Final Comments.

 
     In this last section, I will discuss the following : (a) A “disclaimer” for my writing, (b) The purpose of this book, (c) The future, concerning this book, (d) Volunteer translations, (e) Volunteer writing of sentences, paragraphs, and articles, (f) Sources and Acknowledgments, (g) References and Internet links, (h) About book propagation, and (i) Some personal comments. 
 
     (a) “Disclaimer”, concerning this book. 
     This book has tried to do many things, but there are some things I have not tried to do.  Here are a few. 
     This book does not seek to compete with other writing textbooks, or to replace them.  There are many, many other writing textbooks available today, and all of them have something useful to learners of writing (albeit, some more than others).  Therefore, this book aims to “compliment” the other writing textbooks.  It is part of a “broad spectrum” of textbooks. 
     This book does not aim to serve everyone, but it is hoped it will help some.  It is a “niche” book – a very small part of the “big picture”! 
     This book is not meant to be “definitive”, able to answer all of the writing student’s needs.  Rather, I believe that all the various forms of educational philosophy should make themselves more available to the general reader, to the common student, so as to be chosen, blended, and used as each learner desires.  I say this, because I have long felt that there is a severe war of minds among the creators of educational approaches, for the hearts of learners.  This competition for “pedagogical hegemony” should stop!  Therefore, this book is meant to represent a small part of the whole – one “method” among others.  Let the students of writing, and the witness of empirical evidence decide! 
     Finally, this book is not really an original book.  The ideas of many others have been incorporated into these pages.  To my knowledge, the only really original ideas are the “Six Sentence Types”....  I think that is my own contribution.  All else is an explanation of what many others have already written about, and which I have re-synthesized. 
 
     (b) The purpose of this book, and its audience. 
     The purpose of this book is to help learners of English as a foreign language write effective sentences, paragraphs, expository and narrative articles, a resume, and a cover-letter.  If you can do these basic things, then the rest should take care of itself. 
     Of course, there are also many “philosophical” objectives / purposes behind this book: 
     (i) To encourage “synthetic thinking”.  That is, to think in creative ways, and not just in rote-memory ways, or in learning by copying. 
     (ii) To remind the reader that “writing is a process”, and not a stationary act. 
     (iii) That “freedom of creativity, within a carefully planned and executed structure” is a good thing. 
     (iv) That writing (as a skill) can be closely linked to the “ebb-and-flow” of life itself; it is not some dead and lifeless tool. 
     (v) That good writing takes work and effort.  It is my earnest hope, that college writing students everywhere will not copy other people’s writing mindlessly, will not do their homework the night before it is due, and will not “short-cut” the writing process. 
     (vi) That through developing new writing skills, many readers of this book (and other books) will be able to put what is in their heart onto paper, and do it well.  Hopefully, this will make them feel satisfied (as writers).  We all have something to say : how pleasant it would be to be able to set it down, on paper! 
     The audience of this book are (a) middle-school teachers of English, in P. R. China, (b) college English-majors (“zhuan ye”), in P. R. China, and (c) anyone else who wants to learn these skills, wherever they are – in P. R. China, or anywhere else.  These people will be reached through the Internet, for the most part. 
     What about the Chinese-language translation, and the “ethnic minority-group”-language translations?  These translations are for those who would like a “reference point of understanding”, as they read the English-language version, or whose English level is at the “early stages”.  Before you read the English version, why not read it in your language first? 
     Most college-age students know Chinese, but there are many people who read and write in their own “ethnic minority-group” language.  (Hence, the Uighur, Kazakh, and Mongolian translations.  In time, I would like to have a Tibetan-language version.  Is anyone interested?) 
 
     (c) The future, in terms of what I hope will happen. 
     These are things that I hope the reader will do: 
     (i) I hope you will use some of the ideas described in this book, in your own writing.  Take what you like, and forget the rest. 
     (ii) I also hope you will pass on the Internet web-site address of this book to others.  The web-site address is:     www.nolaowai.cn    
 
     (d) Concerning volunteer translations of this book into other languages. 
     If you wish to translate this book into other “ethnic minority-group” languages, then please feel free to do so!  Please put it where other people from your language-group will easily find it, along with a clear Internet link to this web-site.  Thank you. 
 
