HARD FACTS ABOUT WRITING

“Every study of young writers I’ve done for the last twenty years has underestimated what they can do. In fact, we know very little about the human potential for writing.”—Donald Graves, a Fresh Look at writing (p.99). Writing is a powerful asset and a gift from God, it is used to spread and preserve messages, mysteries and information so that generations to come will still be able to access them. Writing helps us to document our views, events, visions, and dreams. As we crave for depths in writing, I will be sharing with us seven hard facts about writing. This for sure will not only change your writing skills but will empower your intellectual reservoir to explode with wonderful ideas. Once again I welcome you to the University of Writing, a world of reflective and inspiring initiatives and the universal city of creative thoughts. Do enjoy this literary adventure.

Hard fact one: WRITE with a SHARP PEN

A.    WRITE to:  Reveal, Inspire, Transform, Enlighten and or Empower

v W-write (as a writer you must write)

v R-reveal (what does your write ups reveal, good, bad, satiric etc)

v I-inspire (can your write ups inspire, motivate, stir, and encourage people?)

v T-transform (change attitude, people, paradigm, or convert for God and Good?)

v E-enlighten /empower. (Is your piece an eye opener, add to understanding or empower the mind?)

B.     Let your work be SHARP: i.e. let your write up speak, build and restore lost hope, be authentic, filled with appealing expressions (rhetoric) and passionate

Ø S-speak (pen speaks, what has your pen been saying?)

Ø H-hope (the language of your pen should be able to build and restore lost hope)

Ø A-authenticity (can people depend on what you are writing? Is it valid, convincing and suitable?)

Ø R-rhetoric (your expression, style) Attempts to develop and assert a personal writing style. Produces writing that includes memorable words and phrases, Uses rhythm, rhyme, alliteration and other "sound" effects appropriately and read extensively.

Ø P-passion (do you write with passion?) Craze or zeal

C.     Your PEN: must be Precise, Enthusiastic and Novel (are you writing with a pen?)

ü P-precision (is your pen accurate, truthful: make research, read and pray before penning down any thing)

ü E-enthusiasm (do you write with interest, gusto, enjoyment)

ü N-novelty (be original, be new, be creative, be unique) Produces writing that shows evidence of originality and uniqueness. If you copy form one person that plagiarism but if you copy from two persons it’s called research

Hard fact two: Writers are leaders in print

Hard fact three: The voice of the pen sound louder than the use of microphone

Hard fact four: Don’t write to make impression, but write to engrave impact

Hard fact five: Leave a pedigree and not just with a degree

Hard fact six: Discover the soft spot of your audience

Hard fact seven: Solve problems with your pen and don’t create one

Stop the T.H.I.E.F

An examination insight

Examinations are the test of knowledge or ability. It is a test designed to assess somebody's ability or knowledge in a particular subject or field. Examination times are critical period in the lives of students as every one falls back to their study room, to God or to brilliant students for aid. Tutorial and peer study are important at these times and seasons. According to Charles Colton (1780 - 1832) a British clergyman and writer, he said Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer. And these makes people go extra mile in there study. From a research conducted recently I have discovered five elements of the examination THIEF and I want to share this with you briefly. 

T – TIME: Time when spent cannot be redeemed, have you planed your time for this season? There are several  thieves of time, some of them are gossip; conversation about the personal details of other people's lives, whether rumor or fact, especially when malicious, others are watching of films, listening to music, reading of novels instead of your academic books, playing of games etc these in themselves seem good but are thieves of time in disguise. 

H – HABITS: What are those habits you have been addicted to, to some it is sleep, some of you can sleep 12 hours a day “Sleep-maniac” you sleep your way through, some of you are glutton, you eat your way through, the fact is during examinations one have to cut down his or her meal, eat little quality food and sleep lees than 8 hours, you must learn to discipline your self. Try this for 21 days and it will become a habit.

