Linguistics – Penfluky

Writing 101 : the beginning, middle and the end!

What’s writing? Looking at it deeply, writing is translating thoughts into words. Fitting these words, framing them into something that exactly means what your mind imagines, is exactly what writing it! Be it a tweet, a Facebook post, a script or a tagline, it is useless if it doesn’t translate your thoughts. But are there any ways to make this translation beautiful and understandable exactly as meant?

Fundamental Form of any writing:

That is why we need to understand how to write. Let’s not discuss what type of content we are writing about, because if we get to specifics, we cannot formulate writing at all. The simple and basic form for any writing is to have three parts in the body. An introduction, body and the conclusion. This is as simple as any writing in the world goes.

Introduction

Now you can add whatever you want, headers, headings, footers, or even dissect an article into multiple topics, but, there is always a beginning, a middle and the end. The introduction, or the beginning is something that makes you explain to the reader what the body of the text is going to be. You bring your readers to familiar grounds, make them understand what is the context here.

For scholarly articles, there is an abstract you write as a summary or a brief wording to make every reader understand the entire context. But in an introduction you don’t need to brief what you are going to write, but just begin it with the existing world, the familiar ground and then lift it to the unknown world, or the actual thought of your mind.

Body

Middle part is the most necessary part for writing. If you mess up the middle part, there is no understanding at all. The entire matter becomes irrelevant. Make sure that you slowly shift from the introduction to the actual matter that you want to write. And you need to do that in a very smooth way that the level of understanding shouldn’t be jerked or spiked anywhere.

The middle part is the space for you to explore and make sure that your thoughts are put in the right words. Now what are these right words and wrong words? The thing is, language allows misunderstandings and misinterpretations! To avoid misunderstandings, write as objective as possible, avoiding all the ambiguities.

Ambiguity is something like a vague statement which can mean multiple things. Like if you shouted “Call me a cab” you might be called a cab instead. Ok, that was lame, but that’s how language has gaps for ambiguity and you have to avoid vague statements in all cases. Say you were writing a script and your character scratches his head and grins while touching a scar on his head, it gives a different message.

But if you write the same scene as a character just grinning, you convey less information and the body-language of the character is left for the audience to figure out. Is he standing still and grinning? Is he dancing at the pole and grinning? The specifics! Only specifics help you convey what you want.

Conclusion

The conclusion is necessary unless you aim to continue the write-up sometime else and keep on extending it. Every write-up should be conclusive and this conclusion must be an inference of the introduction and the body. Treat the introduction as one premise and the body as another. Conclusion is something that is related and is inferred through the two premises.

If the conclusion is not in the premises and goes way beyond the premise, stating something else, it is an inconclusive write-up. The reader will not understand your write-up if it doesn’t explain what the middle part says about. One can safely say that without a conclusion, i.e, an expression of the matter (middle), body and introduction become useless.

Wrap up

Sometimes, you are bound with words, like a technical article or just a tweet. Then you have to understand that you can not take much time to establish your context in the beginning, explain it in the middle and conclude by ending it without ambiguity. All you have to do is make use of your words carefully.

When you have to tweet only a specific number of characters, each word should convey more information and on the whole, even being fewer words, it should convey as much as a full article or whatever your thought is. If it is a script, you can leave ambiguities wantedly if you want the director to figure it out showing them visually.

But if your writing is for the common readers to understand your thoughts as you write them and not as some visual, you definitely need to follow this form. This form is not a rule, but it is a mere tenet that eerie writing must adhere to. Even if you discredit it, you will still be following the form involuntarily.

There is always a beginning, a middle and an end in every form of content. That is exactly why you should be doing it better as it is unavoidable either way.

A writer and writings, a comprehensive affair

It is not so hard to write. All it takes to write is a mere will to write. The words start flowing, the letters start pairing up; making sentences. But what makes a sentence more than just readable? If one is a writer or if one is an enthusiast or an avid reader, it is no surprise to wonder what makes certain writings so attractive? How can some writings speak more than the words written? Now, that’s what makes the distinction between great writing and average writing.

But it is a fact that when one is writing, they should not be bothered about the gradations and ranks of their level of writing. They should be worried about conveying what they want to write in a way that it is best understood. It’s all about how one writes the ‘what’ they write, and in a way that it is understood the way it is intended.

A writer can worry about the language later, it is the idea that acts as a soul of any writing. It is only common to see some writings that appear grammatically sound but speak nothing. These writings have complicated terminology that suits the likes of the elite, the classy terms. But when one cuts into the body of this content, there is no soul. There is no idea behind these sugarcoated words.

