Why do we write? – Joel Sheldon

Uncategorized Alex Coplestone-Crow February 4, 2020 0 Comments

In a nutshell, the reason for writing anything is to communicate with others, to stimulate action or interest from the reader/s.

You may use writing to help you reflect on your experiences and learn from them, possibly in the form of a diary or even a poem. You then become both the writer and reader.

While at an academic institute, a key way of assessing progress and learning being made is via the written work that is being produced by you.

When we are writing, therefore, we are writing to communicate in some way with a human being, be that yourself or others.

Writing for ourselves

When we write for ourselves, it helps us to think, learn and understand. It can be a private affair, where we delve into the depths of our experiences and minds to try to put down in words how we are feeling, what we are thinking etc. This can then be referred back to as a source of good memory or as an inspiration for future endeavours.

Writing for others

Writing for others can take many forms and can be for a wide variety of reasons. Like right now for example, this article is written to (hopefully) spark some interest and maybe make some people write more than they do. As mentioned before, one could write for an assessment or simply because they want to put a piece of writing out there, like a book or series of poems.

The wonderful thing about any sort of writing is that it can be unpicked in some way. Even if it is an encyclopaedia, with completely factual information, you can still look into who wrote it, why they wrote it, what they are trying to gain etc?

Writing has so many benefits:

It is fixed and therefore permanent. You can keep coming back to it, change it if necessary, learn from something new you hadn’t picked up the first time you read it.
Writing offers you both time and space to put down exactly what you want and therefore some may argue that it is perhaps easier than spoken communication. When speaking, there is no chance to edit or alter what you have said once it is out there. Writing, in that sense, offers a safe environment to work in.
Writing will allow you time to reflect and also learn, as well as become more punctual as usually they have some sort of deadline. It allows you to be a better person.
Writing can sometimes have moire of an impact than other communication channels. Specific language can be selected to best evoke some desired reaction by the reader.

Writing is a way that you can put down what you feel and think about a given experience, situation, crisis and/or subject. It is a way to look deeper into the mind of yourself and of others; to understand what they might think and feel also.