     (e) Concerning the volunteer writing of sentences, paragraphs, and articles in English, for “public domain” release, especially on the Internet. 
     If you wish to write your own sentences / paragraphs / articles, after these methods, please do so, and post them “on-line”, where other people can easily find them, along with a clear Internet link to this web-site.  Thank you. 
 
     (f) Sources and Acknowledgments. 
     First, many thanks to my students, who gave me many ideas, and much inspiration over the years.  These writers (for such they are) came from Urumqi, Zhi Ye Da Xue, English Department, Classes 0501, 0503, 0505, 0507, and 0509. 
     Thanks to those students in 0503, 0505, and 0507, who helped as “secretaries” in the class, by copying out the “black-board work” onto clean paper.  They were: Yuan Jiang Chun (0503), Yang Qing Ling (0505), and Wang Ai Ying (0507), and others, too. 
 
     Thanks to Wang Ya Juan (0401), and Chen Ping (0401), who both gave me inspiration to write this book.  Thank you! 
     Also, thanks to my former students at Beijing, Zhong Yang Min Zu Da Xue, English Department, Class 2001, who were the first ones to use the “Six Sentence Types”. 
     Most of all, thanks to the Chinese, Uighur, Kazakh, and Mongolian translators.  You are true heroes, and pioneers of language. 
     Thanks to the Internet web-site organizer.  If it wasn’t for him, you would not be reading this.
 
     (g) References, and Internet links. 
     There are many books that I could list here, and I will not.  Ultimately, what works best for you is the best.  However, here are some ideas: 
     (i) A Handbook To Writing.  Available in most bookstores. 
     (ii) The Elements Of Style, by Strunk and White.  Harder to get, but valuable. 
     Also, you can go to “Google” and “Bai Du”, to look for various writing materials.  Tell others what you find “on line”, if you like it! 
 
     (h) About book propagation. 
     If you like this book, please tell others about it, and the Internet web-site address.  Tell five others.  Each person should not know the others, so that the “word-of-mouth” can spread in five different directions.  This book will not be printed, so it needs the recommendations of people like you, for it to be broadcast to many others. 
 