The content that a writer writes can be anything. It can be an underwear brand that the writer writes for, it is nothing inferior. No subject is inferior when it comes to writing. If one is writing about underwears, they must not make it sound inferior. It’s a necessary thing that we all wear, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Similarly, there are many subjects writers feel ashamed and stop doing their jobs to describe them better.

Take ‘anarchy’ for example, or in the modern-day, a ‘feminist’ is turning into a negative term. It is the writer that should take the blame for not describing the term correctly, or defending the negative use of the term. The writer takes the job without understanding the power held. What is written is never forgotten. It’s an idea that a writer implants into brains through letters and words.

It is not a mere sugarcoated paragraph that one writes. It’s a seed that can create a tree of thoughts giving birth to different seeds in the reader’s mind. Never forget that it is the idea that is before the presentation. Presentation is equally important too. It is a mutual dependency. Without an idea, even a fantastic presentation appears soulless. And without a proper presentation, the idea appears raw and naked.

We have reached a point, that we don’t like things naked. Even if we did, we would never agree. The first instinct at the sight of the naked is to close one’s eyes regardless of their feelings towards the visual. Such is the scenario of an idea without an adequate presentation. Think of the presentation as ‘idea presented in as understandable and as acceptable to common mind’.

We might have the urge to write something unacceptable, but if one desires a reader to comprehend the writing. The compromise of writing in a common language happens. If the reader is not a concern, if it is a journal that one writes; only then can one be excused for the crime of writing something incomprehensible.

Write to speak; to communicate. We always have our personal diaries to write things that only we understand.

Our rectangles are different

Object, object… object! Remember what an object is—an object some item, some ‘thing’, some being, something with existence. If an object is an existence, a man is an object; a woman is an object. What is man? A thing that has a penis, but gay people have a penis, a penis doesn’t make a man. Okay, the appearance of gay is man, gay is the man. Man is a man, and gay is man, so man is not a penis. Man is a mere abstract concept of appearance, just words!

Concept, the concept is something that is a widely accepted idea. The idea that is spread and I guess it doesn’t need to be widely accepted. An idea is a concept? Then why do we call it a concept? Maybe the context differs. The context! The context of things changes words that we use and meanings that the words mean. So, context, context is important!

“Fuck you” I yell in a comedy situation, and people begin to laugh. Context! “Fuck you” in a rather angry scene makes people thrash me. Context! How to put this? Sentence? Word? Phrase? Rhetoric? I have these recurring thoughts! Context! Subject! Idea! Abstract! These words that run in my head. Imaginations, the thoughts, the desire, the context! I think of pictures, my thought, pictures! I think pictures and visuals.

The visuals of the things that I see, the pictures they appear in my head. My head gives me words, I arrange words to describe the pictures that I see in my head! The visuals! I’m explaining the visuals in my head in a grammatical form to make others understand! Understanding, understanding is crucial for communication. For communication, we need common words.

Common words we assign common meaning. It doesn’t make sense to have different meanings! Meaning! Meaning is a concept that we give to the visual we have in our brain! I assign this visual of a structure in my mind as a rectangle. But are you thinking of a rectangle, when I use the word rectangle? Thinking! Thinking differs, you hear my words, you don’t see my visuals! My visuals are for me!

How can I show you my visuals? Only through mere translations! Translation of those visuals into words! Words that we assign meaning to the visuals. Meaning, the abstract concept of shared understanding. So it is possible of misunderstanding! Misunderstanding, because the word you give to your visual might be different from mine. Even when the words are shared, our visuals are different.

The rectangle is titled 45 degrees in my visuals. It might be the visual I refer to whenever I imagine a rectangle. But for you, it might be a shape that is on the board drawn by your teacher! Our rectangles have similar attributes, but our rectangles are different! Communications, language and understanding are flawed and create miscommunication and misunderstanding too. But language is the closest victory that we have to communicate. It is flawed, but it is successful, the damages are collateral!

I have put my hand on my keyboard, write! Write in a way… in a form.. in a structure.. understandable structure. But structure destroys! Destroys the visual that is in my head! Can I break the structure? Is a broken structure understandable? My visual explained in the phrase is adjusted! My visual explained in words, words that mean something. Some common attribute, some common understanding. And no form. No sentence form, mere thought! Mere visual, mere word! Read the word! Reading the words create understanding rather than distortion! Oh, the distortion is a diversion, the message! And the message is being sent.

Sent to your mind, you understand me! You understand me more without a form if you see through the words! The words are mere masks, the form -a mere romance, the words are beautiful when they are understood in the same way that they are meant! For that, we need no form, of course, form – beautiful but form is censored. The words that create visuals! The sentences that direct your visuals to appropriate translations. If we did those if we told in a way to communicate our visuals rather than words. We mean a lot, we mean exact! The exact is understood and never misunderstood! Ah, our rectangles will be the same with specifics! Specificity increases and details a visual. Visualise better, explain detailed and our rectangles might just become the same!

