Peter, C. B. A Guide to Academic Writing. Kenya: Zapf Chancery, 1996. Print.
Dear Fellow,
On Saturday, 22nd September 2023, I purchased my first print copy of a formal guidebook on writing, also called a style guide. Every author I know of who has a book published traditionally has at least one guidebook on writing in their collection of books. Beyond being identified as one of this category of authors, I felt the need to own a guidebook. I have had to comply with style guides since 2020. I am driven by the idea that there is a reason for every stroke of a brush on a canvas, a reason for every word in a sentence, a reason for every line in a verse, a reason for every stanza in a poem, a reason for just about every tiny little bit of a piece of art. A style guide is simply that compendium of the reason for every tiny bit of any writing piece published under specific publications.
The Backstory
My first print copy of a formal style guide is A Guide to Academic Writing by C. B. Peter. When I saw the book, I was low on cash. I had only about half the amount the book was sold for. Afraid I would not find it if I returned the next day, I asked to pay for it in instalments and that was granted. But there was more to this story.
I am guilty of expecting anything less than excellent delivery from printed materials authored by African academics, especially those by Nigerians. This mindset was formed during my long history of boredom experienced when reading, especially, books for my coursework in school. The apparent disregard for style and standards practised by leaders in the world of prints and publications in my city contributed to this end. Knowledge gained from reading style guides made me aware and even more critical of any print material I came across.
Had I figured C. B. Peter was Kenyan before paying for his book, I may just as well have walked away from the seller without the book. The game changer for me was that I read a chapter of the book before asking who the author is and the publisher too. Sorry to mention, I thought Peter was American and that was also why I was confident to pay for the book.
The Reading
Now, I must admit that I was mistaken. I was mistaken in my generalisation of African academics. I was a victim of what Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie termed “the danger of a single story” in a TED Talk bearing the same title which she delivered in 2009. She said, “That is how to create a single story: show a people as one thing—as only one thing—over and over again, and that is what they become. . . . The consequence of a single story is that it robs people of dignity.” Though somewhat out of context, Adichie’s statement explained what I was suffering from. I held on to my negative experiences when reading scholarly works by my fellow compatriots at the expense of experiencing the wonder in their works. Sadly, I was always on the lookout for the next typographical error in any book published in my city.
I am only thankful that my stereotype didn’t rob me of the opportunity to appreciate and learn from my first print style guide. I figured out the author’s nationality while I was reading the book. I was so lost in the book's beauty—in its finely-knit words, beautifully constructed paragraphs, majestic flow of thoughts, narratives, and anecdotes—that I didn’t bother about anything else while reading it. Writing about it, I had to look through the book again.
The Lessons
Sir Peter’s book will become a bible for me in this journey to formal authorship. There are reasons why. First, I was startled when I figured he spent the last 7 (out of the 20) pages of Chapter 1 to share what 18 authors across the world have said about writing with brief reviews of their books on writing. Second, his patience in exposition—answering every question his chapters raised—got me hooked. Third, I found quotes to travel onward into authorship with. For example:
“Do not write shallow things on big ideas. Write deep things on small ideas” (p. 26).
“There can be no acceptable writing until it shows the writer’s aim and fulfils it in the end” (p. 40).
“Writing without a thesis statement might very well result in aimless and unacceptable scribble” (p. 41).
“I myself revised and rewrote the manuscript for this book over four times in the light of others’, as well as my own, criticisms” (p. 232).
“What is more, it is the quality of publishing that matters. Mere publishing would not do” (p. 237).
“Each book that is published is a major enterprise for the publishing house” (p. 249).
The Conclusion
My liberation from negativity toward the world of thought in Nigeria and Africa came on Monday, 2nd October 2023 when I listened to Professor Patrick Lumumba from Kenya speaking on TV at an annual intellectual conference in Lagos called The Platform Nigeria. He said in his speech:
Most of us [Africans] are so very thoroughly miseducated that what we must do is to unlearn the burdent that we have in our mind. Those of us who are lawyers, when do we feel happiest? When we cite an English authority to determine a land case in Abeokuta. When we talk about the reasonable man, we don’t talk about the reasonable in Akeke, in Apapa; we talk about the reasonable man being the man in the Clapham omnibus in London, England. That is how miseducated we are. . . . The time is now to exorcise the ghost of low self-esteem. . . . We must define ourselves and begin to believe in our institutions. . . .
Henceforth, I go with the voice of reason. I will exorcise the ghost of low self-esteem. I will be hopeful for the best works from Nigerian and African scholars while striving to be one myself.
Good Fellow, hearken to the voice of reason.
Your LetterMan,
Tongjal, W. N.