I – IMAGINATIONS: To some you have built certain Walls based on certain things you have heard about your department or faculty, to some you have heard that no one graduates in your department, to some failing is now a norm and so you are trying very hard to adjust to that thinking system. You must not allow those thieves steal away your success. Develop a positive thinking system, create the success your want to feature in and live it. Some one said you are success on

E – ENVIRONMENT: Control your environment or else your environment will control you, our body system naturally loves pleasure and luxury. Create an environment conducive for learning, and involve all the necessary reading stimulating factors. Some enjoy reading while viewing the nature, discover yours and eliminate all the undesirables

F – FRIENDS: You have to be careful and choosy on the kind of friends you keep and go about with this season.  Disregard counsels of unnecessary fun, don’t attend all the programs you can, don’t visit all the friends you can, keep few focused friend who are success and academically inclined. Eliminate the thieves, some friend are thieves in disguise. You can succeed if you want to, according to Henry Ford (1863 - 1947) U.S. car manufacturer, he said if you think you can or think you can't you're probably right.

* Eliminate the thieves and make fear, failure and frustration an illusion. Don’t say you were not told. Stop the T.H.I.E.F now!

This piece was contributed by TOSIN OSEMEOBO You can book him FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT

 

   

BE-YONDER

Beyonder is a coinage I formed which means the ability to:  1. go beyond your limits 2, Go beyond the yonder, and 3, Become limitless even in the face of impending impossibilities, odds absurdity and depression, or go beyond yonder or the ability to astonish human expectations…

How impressionable and vulnerable in the face of stories we can be when we are only exposed to one sided reality of our changing paradigm, values and capacity for developments. I went through a mental shift in my perception of the mind, and how deep and rich in potentials we can be, when I realize people like me could transform their imaginative worlds of possibilities into realities and live in it. I came from a conventional middle class Nigerian family and my positive default position towards life as an African scholar gave me an edge in research and inspiring rhetoric. With the capacity for oratory regeneration constantly in my sub consciousness, I realized that influence is the ability not just to create mere impressions in the mind of people, but to make definitive impact in the existence of that person. Recently, I discovered a problem with many people and it’s called the “one eyed reasoning”. People who see things from only one point of view and build their whole existence on that view or perception, My inclination towards this myopic or  pigeonhole thinkers is not belligerent.  The problem with stereotypic minds is not that they are not true, but that they are incomplete, they make one view become the only face of reasoning this I call “mental pabulum”. We are building incredible resilience in people who will thrive despite the odds rather than because of it. Join our team today and become a BEYONDER:  go beyond your limits..., become limitless

Watch out for “ALL IT TAKES” a monthly mental empowerment seminal geared towards changing paradigms and attitudes that will launch you into the realms of creativity and transformation. BE-YONDER: beyond limits. Join us today +2348065611550

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF FEMALE EMPOWERMENT IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Women who are described as the most important but neglected agents of change are now being given prominence in development issues in the world and also in many sectors in Nigeria.  According to Boender (2002), the concept of empowerment is related to gender equality but distinct from it. The core of empowerment lies in the ability of a woman to control her own destiny  This implies that to be empowered, women must not only have equal capabilities (such as education and health) and equal access to resources and opportunities (such as land and employment), but they must also have the  kind of society that allows them  to use those rights, capabilities, resources, and opportunities to make strategic choices and decisions (such as is provided through leadership opportunities and participation in political, economic and social  institutions).

In Nigeria today the birth of a male child is greeted with more pomp and pageantry than that of a female child and one need to observe the half heated congratulations given to a woman at the birth of a female child particularly when the women in question has no male issue. There are still issues of withdrawing female students for marriage, for example in  several communities in Nigeria especially in the northern parts, early marriages of girls between the ages of 9 and 13 is still the norm; the preference of wanting to educate the boy child instead of the girl child is still a problem. Also there has been little, encouragement for more girls to aspire for carries in medicine, engineers and technology

The role of women in the society cannot be over emphasized. They play critical roles in almost every economic and social sphere of life. And for them to exercise their potentials, they must live without the fear of intimidation and violence. Because of the historical legacy of disadvantage women have faced, they are still all too often referred to as a vulnerable minority. In most countries, however, women are a majority, with the potential to catalyze enormous power and progress. The resilience and the contributions women make to their families, communities, and economies despite the constraints can not be emphasized. Although empowerment and equality should be enjoyed by all women and men, the believe is that three subpopulations of women must receive

• Poor women in the developing country like Nigeria and in countries that have achieved increases in national income but where poverty remains significant

• Adolescents, who constitute two-thirds of the population in the poorest countries and the largest cohort of adolescents in the world’s history. For Nigeria over 60 million of her populations are youth and one third of those populations are women.