The call for chaos! – Anarchism as a civilized ideology!

By – Manoj Sri Harsha

The word Anarchy derives from the Greek words ‘an’ and ‘arkhos’, meaning ‘without a leader/ruler’. The word Anarchy is frequently abused, and the abuse is evident throughout the history of rulers and governments. It’s looked upon as chaos! A state with no rulers, no law and order are usually called Anarchy. But that’s not what it is! Anarchy doesn’t mean the absence of law; it just means the absence of a ruler.

Anarchism as an ideology is that we don’t need an authority to govern over us. It is the recognition of each individual’s right to govern themselves without having any masters over them. Law exists in Anarchy, and the judicial system exists; it’s just the government that is being opposed by the anarchists. Most of the philosophers since the 20th century have reached a point where it’s now clear that humans can’t be generalised. The essence of one human cannot be the essence of the other. Each human has their own essence created through experience and intuition. One cannot give a set of rules or morals that will be universally accepted by everyone equally. The idea that a group of people can have the same opinions is just a myth. Every one of us differ in perception. Then what’s the point of having the same rules and same rulers?

One might hate marriage, and one might hate the idea of pre-marital sex, can you collectively pass a moral upon them satisfying both of them? Given a thought, why should you meet them if your ideology differs from both of them? Maybe you are celibate! It’s almost a fact that no one agrees. We are different! And that’s precisely where socialism and even democracy fail. In a democracy, only the person elected by the majority of people is a leader of all the people. Then how is democracy respecting the opinion of others who voted for someone else? It’s erroneous!

But if someone tells you that Anarchism is the resolution, it is not! But it is the utopia we can imagine. It is something we can consider to create a society. Socialism failed to be a society, but without socialism, we would never have many of the human rights and worker rights. Similarly, Anarchism if established, it assumes all the people to be aware of their freedom and create their own set of morals and live individually without causing any harm to the lives of others. It’s naive to assume that everyone will be willing to create their own morals. It’s also too dumb to believe there won’t be any crime and people will behave responsibly. We have come too far and have already complicated our lives. Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre calls the people who use religious and other excuses for not creating their own morals as “Bastards!”. But in reality, we do surrender ourselves to ideologies and religions and use them as excuses for not being moral. We can’t presume everyone to be accountable for themselves. Hence, the requirement of law and order is even more significant in an anarchist society.

Our history tells us how societies were formed and then rebelled against, destroyed, and upon the graveyard of dead civilisations, rose new rule. Monarchy failed, imperialism failed, socialism failed, and now democracy is at its verge of being a total disaster. All the systems that failed were because of a rebellion by people that got suppressed. Democracy too, is containing the rights and opinions of people. Foundation of democracy is to generalise some ideology followed by the majority of its people. Suppressing natural drives of humans has never been a good idea. Generalising morals suppress the very natural instincts of humans and make them feel squeezed in a tight box. Now we don’t need new pillars on the broken foundation called democracy. We need no pillars at all! They are proven to be fallible however! The fundamental human nature, chaos is what we need. All these years and sometimes we wonder we were better in a cave with no consciousness. But we are conscious, evolved, and civilised! We can still be owners of ourselves and be moral, accountable and responsible for our lives.

Democracy has never been a people’s rule. Who have we been ruling? Our dogs and cats? Not even them! Democracy is a bitter gourd that has heavily been sugar-coated. The reek of this failed social construct calls for chaos!

Here’s how an overrating ideology masks off the best – Gems lost in crowd

By – Manoj Sri Harsha

“That is overrated bro!” I mean the term ‘overrated’ itself, has been overused since a very long time. It’s used primarily to refer to art. “That song is overrated!” but is it factually overrated? Is being overrated even a fact?

To rate something, that is to score your opinion on it. Your opinion is subjective, hence the ‘rate’ of something is not a fact. That overrated show you hate is just a myth because you haven’t watched it and you can’t rate it without watching it. The word you are looking for is ‘attention’. “That show didn’t grab my attention” is what you must use instead of ‘overrated’.

About attention, the use of overrated has been overused since the digitalisation of movies and shows. The digital promotions of a piece of art are being misused too. The makers produce the product so much that people already know what it is through the advertisements. They already form an opinion on that show/movie looking at the ad. They rate it in their minds, and when they see people excited upon it, they conclude that it is overrated!

