Summer Writing Workshop (2): Writing Is Thinking

We often think of writing as the final product. We do our research. We conceive our ideas. And then we just write them down. In other words, we treat writing as simply attaching words to pre-formulated ideas.

This conception is inaccurate as a matter of cognitive science and counterproductive as a matter of writing strategy.

The physical, manual process of writing is itself a cognitive process. Richard Menary , a professor who specializes in the philosophy of language and cognition, explains :

Creating and manipulating written sentences are not merely outputs from neural processes but, just as crucially, they shape the cycle of processing that constitutes a mental act.

If that sounds a little too highfalutin for a summer workshop, let's break it down.

First, writing, more than pure research, facilitates a deeper cognitive engagement with your subject matter. As a cognitive process, research involves mostly storage and retrieval of content. Writing necessarily requires you to take the content you have read and engage in critical thinking, analysis, reflection, evaluation, and creativity to reshape that content into your own words.

Those same processes inherent in writing are necessary for you to connect the content you research to other ideas and concepts you may already know or have researched elsewhere. Writing can help you understand the content you are researching at a deeper level than if you simply read it.

Second, writing expands our linguistic capabilities. As Michael Mcilwrath and others have commented in yesterday's post, writing is the most important skill a lawyer can have. How do you develop that skill? By writing. Writing. And writing some more.

When we are challenged to express ideas more clearly, we (hopefully) push beyond the boundaries of our habitual jargon to explore more precise and effective ways to communicate our ideas.?Intentional efforts to expand our linguistic capabilities are all the more important these days when so much of our daily communication is in short texts or emoji's ?? To the extent writing is hard or painful (topic of the first installment in this series), remember no pain, no gain!

What does all this mean for your current writing project? Here are a few takeaways.

? Don't put off writing until you have "finished" your research. If you wait until you are "finished" with your research, you will not start writing until it is too late. Instead, integrate writing into your reach process.

This suggestion may sound intimidating. How do you start writing if you don't fully understand your subject? That is precisely the point above--writing can help engage more deeply with your subject and therefore understand it better. Going back to Professor Menary, "writing restructures thought." That restructuring of thought is too valuable to postpone until later stages of your writing project.

To the extent you write something that you realize after further research is completely wrong, no problem! That is what the cut-and-paste and delete keys are for.

There is much more to be gained than lost from writing early, before you have "finished" your research. Forcing yourself to transform your research into writing will help you understand where you have gaps in your understanding or reasoning. Transforming your research into writing will also help you understand how ideas fit together and hopefully inspire creative new ways to think about your content.

To the extent you write something that you realize after further research is completely wrong, no problem! That is what the cut-and-paste and delete keys are for. And that brings us to our next topic.

? Give yourself permission to have an MFD--a Messy First Draft. Despite our intentions, we almost all, almost always, have a Messy First Draft. (See Shakespeare comic in comments below). The trick is to lean into this reality, not resist it.

One reason we resist the idea of an MFD goes back to the topic of yesterday's post : "When we write, we create a physical record by which we can be judged, even by ourselves."?While the ideas are still mulling around up in our heads, we can believe that when we finally write them down, they will be brilliant. But writing the first word can shatter that peaceful, easy feeling (as Dr. Kishor Dere commented yesterday). Writing that first word usually makes clear to us just how fuzzy our "brilliant" thinking really is.

? Use the process to improve your writing. Use every writing project as an opportunity to hone your skills. The suggestion is not that you complicate your sentences or experiment with big words (which Jean-Claude Najar reminded us yesterday should be avoided). But instead, take each writing task as an opportunity to improve, even on the basics.

This final point is a perfect preview for tomorrow's topic: Good Writing Is RE-Writing!

Stay tuned.

#summerwritingworkshop

Anna Howard ?Patricia Shaughnessy ?Michael Mcilwrath ?Stavros Brekoulakis ?Dr Crina Baltag, FCIArb ?Baiju Vasani Barry Leon