International webinar of Communicative English and Research writing

Nov 28, 2021
4 min read

The article below is our reflection on the International webinar of Communicative English and Research writing conducted jointly by NMIMS School of Performing Arts and NMIMS School of Mathematical Sciences on 20th November, 2021.

You’d wonder what Melodies in Music and Mysteries of Math have in common? Both these languages communicate. While one soothes the mind, the other excites. And what is more exciting than having an International Seminar that helps you write better? Prof. Mushtaq Ahmed, the Research Writing faculty of NMIMS School of Performing Arts and NMIMS School of Mathematical Sciences, introduced his beloved students to expert guest faculties, Dr. Mark Macleod and Dr. Madhavi Gokhale. They not only graced us with their presence but enlightened us with their knowledge and wit too!

Dr. Mark Macleod

As Dr. Macleod started his talk by appreciating the sunny weather in his residence Australia, he emphasized the phrase, “Say it Once and Well”, reminiscing about his time at a function where it took six introductions before he could finally speak. He correlated this experience with a paragraph which included about six sentences expressing at most 1 or 2 ideas. He further explained this using the following analogy: when you're at a party you might have to shout something a few times before you get the person's attention, but, in a one-on-one setting it is enough to express the idea ‘Once and Well’ since you have all of their attention.

Dr Macleod also mentioned the repetitive use of passive voice especially in the Indian languages. He believes that passive voice is generally used to delay the main points for the last sentence to be emphatic. In his own words it is like, “Discovering the point of the sentence as we go on.”

Another observation by Dr. Macleod was that in most of the student’s writings, many of the sentences are isolated, essentially separate from the paragraph that they are in. It shows one’s inability to sustain a logical argument and a tendency to focus just on the current sentence without building the narrative for the coming sentences.

Dr. Macleod suggested an idea to the students, saying, “Every word in a sentence, every sentence in a paragraph and every paragraph in a narrative is a part of an ecosystem. Whatever you write, you should often read out aloud. It helps in understanding a reader’s point of view.” He suggested going back to paragraph structure. For every 1000 word piece there are 10 sentences per paragraph and one must try to find the logic gaps in between the lines and try to make this ecosystem whole.

Further along the Q&A session, Dr. Macleod advised that reading popular literature is an efficient way to improve writing as that is what most people will respond to. He gave these two very effective tips to the students: Try to imitate different writing styles like how 11-12 year old children practice their signatures. This same method is involved in singing and other arts. It involves improving one’s personality. And, listen to people, attend lots of conferences and take lots of notes. He believes that the importance of drawing logic from your writing and visualising what you have to write before you start the review is an essential component for quality writing.

Dr. Madhavi Gokhale

Beginning the second half of the Seminar, Dr. Madhavi questioned what was wrong with the scene ‘The Relationship Agreement’ from the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory. A participant called it an overly formal approach towards a supposedly romantic relationship. Following this exercise Dr. Madhavi further stated the difference between formal, informal and too casual emails. She explained how the context and the expectation of the audience plays a huge role in writing.

Being an enthusiastic Potterhead, she shared two examples where Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy cold-email the same professor for a research position. She said that Harry’s email was very precise and considerate compared to Draco’s email which showed lack of courtesy, flexibility and too short to include the necessary information.

Following this Dr. Madhavi shared a few very insightful pieces of advice on email-etiquette. She said that email subjects should be comprehensive. Any subject which is 1 or 2 words long is not enough, more detail must be added. And, like in real life, while announcing bad news we should be neutral in the email’s subject. She also emphasized the need to be concise and considerate. She explained this with a great example: instead of writing, ‘When you travel on company expenses, you will not receive approval for first class fare’, write, ‘When you travel on company expenses, the fare for your second class tickets will be completely reimbursed.’

Dr. Madhavi also shared a very important practise when replying to emails via an anecdote. She shared that the former American president Abraham Lincoln used to write anger-filled letters to people whom he was not at terms with but never used to send them. Instead, he’d stuff all those letters in his cabin drawer. It was only after his death that the existence of these letters were known to the world. Through this anecdote, Dr. Madhavi advised the students to avoid replying to emails whenever we are angry or sad.

The webinar began with a beautiful performance by our musicians Anika Sriram and Ansh Zaveri who also sang ‘Walking through the walls’ which was beautifully composed and written by him. Our moderators, Anshu Venkateshwaran, Harshi Goyal, Jyothishri Raghuram, Vrutik Patel and Dhruv Mehra made sure the entire event was smooth and hassle free for all. The program ended on a beautiful note with a vote of thanks given by Trisha Roy.

-Written by Kishan Vagadia, Shraddha Menon, Angad Arora and Div Vasudevan. Edited by Jitesh Bohra.