The writer should be humble. A writer must be a “greedy” reader to pursue and master the scientific field thoroughly. A writer must have a living slogan, “there is no day without reading and writing.”

“Being a writer is easy. But being a transformative and inspiring writer requires a broad knowledge base,” said Zuhairi Misrawi, a seasoned columnist and well-known young Muslim thinker in Indonesia, speak on Monday (31/5/2021). He was present at the Department of Communications UII, sharing his experience of 30 years of writing columns, in the online Essay Writing Expert Course.

Even so, he said, writing only requires two capitals: willpower and courage. Willingness and understanding personal biological clock when comfortable writing. If we have found the rhythm of writing, immediately proceed and finish the writing. The second capital is courage. Courage to present a point of view. Meanwhile, a good point of view is influenced by reading. “A writer will be seen whether he is a voracious reader or not,” he said. “Writing must be communicative, communicating with readers as if they were involved and in dialogue with readers.”

According to the man who graduated from Al Azhar University, Egypt, the writer must have an academic mindset: an academic way of thinking. The academic way of thinking must be able to think methodologically. This means that it must be based on theory (theory-driven). “What we think is based on a strong theory and methodology. Rational thinking cannot think arbitrarily, it can be scientifically justified, it makes sense,” he explained later.

Besides being scientific, students who want to become writers should not forget to think argumentatively. “It means to think that there is an argument. What are the historical, anthropological, political arguments like,” he added. Not only that, students should also write with reflective critical thinking. Use language that is good, correct, flowing and rich in typical university student ideas.

Zuhairi emphasized, “High Education students have to write not descriptively, they have to ask questions. Creative thinking can do whatever we want. Out of the box.”

The discussion, which was guided by Risky Wahyudi and Sumekar Tanjung, Lecturers in the Academic Writing Course, became a valuable enrichment for Department of Communication students from essay writing experts and national-calibre columns.

Hegel’s Typology of WritingHegel’s

Based on Hegel’s perspective, said Zuhairi, the easiest writing is writing with the thesa typology. This typology only describes an existing idea. “I challenge students to write with an antithesis typology, which is writing that criticizes an established idea. The student’s writing should also be transformative and inspiring, namely a synthesis typology: Providing solutions and generating new ideas,” said Zuhairi quoting Hegel’s dialectic.

Writing is an act of civilization because it inherits thoughts to future generations. If we write, we enter the civilization of the world. “For example, my books have been placed on a special shelf in the world library, at Harvard, in Cambridge. From there, our writings will become part of world civilization, become people’s references,” he said.

“Because we inherit civilization, writing is a noble job. In fact, writing is that we are giving alms to knowledge,” said Zuhairi. A writer must have a character that reflects his identity, vision, ideology so that readers are interested in our writing. “Even for some writers, their books are always discussed. That’s a good thing. Then if you ask, there is a book with many viewers, many buyers, but has the idea of ​​the book become a conversation in public dialogue?” replied Zuhairi in response to a question from one of the participants, Khalif Muhammad Madani.