Why We Write

(I've assigned this topic to my AP Language students today.)

Writing, for me, is a way to consider an idea, an event, a feeling, an opinion in a space that escapes the fast pace of society. When writing, I feel able to express an idea more accurately than when speaking; speaking about an idea always feels "fast and loose" to me, as does email, but writing doesn't allow for that kind of verbal sloppiness. Writing carries a weight that (informal) speaking doesn't. Writing requires careful consideration--a lack of clarity in writing isn't forgivable in the way that a lack of clarity in speaking usually does.

With the spoken word, especially in informal contexts, I feel compelled to satisfy the listener--once the person listening seems to understand, I'm done. But with the written word, I feel compelled to satisfy myself--I want my readers to understand, but I feel intense pressure to make sure that I understand. And what I find, more often than not, is that an idea that seemed clear when I sat down to write becomes difficult to articulate, that I felt like I understood the idea before I tried to put it into words, but once I attempt to put it into words, I find that I didn't.

Writing, for me, is discovery--discovery of ideas, but more importantly, discovery of self. In the act of working and re-working and, often, re-re-working sentences, I come to understand more about what I understand, to know more about what I know. And, of course, about what I don't.

This is, perhaps, one of the problems I have with teaching. So much of what we do in the classroom relies on discussion or (what's worse) lecture, but neither of these require the care that good writing demands.