February 18th, 2007 : Writing to Understand
I have come to the opinion, that writing helps understanding. This is accomplished in a few different ways. First, writing can prove one’s understanding and writing can improve one’s understanding.
For example, I love math. During the past few months in my upper level math courses, I have begun writing out all the steps to each and every problem. This makes the problems take 2-3 times longer then just writing out the steps, however, I understand the problems perfectly. If I go back to my notes or homework from earlier math courses (yes, I still keep those…) I look at a problem, and think “What in the world was I doing?” The thing is, I can’t tell. I don’t know what I did and I don’t know what I was thinking. With my new notes, I can hand them off to a fellow colleague and he can understand the steps perfectly.
This example is actaually a good example for both situations. First off, from looking at my notes or my homework, anyone can see that I know what I am doing. This proves my understanding. Secondly, I am watching my steps my understanding of how it works is improved by my putting my steps down in words.
Many times I find that I have to write to understand what it is I want to say. Usually, this means that you write, and once you are done writing, you have to rewrite because you now know what it is you wanted to say in the begining.
I have recently decided that writing to understand is, and can be, a great exercise. If you feel so inclined, try something along these lines. Pick a subject, perhaps a person, maybe an object, process, or place. Then take 5 to 10 minutes to write about it. Explain it. Ask questions like, “Why does this person do that?” “Why does she act that way?” “What does the object do?” “What does it look like?” “How does it work?”
Ask hard questions, don’t make it too easy on yourself. And be sure to be complete in your answers. The goal here is to better understand the person/place/object/process you are writing about.
If you do go through with this, let me know what you think. If you disagree, let me know that as well! I’d be interested to see if anything at all comes from this. (I plan on starting up a “Writing to Understand Journal”, but we’ll see how far that gets.)