Sources of ideas to use in composition writing

A trolley full of season’s goodies meant for one week or paid-up school fees and adequate stationery, which is the way to go? Take your pick. Celebrate but do not forget the essentials. Short time celebrations do not help. As stated earlier the lifetime inheritance parents and guardians can bequeath to school going children is education. Educated orphans manage through many life challenges.

Orphans left behind with little education easily fall prey to the vagaries of life. These are the people who easily find themselves entangled into the dangerous vices of life. Just like a child who is not gifted at school and decides to drop out of school without even reaching O-levels. This is very dangerous because such an individual’s perceptions of life are very low.

A student who goes up to Form 4 even if that person does not attain five subjects or more at O-level has better perceptions and understanding of life than the other who did not get to that level — such a student is employable. He or she is capable of understanding instructions from the boss. Experience shows that such individuals get the work done than their counterparts who dropped out of school before getting to Form 4.

This works for both those who pass O-level or those who have not made it. Slowly but surely school holidays are coming to an end. Parents and guardians have taken this time to give wise counsel to their children as they ready themselves for school. It is important to emphasise to the children the need for good discipline. Discipline should not be an issue for school authorities only.

Any misbehaviour should be chided both at home and school. Learners should be made aware that what is unacceptable at home is also the same case at school. The moment children observe different treatment for the same kind of offence at home and at school, there becomes a big problem. There should be no kid-gloves in the treatment of the same misdemeanour either way.

Discipline is key in education. Some children pass examinations at school just because they exhibit good discipline. Unruly or rowdy students end up not performing well at school because they lack discipline. They spend most of the time engaging in indiscipline and facing punishment instead of concentrating on their studies.

Statistics support this assertion that well-disciplined students perform better in examinations. Students have been on holiday. Some have travelled far and wide. What did they see or observe? Last time we talked about engaging all senses in writing. It is the same calling — what did the students do during the holidays?

Some were in the cities where a lot of activities were taking place with people teeming the streets and shops buying goodies for Christmas. Surely, there should be something striking observed during that time. There has been a lot of traffic on the country’s roads caused by an influx of visitors from other countries and family members from the diaspora. There have been traffic jams and other vehicles involved in accidents including minor ones, not necessarily fatal ones.

Maybe you witnessed a pick pocket getting a severe beating from members of the public for stealing or trying to break into a parked car. You could have seen speeding cars roaring past with horns blaring, decorated with balloons signifying the passing of a wedding party heading towards the park or chosen venue to celebrate the occasion.

These are just examples to help students write good compositions like describing a busy scene. You need to extend your imagination. To keep your reader interested in your writing you have to dig deeper into your imagination. You can find inspiration in all kind of places. Think about books you have read, song you like, or film you have seen, musicians you like.

Paintings can be a good source of ideas.

At times students run short of ideas when writing compositions as if they have no senses to appeal to. In the past children used to have dreams. It is true that some were funny and far-fetched, one would think. You could ask a child what she or he would like to be later in life when they grow up. They would cite various careers, some even beyond their imagination. They often cited careers associated with their relatives. For example, I would like to be a teacher, nurse or doctor to mention but a few.

Those were dreams of course. But nowadays we have students getting to high levels of learning not yet decided on what they want to be in life. This is the reason you find many graduates roaming the streets looking for elusive jobs. They chose to do careers which were oversubscribed or irrelevant to modern day economies.

The next thing you go about blaming everybody including your parents and the entire education system. Do some research before choosing a career.

Next time we shall take note of the following points: (gender references to males and females). For views link with [email protected]  or sms to 0772113207