by Laura Lai/
Essay
What are the ‘problems’
in writing? A ‘problem’ is usually a difficulty. And difficulties we may come
across in all subjects of study, in all fields of activity, and in all aspects of life. This course – Academic and Business Writing, generously provided by Berkeley, University of California – considers ‘problems in writing’ the following: basic grammar
problems; having trouble finding ideas to write about (getting started);
organizing clearly the ideas; not having a rich vocabulary to express ideas, or
others (not mentioned above). What are my strengths and weaknesses in writing
from this point of view?
Simple questions are usually the most difficult to answer. There are exceptions, too. Here is one simple question that many people find easy to answer: ‘Would you marry me?’ This is a simple question, with an easy and short answer, followed by the complexity of marriage, the difficulties, and the learning of ‘being married.' So is with the language: usually, a beautiful learning journey when dealing with its complexity, a healthy and spiritual experience, and culturally enriching when learning its writing and speaking difficulties, its grammar rules, and the exceptions to the rules.
Self-assessment is hard and I am not
sure about the extent to which it is objective because there are people that
are indulgent with their writing and others more severe with the way they
write. In which concerns me, I objectively think that I have the least difficulty
with finding a topic to write about and with the clear organization of my
thoughts and arguments afterward.
After having studied all foreign
languages I know with the exercise book in one hand, and pen and pencil in the
other, and after having studied four years of Political Sciences in English
(mostly with American visiting professors), I do not allow myself to make ‘basic
grammar’ mistakes. But, objectively speaking, everyone does. This includes native
speakers, too. It usually happens when the writer is tired or had twisted the
same sentence over and over that got to the meaning it wanted and skipped some
easy typos. That is the reason why it is advisable that all writers leave the
text aside for a while and reread it later with a pair of fresh eyes.
Furthermore, I think I have a
rich-enough vocabulary to write and speak about lots of topics in English.
However, I find descriptions and literary comparisons to require an even larger
vocabulary. There may be many ways to tackle this writing problem. One way I am
considering is the larger exposure to the language, such as living in an
English-speaking country, interacting in English, and being surrounded by the
language in all its forms: written and spoken, formal and informal, local and
regional expressions, etc. – all these can make writing even more precise,
and it can confer it any funny dimension the writer wants to.
But, to me, the
most difficult in the process of learning English was the phrasal verbs. It is
about these verbs such as ‘to call’: call for, call in, call off, call on, call
out, call up and call upon. Or, the verb ‘to go’: go on, go off, go over, go round,
go through, go under, go without, etc.
What is the history of phrasal
verbs in English? Who put this difficulty in the way of our beautiful language
journey? Is it Shakespeare? No, it cannot be. If it were Shakespeare, they
would have been a tragedy, but phrasal verbs are not, they are doable, and they are
workable. It must be Thomas Paine! From here, the possible ‘pain’ to struggle dealing with phrasal verbs! J Obviously, I am joking!
I noticed that for native speakers phrasal verbs come naturally when they speak. Therefore, it is through listening to a lot and carefully (and checking the dictionary at times) that I have gotten accustomed to most of them – those most commonly used. However, it looks like an endless process, because I still write a phrasal verb down when I hear it. I also noticed that phrasal verbs' incidence is higher in spoken English than in academically written papers. And I concluded that this may happen because their usage is more informal than formal. Anyway, phrasal verbs are a part of learning to write and speak a language and I do not neglect them.
Another
difficulty in writing concerns American and British English.
Personally, I would not call this a ‘problem’, because I consider not knowing
the language a problem, rather than mixing some words of two countries that
have a long common history. During this course, we have also been reminded that
it is preferable to use American English when addressing ourselves to an
American audience and to use British English when addressing ourselves to a
British audience. Obviously, for Americans and for the British things are very
clear which is what. For those of us who learn English as a foreign language,
we only come across short lists of words written differently for the same
meaning. For example, ‘lorry’ (British English) is for the American ‘truck’;
or, ‘dust bin’ is ‘garbage’ in American English, etc. Fortunately, so far I
only come across Americans that love to spot a word in British English and say
joyfully: ‘This is British! Here we don’t fly over, but we overpass.’ In daily
conversations with people, it never occurred to me to notice it as being
perceived as a ‘problem’. Whether it is such a big written sin, I think it is
subjectively decided by each and every person from the audience. If it were an
issue, I still consider exposure to both languages (through reading, listening, and discussing) as a helping tool to improve writing from this point of view.
To sum up,
writing difficulties may differ depending on the level of the language we are in, and on whether or not we are native speakers. Despite the fact that
self-assessment is hard, I consider having fewer difficulties with getting
started to write and with organizing my ideas. In my English learning process,
I found the phrasal verbs to be the most difficult because one change of a
preposition may change the entire meaning of the sentence. For example, ‘pass
by a house’ (to pass near it) and ‘pass away in a house’ (to die in it) – are very different
meanings just by changing one small preposition!
It is with passion, motivation to
perfect the language learning, and great exposure to a language, such as living
in an English-speaking country and interacting in English that lots of
difficulties in writing English may be overcome.
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