By Syarmine El Batrisyia
GOMBAK, 14 November 2021: Writing is a learned craft and not an art, New Sunday Times weekly columnist and a veteran journalist, Mr. Rohiman Haroon told IIUMToday journalists in a two-hour session on Opinion Writing.
“If you tell me there is someone who is a natural writer, it’s a false premise. I can tell you no one is a natural writer, he said.
Enlightening the participants on what it takes to be a good opinion writer, Mr. Rohiman emphasised the prerequisite traits that are considered necessary – observant, inquisitive, resourceful and anticipate.
“Being observant is someone who pays a lot of attention to things and notices more about them than most people do,” he said.
Needless to say that a reporter and a writer must have this trait of being inquisitive, meaning to inquire, to research, and to ask questions, always eager for knowledge, intellectually curious, sometimes to the extent of prying.
“Being resourceful is the ability to overcome problems and to overcome any possible problems that might arise. While anticipate means to give advance thought and to foresee what’s going to happen next.”
He said, “In opinion writing you are allowed to have your biases. So, in opinion writing you need to forget about being objective sometimes.”
Mr. Rohiman also stressed that before writing an opinion piece, writers have to be honest to avoid unnecessary backlashes.
“Before you write, you have to check your intention, read and check the background of the topic that you want to do, he remarked.
Therefore, while writing a piece, intention and motive must be given a serious thought to avoid misleading the readers.Â
He urged the participants not to be apologetic in writing an opinion piece because “it’s your opinion piece, it’s your voice, of course it will be biased, but not to the extent of being prejudiced.”
However, his advice to the participants is “to avoid pomposity, self-importance, grandiosity, pretension, narcissism and vanity”.
“Also, it’s important for writers to avoid red herrings meaning deliberately misleading, diverting attention from truths,” he added.
The secret to good writing, he stressed, is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. “Discard words that serve no function and avoid using long words and sentences. Avoid all adulterants that weaken the strength of sentence.”
He further said that clear thinking becomes clear writing where one can’t exist without the other. “A mystifying sentence causes a reader to be disinterested to continue reading.”
Touching on the style of writing, he said the style is about identity – who the writer is. “Readers would want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine. They would notice if you are putting on airs or to impress, so the fundamental rule is to be yourself.”
He therefore reminded the participants to be the first to pitch based on reader’s needs and wants. It is best that the writer understands the target audience.
On the principle of unity, Mr. Rohiman explained that this refers to the sway of prose in terms of approach and the mode. “Unity is the anchor of good writing that satisfies reader’s subconscious need for order.”
For example, in unity of pronoun, writers must ask if they are going to write in the first person (as a participant) or in the third person (as an observer). And for unity in tense, he called on the participants to ask if the writing is going to be in the past tense or the present tense.
In the case of the unity of mood, he said, writers need to think whether it’s going to be casual, conversational or formality.
The news training session was aimed to provide exposure to the students on opinion writing to enhance their writing skills.
Held on Saturday (13 November) via Google Meet, it was attended by 40 participants and officiated by the portal’s editor, Mr. Aznan Mat Piah. It was hosted by its student managing editor, Luqman Hakim. ***