• Women and girls in conflict and post conflict settings.

Prioritizing these groups is not intended to minimize the vulnerability and needs of other groups of women, but to emphasize that investments in these subpopulations are a priority for achieving immediate and long-term results in reducing poverty and improving national development in the country.

Women have the greatest needs. Investments in them will produce the greatest benefits. Gender inequalities tend to be greater among the poor than the rich, especially for inequalities in capabilities and opportunities World Bank (2001). Moreover, the well-being and survival of poor households depends disproportionately on the productive and reproductive contributions of their female members. Also, an increasing number of households are headed or maintained by women investing in the health, education, safety, and economic well-being of adolescents, especially adolescent girls, must also be a priority. Adolescence is a formative period, one of transition between childhood and adulthood. It is a time when interventions can dramatically alter subsequent life outcomes.

Proper avenue need to be created for female to contribute effectively in Nigeria, female should be helped to gain dignity as human in their own right, they must be educated so that they are not only aware of their right but also they can acquire the necessary skill and dignity to contribute effectively and efficiently to national development. The more women we have in key positions of decision making the greater will be the attention on women issues.

National development is the responsibility of all. it is only through ensuring the contribution of everyone that Nigeria can succeed in improving the quality of life for her citizens, women should be encourage to contribute their quota to the development of Nigeria as a nation

EDUCATION AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

Data from around the world show that increased education is associated with the empowerment of women (Grown 2003). Educated women are more effective at improving their own well-being and that of their family. They are better equipped to extract the most benefit from existing services and opportunities and to generate alternative opportunities, roles, and support structures. These empowering effects of women’s education are manifested in a variety of ways, including increased income-earning potential, ability to bargain for resources within the household, decision making, autonomy, control over their own fertility, and participation in public life.
These are strongly conditioned by such factors as level of economic development, depth of the labor market, and degree of gender stratification. The impact of women’s education is greater in settings that are already relatively egalitarian. Under such conditions even modestly educated women are more likely to participate in important family decisions, to work in nonfarm occupations, and to control economic resources.
However, the world is still far from achieving gender parity in enrollment and completion rates, particularly in secondary school. Worldwide, it is estimated that 54–57 percent of all out-of-school children are girls. In South Asia girls constitute two-thirds of all out of school children (UNESCO2004). There are two indicators for tracking progress toward gender parity in education: the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary, and tertiary education and the ratio of literate females to males ages 15–24.
Writers have identified four approaches that increase girls’ participation in primary school that can also be applied to secondary school. These strategies have all been effective in a variety of countries:

• Making girls’ schooling more affordable by reducing fees and offering targeted scholarships.
• Building schools close to girls’ homes, involving the community in school management, and allowing flexible scheduling.
• Making schools girl-friendly by improving the safety of schools, the design of facilities (such as latrines for girls), and instituting policies that promote girls’ attendance (such as permitting married adolescents to attend).
• Improving the quality of education by training more female teachers for the secondary level, providing gender-sensitive textbooks, and developing a curriculum for girls that is strong in math and sciences and that projects gender equality.

MAKING SCHOOLS AFFORDABLE
There are two ways to make school affordable for poor families:
By eliminating user fees and other school fees to reduce direct costs and by providing incentives to families to send their girls to school, for instance, through scholarships, take home rations programs, or other means.
Eliminating or substantially reducing school fees has resulted in increases in primary enrollment, particularly for girls. When free schooling was introduced in Uganda in 1997, primary school enrollment nearly doubled from 3.4 million to 5.7 million children, rising to 6.5 million by 1999. Total girls’ enrollment increased from 63 percent to 83 percent, while enrollment among the poorest fifth of girls rose from 46 percent to 82 percent (World Bank 2002). In Tanzania the elimination of primary school fees in 2002 resulted in additional enrollment of 1.5 million students (Coalition for Health and Education Rights 2002). Nigeria government can look into these examples to encourage more girls in schools.