Nigerian Columnists with Their Love of Big Words

marenx The Writer




In the middle or beginning of most Nigerian columns, a savvy reader feels like the author is saying nothing but 'just' playing with words.

I read many Nigerian columnists--my favorite is Sam Omatseye.

On The Nation newspaper of 21/6/2011, Gbenga Omotoso wrote the following overloaded sentence in the first paragraph of his column titled "Memory of May 29":

"Members of the Armed Forces, resplendent in their ceremonial uniforms, mounted colourful parades in Abuja where President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe--courtesy of his granny--Jonathan was being ushered into office and all the 26 states where governors took the oath of office."

This fluffy sentence is the third and the longest among other ones in the first paragraph of the piece.

I wonder why the editor didn't see it and wonder why most columnists are afraid to use simple English.

The following words shouldn't appear in the sentence:

-Resplendent: You're to mention ceremonial uniforms further in the sentence, so no need of using 'resplendent.' Let your readers imagine how the Armed Men look.

-Colourful: The word colourful simply means full of colours, but again you should impress your readers by letting them guess. If not, create a different sentence to describe the ceremonial uniforms and how the Armed Forces looked in them.

-Courtesy of his granny: Must you tell your readers why Azikiwe is added to the president's names at their own expense? If yes, you're writing without minding your readers. Remember your title is "Memories of May 29" not "Why Azikiwe is Added to the President Names."

Now, read the sentence again and notice how its structure has to be changed.

The unifying element of the sentence is "The members of the Armed Forces in their ceremonial uniform." They are in Abuja where President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan was being sworn into office and they are in all the 26 states where governors were also being sworn into office.

Here is how the sentence should read in the paragraph:

President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan was being sworn into office in Abuja while all the 26 states governors were being sworn into office in their respective states.



The importance of writing in simple language is the reader will believe you mean what you said and he'll believe you want him to understand it and he'll know you're not joking.

Here I used a qoute from Don Roff:

"I've found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it."

Thanks for reading my words. Have a nice thought.

Two reasons;

1. If people buy a newspaper they want to enjoy the articles within. It’s why journalists write the lengthiest of stories which keep the person busy reading all day. Thank God for the internet; news is now served in bite-sized portions because people have things doing in their lives.

2. The bigger the words used the more readers rate the journalist as higher learned over contemporaries.

Something I hate which people do is they complain that subject matters are overly complicated. When anyone tries to oversimplify things those same people nag that the concept is too basic then try their best to revert whatever the case was back to its original form. Thus continues the never-ending cycle of simplify, complicate, simplify, complicate, ad infinitum.

meobizy:
Two reasons;

1. If people buy a newspaper they want to enjoy the articles within. It’s why journalists write the lengthiest of stories which keep the person busy reading all day. Thank God for the internet; news is now served in bite-sized portions because people have things doing in their lives.

2. The bigger the words used the more readers rate the journalist as higher learned over contemporaries.

Something I hate which people do is they complain that subject matters are overly complicated. When anyone tries to oversimplify things those same people nag that the concept is too basic then try their best to revert whatever the case was back to its original form. Thus continues the never-ending cycle of simplify, complicate, simplify, complicate, ad infinitum.

You're right. Your reason no. 2 has said it all. Some news paper and magazine managers will even point out clearly in writing guidelines. A writer who uses big words is hardly rejected. Thanks.

Keep it simple!

Write to entertain. Good readers read to appreciate.

Don't write without minding your readers. Don't write to be a writer, write to educate, inform and entertain.

Sweep out all the dirts in your writing.