Things That I Have Learned From Kang Won-guk’s Writing Course

In my college years, I determined to train my Korean writing skill. I wrote speeches and essays then asked for feedback. My professor recommended books and shows to improve my writings. He also told me to read a couple of writer’s works and grasp their style to elevate mine. One of the writers he wanted me to look up is Kang Won-guk.

Kang Won-guk worked at Cheongwadae as a speechwriter under President Kim Dae-jung and President Roh Moo-hyun. Besides working for presidents, he also worked for CEOs. He used to write speeches for CEO of Daewoo Corp. and Hyosung Corp. His writing career also branches out to the tech field. He has three years of experience working as a technical writer for a startup company. Now, he writes books and gives lectures on writing. The lecture “Presidential Speechwriter Kang Won-guk’s Writing Course” is one of his lectures accessed by many.

His lecture covers two aspects writers have to deal with—technical and non-technical aspects—when writing. On the non-technical scope, Kang Won-guk suggests learners look in and reflect on the message to be conveyed. Enrich and deepen the knowledge prior to writing is mandatory. A lot of reading is the ideal way, but you can use the modeling method and try to incorporate the model’s structure into your writing. Kang also emphasizes the importance of the environment in developing better writing skills. He recommends the learners to seek positive feedback from people. Brainstorming and collaboration also mentioned as methods to grow ideas.

In the technical aspect, Kang provides ways to elevate learners’ works. The first one is to enrich vocabulary by searching synonyms of words in the vocabulary, for example finding alternatives for “말했다” such as “강조했다” and “주장했다”. He also gives advice to novice writers to find an efficient way to construct sentences. For example, choosing the simpler form “실시했다” over “실시를 했다”. Second, he consults writers to make an outline before writing. A more detailed checklist also needed to keep track of the objectives. Third, he recommends learners to take a look at forms and how good writers write. Kang encourages learners to set a model and try to replicate it with their own words.

Kang Won-guk’s writing course is a resourceful source to gain knowledge on how to write better in Korean. Not only he covers technical and non-technical aspects of writing, but he also brings various examples in every session.