders.

Now, the Indian technical writing scenario would seem very bleak for an onlooker who doesn’t delve deeper into the layers. This field was practically unknown till the 1990s. Tata Consultancy Services was a pioneer in creating a need for the current crop of technical wordsmiths.

Over a decade old, this profession does not have many takers, but does boast of a strong following in the various metros. In Bangalore the number is believed to be 500-600. Even by an optimistic view, the number of technical writers across the nation would be approximately 6000. These statistics prove that, corporate bosses and the software industry as a whole recognized the need for a specialized documentation team very lately.

The technical writing job has long come out of the confines of being a strict documentation-related activity. In some organisations, technical writers are asked to pitch in for test case development, product testing, creating API code, creating java documentation etc.

More recently, a technical writer has grown to don the garb of a graphic designer, web-content developer etc. Since a technical background is not a prerequisite for a technical writer, many writers foray into the field even with a Humanities background.

The one and only criterion, going by the current Indian standards, would be a firm grasp over the Queen’s language and a strong analytical mind. The prevalent need, is however to meet International standards in English usage. US companies recognise the need for a trained technical writer and that adds to the hiring and training impetus for technical documentators.

The US provides a lot of scope and opportunities for training and specialized study of the subject. In comparison, Indian universities shy away from offering unconventional and lesser-known courses aka Technical writing. The technical writers, who already exist in the industry having created a golden niche, are fast emerging as the “trainers” for this career option. Some of the Indian universities like the Calicut University and the Mumbai University have woken up to this profession and have included the subject in their curricula.

This trend, may give the Technical Writing profession the impetus it requires. The final recruiters, Corporates, MNCs need to step in boldly to hire and provide customized training to fresh technical writers.

This might beckon the golden dawn for Technical Writing in India!

Copyright ? – Nithya K

Popularity: 10% [?]