SHE TAUGHT ME HOW TO WRITE

DR DIANNE M. STRONG

 

Father Dueñas Memorial School in my day was a great school, especially in the Social Sciences and Foreign Languages. I'm glad I went there for high school. As far as English was concerned, we learned proper grammar and we read English literature, but I didn't know till later that the school seemed to have overlooked English writing and composition in those days.

I hope that's changed, by now. Learning how to express yourself in writing is extremely important as a life skill, never mind a work skill, as important as that is.

So in the fall of 1980 when I enrolled at the University of Guam and had to take English 101, I was surprised to learn that it was a writing class. No more diagramming sentences, in-house spelling bees or vocabulary memorization. We had to come up with something I had never been taught to do at Father Dueñas; write essays!

SCHAFER AND STRONG IN UOG'S 1980 CLASS OFFERINGS

Dr Strong taught FOUR classes in that one semester

I started out with a professor named Schafer (I believe Sarah was her first name). She was no-nonsense and knew her stuff. Even though I had zero training in writing essays, she liked my work right away and would read excerpts from some of my essays to the class, all smiles and with a giggle or two. I remember she liked this line, "I'm a Pisces, and we're feet people."

But the next English composition teacher I had made a much bigger impact. Her name was Dr Dianne Strong. She taught me in the Spring Semester of 1981, building on what Dr Schafer had planted earlier.

When I first walked into Dr Strong's class, I didn't know what to expect. At first glance, I saw that she was taller than most women I knew, blond and tanned. But I knew we were in for a good time right away because she taught with such verve and gusto, and yet she meant business. She wanted to teach us how to write well.

DR STRONG AS I KNEW HER IN 1981

though this photo is from 1974

She taught us that there were different kinds of essays. One could compare and contrast; or one could argue a position. In another essay you could describe something, such as an event or a process.

My father had always subscribed to Time or Newsweek and would get them in the mail. As a kid I'd leaf through them, looking mainly at the photos but rarely reading the articles. But Dr Strong had us read articles she liked and she'd share with us what made a particular article good.

Dr Strong explained that an effective piece of writing grabs people's interest in the first lines. By the end of that first paragraph, the reader better know clearly what the article or essay is all about and what the author wants to either argue or explain. This would be the thesis of the essay.

The rest of the essay, the body, would be made up of three or four parts that either defended the thesis, if one were arguing a position, or fleshed out the theme of the writing if one were describing something.

The conclusion would wrap it all up and restate the thesis with, perhaps, a secondary conclusion or an  interesting observation.

I learned to organize my material. First I'd jot down everything I might include in the essay and then group similar points together. Then I'd try to see which headings were better to start with and which ones flowed better afterwards. I learned how important transitions were, going from one paragraph or section to the next, as if moving the reader along on a ride and not losing any momentum.

One of my essays in Dr Strong's class was published in a UOG literary journal called Xanadu. In it I tried to explain how hard it is to diet on Guam! I included this line, "It isn't any wonder why Weightwatchers Anonymous meets at Andersen Air Force Base, far away from the allurements of the Chamorro food traps."

My thoroughly competent English teacher from Connecticut, who either knew or lived close by some famous playwrite (was it Arthur Miller?), gave me the self-confidence to express myself through writing. I realized then that writing was such a valuable skill to have because nearly everything I achieved later to earn my Bachelor and Master degrees rested in large part on writing. If you could write well, you were so much ahead of the game. Even though preaching is different from writing, many of the same lessons apply to both. Have a clear message and deliver it with structure and order, and keep it interesting.

DOCTOR METGOT THE PERSON

Later on in life, Dr Strong volunteered to teach clients incarcerated at the Department of Corrections. It was her Chamorro students serving sentences there who christened her METGOT, the Chamorro word for "strong."

She not only taught DOC clients how to write, a skill that was rewarding in itself but which could also help them when back in society, Dr Strong became their advocate, a voice for the voiceless, who often suffered inexcusable hardships and violations while incarcerated.

DR STRONG IS RECOGNIZED FOR HER SERVICE TO INMATES

Dr Strong also successfully opposed, with many others, the construction of towers at Pago Bay which would have had a negative impact on the environment and scenery. Because these voices were raised, the permit to build was revoked.

The world beckoned to her all her life and she responded. She has traveled near and far to enjoy Mother Nature, different cultures and the ocean she loves. She is a consummate diver and has explored all the region's diving sites. She wrote a book, Witness to War : Truk Lagoon's Master Diver Kimiuo Aisek, a biography of Chuuk's premier diver who put the lagoon on the diving world's map.

Her contagious joie de vivre is to be admired and inspires us not to be afraid of life's risks, but to enjoy life while we have it. Writing for The Sunday News on Guam in 1975 about her motocross experiences, she wrote, "Don't think about the danger, just the fun."

I, like all others, will one day be dead and forgotten. But, if perchance, someone may stumble across an odd article I wrote or the occasional book, even after I'm gone, or even this blog post, and may have learned something, perhaps smiled and was hopefully inspired by something positive I wrote, then I have Dr Strong to thank for that.

Si Yu'us ma'åse'. Kinisou chapur.