The excessive advertisements create a repulsion among particular crows of people who see themselves above ‘media manipulation’. They think themselves as ‘woke’ from the world of deception and manipulation. They understand how promotions brainwash people to consume the product. They grow repulsive towards something that is excessively promoted. This ‘woke’ crowd are against the herd mentality. It is when all the group of people belonging to the same opinions, behave similarly with no thought of their own, but with the influence of peers.

We, ourselves, must have felt this repulsion towards many popularly rated products. Sometimes an excellent product is pushed away by disgust, because of its excess advertisements. Many great movies and shows have suffered this. They get promoted heavily, and the promotion calls the no-brainer herd towards them and repels the woke individuals. Many shows/movies were supposed to be for the awakened individuals only, and the herd who rushed for its promotional grandeur hate the piece for not being able to comprehend it.

Westworld is one such show that fell victim for such helpless scenario. It was heavily promoted and kept away individuals who hate ads. It attracted the herd, and they rated it poorly for its incomprehensible content; Years later, the individuals who gave it a chance begun following it, but the show still is under the radar, forgotten by many. A masterpiece that had lost all the attention it needed.

We regularly see Netflix promoting mediocre content as a magnum opus. We also observed the herd going gaga over it and dancing over it. There is this new show called Dark, which might fall victim to this overrated syndrome as Westworld did. It has a universal content; it attracts the woke and is understandable for the herd. It is being promoted excessively by the crowd, and it had already started repelling many. Will it withstand the over promotions and stay safe from the overrated tag?

I suggest all the so-called woke individuals follow their instincts and stop being judgemental without even tasting the fruit. Any art is made with a lot of thought and effort. An art form like film/shows takes multiple craftsmen working for days and months. Don’t judge them too soon, even if it’s wrong, leave it be for the crowd. Just because something is being hailed by the herd, doesn’t mean that it is a no-brainer.

I suggest all the herd to stop obsessing and drooling all over the things you like. It’s okay to celebrate it; it’s okay to form your own theories, but with your obsession, you are disgusting. To obsess is to lose one’s brain. It’s for your own health that you should not encourage your obsessions. You’ll also repel many of your friends by continuously talking about the things you like. If you want someone to watch/like something you like, tell them about it and give them their own space to explore it. They have to explore it like you did, to like it. If you force someone to experience it, it just will be remembered as a forceful experience.

Let’s not overrate anything; let’s explore many arts and art forms without clouding our judgements with our opinions. Let’s form a conclusion only after experiencing it entirely, and only then shall we rate!

ETYMOLOGY OF ‘TIFFIN’

If you live in Asian countries neighbouring India, then you’d have definitely heard this word ‘Tiffin’. Tiffin refers to a light snack or tea snack in South India. In the other parts of India, it refers to meals packed in a box. The word ‘tiffin’ is quite a trend that most of the people in India don’t really know that the word was created by Indians and is not really used outside the country. During the British Raj, because of the Indian climate the English had to eat their dinner in the evening unlike their usual dining time, which is late in the afternoon. They had to have a light meal in between lunch and dinner. The usual British term for this meal was luncheon. A luncheon, is a light midday meal.

Somewhere during the late 1800s and early 1900s, an old British slang word ‘tiffing’ came into trends. Tiffing usually meant a little drink between meals at midday. It became a trend in the Anglo-Indians living in Northern regions of the British raj. By late 1800s the word ‘tiffing’ was naturalised and it was now referred to as what luncheon meant, a little snack.

By early 1900s, tiffing was being called as tiffin and it meant different things in the different parts of India. Southern states of India and Nepal share a common meaning that a tiffin is a light meal or usually a tea snack. Whereas other parts of India consider tiffins as boxed/packaged meals.

Few sources claim that the word tiffing originated from ‘sipping’ in one of the dialects of Anglo Indians. As tiffing started referring to a tea snack, it does sound logical to be originated from the word ‘sipping’. Either way, this Anglo Indian originated word is now on Oxford and is quite normally used by many Indians and neighbours. Even restaurants serving these light snacks are named as ‘tiffin centres’.

In Mumbai, tiffin js referred to as packaged meak as the dabbawala calls their delivered meal boxes as tiffin-boxes. Dabbawala are a delivery service in Mumbai which deliver curries and meals anywhere in Mumbai.

The South is famous for their tiffins, like Dosa, Idly and Vada. ‘South Indian tiffins’ has become a cuisine in many restaurants across India. They’re usually consumed as breakfast or a snack in the evening.

This is how a British slang word which travelled along the tongue tips of the locals got naturalised, modified and now it has a place in the Oxford dictionary.

We’d be happy if you have got knowledge about this word or any other word like this which got naturalised yet got its place in the dictionary. You can either mail us or leave a comment. Don’t forget to have your tiffin while reading our articles.