At a time many writers spend their resources to publish fiction, biography and motivational books, a seasoned journalist and retired United Nations (UN) diplomat Mr. Segun Omolayo has published a comprehensive book on common errors made by writers.
The 12 chapter-book titled: ‘’Pop Errors in English. Writers Beware’’ is about popular mistakes writers make when they write either as a result of carelessness or ignorance in some cases. When such mistakes are not taken care of, they can distract the quality of our writings.
According to the author, the objective is to help writers to avoid those barriers to correct usage in English or those barriers to elegant writing and effective communication. “First is how to write lucidly in a manner that flows. The author takes each of the mistake, discuss the principles underlying them and uses copious examples how people commit such errors,” he said.
In first chapter of the book, the author discusses redundancy, which he described as the greatest affliction or difficulty for writers. These, he said, are what are unnecessary in a sentence.
Omolayo stressed that writers should not write to impress, but ‘write to inform, to communicate and communication means sharing meaning. By the time your reader or listener gets the same meaning of what you have written as you intended it, you are communicating. If you are not doing that, you are not communicating’.
He noted that many writers want to show erudition to impress, which is not necessary. He urged every writer to write simply and clearly, give his writing fluidity and he would have impressed.
Another concern in the book is malapropism, which is when writers use words for one another wrongly. In such circumstance writer use attribute instead of adduce. “For example, writing to say that ‘Mr A has been arrested because he was alleged of instead of accused of.’ Sometimes they tend to be very comical,” he added.
Also in the book is issue of faulty parallelism, which deals with structural balancing of sentences. The rule is that how you start a sentence is how you end it. You don’t begin with active voice and end with passive voice. There is need for consistency in structure of sentences.
On proper use of punctuation marks, he said: “There are other things we don’t pay attention to like run on sentences. This is when there are no proper punctuations or conjunctions in sentences that run on. Again, stalemate must not be broken with hyphen. Also, when you put a hyphen in ‘follow up’ it becomes a noun and no longer a verb or adjective.
“These errors occur among writers at all levels.I have edited for university for over 20 yearsand I have been in broadcasting as quality control, served at UN office where I did editing. All through the various professions at international scenes, you find these mistakes across board. So, it means sufficient attention is not paid to it. The book is for anybody who writes. But, those who write very well are the ones who will rarely enjoy the essence of the book.”
He explained that these errors are not peculiar to journalists in Nigeria alone because writers who are native speakers of English in Europe, Australia and America do commit same errors. He added that the problem is everywhere and the native speaker still needs to learn the rules. “If he does not learn the rules, he cannot write well.To avoid these errors, you must know the rules. It does not matter if you have 10 PhD’s. For those who claim ‘that’s my style,’ it is their own way of manipulating the rules. There is no style that violates the rules. Again, you don’t stop checking,” he said.
He recalled that the book took root in his time in broadcasting, especially, Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State as Director of Programmes. “Also, I was reading the news too.
I found time to edit the bulletin, which many did not like then. As I was doing that, I was compiling notes and it got so voluminous to the extent it took a shape of a book. There and then I classified the types of errors.
“The outline I used for a lecture snowballed into what I fleshed up for the book. Also, I kept notes while I was at the UN. All these sharpened my dexterity in editing. It took about ten years to put together. I started it in 2007,” he said.
On whether he considered dropping the project for any reason, he said: “I never thought of giving up on the book. But I don’t have the social clout to launch the book the Nigerian way. The book is in many major book stores in university towns. Also, I have done engagements on the book as a way to grow awareness for the book.