 
     (i) Final, personal comments. 
     Of the four or five “language arts” skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking, and translation), writing has the best chance of surviving the longest.  Nonetheless, you must constantly strive to keep your writing ability viable. 
     By far and away the best way to improve one’s writing is to read good writers, and good literature.  Here, there are only two “rules” : what you read must (a) be very interesting to you, and (b) be easy to read.  If you are interested in the text, you will be fully absorbed, and therefore attentive to what you read; if the text is easy to read, you can focus your mind on enjoyment of the text, and not on trying to wrestle the meaning out of it.  Life is too short to be reading books that you hate, and which you really do not understand.  However, if you want to “get serious”, then buy a copy of Oliver Goldsmith’s book “The Vicar Of Wakefield” (published in the mid-1700's), and study the language carefully.  This book contains some of the most perfect “neo-classical” English you can find.  In addition, you can read the books of your favorite author. 
     You should try to incorporate your newly-learned writing skills into your daily life (i.e., in writing letters).  Try to “date” everything you write (e.g., 2008/2/12), make copies, and “archive” them.  In a few years, you will have quite a significant collection of writing. 
     I like to write “letter-journals”, which are part “letter” to a friend, and part “journal” for myself.  In this arrangement, my friend gets a “fragment” of the whole (i.e., one letter), but I copy everything I write, and thereby get the “whole” (i.e., the letters, combined into a journal).  Please note!  You are not writing letters, first and foremost.  Rather, you are writing a journal, which the occasion of writing to your friend just happens to inspire.  The friend is secondary.  Of course, do not tell your friend this! 
     I have found that different friends, at different times, and under different circumstances, can act as “short-term Muses”, to trigger a burst of strong, creative writing.  Some last a year; some last a page.  Do not intentionally search for such people, as this is artificial; you should rather use whatever circumstances are given you by life, and then “ride the surge-wave” that will usually come.  As for me, I have many “idea-trigger Muses” in my own writing life. 
     Remember : it is not the person who comes first; it is the writing project you have in mind that comes first.  Only your “grand strategy” for writing is unitary; everything else is fragmentary.  Therefore, “The unity is in the fragmentation”. 
     Keep a note-pad near you at all times, to “catch” the ideas that enter, or come out of your mind; catch them in all their raw, crude, and unrefined glory.  Usually, you only have five or ten seconds to do this.  (Later on, you can edit what you have scribbled down on your note-pad.)  The 5 cm. x 5 cm. “tear-off” note-pads work well, for me.  You choose which note-pad you like best, and use it to full effectiveness. 
     Ideas come from observation, from quick and unfiltered first impressions, from a comment by someone, from letting an idea “soak” in your mind over time (like ginseng roots, “gou qi zi” berries, and other things, in vats of old “bai jiu”), from nature, from “out of nowhere”, from a poem, or from something you read, from an old memory, from love, and from love’s touch.  Catch them gently, like butterflies, and “date” the slip of paper. 
     Throughout your interaction with English, follow this slogan : “Synthesize Language, Synthesize Knowledge!  (That is, “Zong he yu yan, zong he zhi shi”.) 
     This book is meant to be used as a “reference” book.  When you need something, just look it up in the appropriate chapter.  You do not need to read it from cover to cover. 
     This book was written from an unheated, second-floor office, overlooking a pond.  It began in winter (2007), and ended in winter (2008).  Just as I wrote “Where there is no ‘lao wai’ : How to study English on the go, on your own” over six weeks in the summer of 2003, during a period of crisis (SARS), so I wrote this book over a period of crisis (my father’s illness), over one year.  It was written, in fragments of free time, over a year, between the tasks of looking after my father, and many other unrelated and disjointed things.  It was carefully planned, infused with life and life’s varying circumstances, inspired by a Muse, and slowly assembled.  Throughout, it was suffused by the all-encompassing spirit of winter.  I have tried to write this book carefully, using many of the ideas contained within.  Of course, there were exceptions, and I often wrote after my own habits. 
     So it should be with you.  At the start, you can follow the ideas in this book, to get a good “structure” to your writing.  At some point, your “inner voice”, your unique way of creatively expressing yourself, will want to take off on its own, as an eagle.  At that point, follow your own inclinations.  I do believe that “plan” and “structure”, linked with creativity – your creativity – is a very effective model for writing. 
     You may think, “Who am I, and what can I contribute to the world of writing?”  Do not worry here about this.  You are not writing for money, fame, or influence (c.f., Bradbury).  You are writing for yourself, and your Muse.  The nation of Iceland (“Bing Dao”) has a very high number of writers (in terms of the total population).  Many of these writers will not be published, or be rich, or be famous.  That is all right.  As for you, follow their example. 
     Writing, like scientific research, is a slow, step-by-step contribution to humanity.  For a good example, think of the slow dripping of cold, “limestone water”, deep in some dark cave, as it makes a stalactite or stalagmite, drop by drop, over tens of thousands of years.  Each word, each sentence, each paragraph, each article is like one of those drops!  Therefore, taking a “long-term” view of writing, and a humble attitude towards yourself, is a good thing.  It puts many things into a bigger perspective.  I think it also frees you up to “write as you wish”, and not to “write as you ought”. 
     So, everyone can make some small, incremental contribution to the advancement of knowledge.  That is enough, and it is welcome.  I hope that from this book, you will be empowered to make some useful contribution of your own, through the effective use of good writing.  Yes, sometimes you must write for others, under pressure, but that is not everything.  You have something else. 
     I hope that writing will be a source of pleasure to you – not only as a “tool” for whatever ends you have, but also as an activity in itself.  Through writing, there is a whole new world out there, waiting for you.  Happy hunting. 
       –Written by Stephen C. Van Wyck, 2007 to 2008.