Advice to the graduates of Darul Uloom Nadwa

This post has 2 parts to it.

First part: What can be considered to be a well-written Article?

The answer to that is:

1) The topic of the essay should be clearly and completely defined in your mind and have a specific description.

2) The intended purpose of this topic should also be clear in your mind.

3) The organization of the different components of the essay should be conceptually clear in your mind and there should be no ambiguity in your mind regarding the reasons behind this arrangement.

4) In structuring the article, you should determine the different aspects and demarcation of every chapter and participant paragraph on a credible basis and in a scholarly fashion so that the discussions and arguments in the article move in an organized and logical order from one point to another.

5) Commit yourself with full scholarly responsibility, that to prove any point of discussion you will try and use as few words as possible. Try and avoid using technical terminology wherever possible and if the expected reader is not accustomed to these terminologies, then make sure that whenever using them you clearly define them.

6) Similarly, with complete scholarly obligation, avoid using the kind of language the purpose of which is to keep the meaning and interpretation of the topic hidden and vague or which under the guise of its imposing language or astounding claims keeps the author’s intentions and objectives hidden. The correct approach is that in a good essay there is an attempt to provide clear information and not to confuse or mystify people with it.

7) At the end of the article, reiterate the main points and discussion of the article and also clarify the main steps to the research and inference and do not needlessly write a divergent or variant ending or conclusion to the essay.

Second part: How to prepare yourself to write an article?

The answer to that is:

1) The reason for writing the article should be clear in your mind. This does not mean that just the topic should be clear. That has already been established. But it means that the intended purpose of writing on this topic should be clear to you. For example, the purpose for writing could be that this is your homework or it could be that there is considerable confusion regarding this topic in the minds of people and you would like to rectify this confusion or wrong understanding.

2) You should appreciate, as much as possible, as to who is going to read this article and what their intention might be. For eg. a teacher would read your article written as homework with the intention to see how much you have understood of his teaching or your colleagues would read your article with the intention to either compete or to cooperate with you.

3) The limits and purview of the article should be absolutely clear in your mind. This means that before starting the article you should clearly know which issues are the most important and relevant to your points and arguments. To prepare for this you should know for eg. which authors are there whose works and speeches on these issues you should have read and what are the issues in your article that may face emphasis and relentless discussion. If you are prudent about your essay writing then you will put special emphasis on the scope of the article.

4) Use the best possible evidence to present the different aspects and assertions of the article. Some parts of the article may be such that require authentic statistical data and analysis. Some parts of the article may be such where personal proofs may be required. There may be some points that require the corroboration of past scholars. So where there is a requirement of validation by past scholars if you were to use your personal experiences and proofs or either where your personal experiences and proofs need to be given you were to use the proofs of past scholars then this methodology will make the article weak and unintelligent.

5) The process taken for consolidating the proofs of your points and arguments should be clear in your mind as much as possible. You should ask yourself whether all these measures are mutually connected and reinforce each other. This means that you should prove one claim before moving on to proving the next claim. It is important that what was asserted before and what is affirmed after every claim and proof is logical and mutually integrated.

6) The introductions and assumptions made with regards to the theme of the article and the attitude and expectation of your readers should also be clear in your mind as much as possible.

7) If you are satisfied with all the above action points and you believe that the purpose of your article is to provide knowledge to yourself and to others and not to impress or confuse or intimidate anyone, then keeping in mind the priority and organization of the points of whichever discussion or dispute you want to present, start writing the article.