The Importance of Writing

“Why is writing important?” This is an intelligent and very practical question that I often hear from students. They want to know why they should spend the considerable time and effort it takes to write well. One answer is that writing is an important skill set to master because it can convey ideas in a lasting way. There are several important elements to that last sentence: first, writing is a skill set, not a singular skill; second, writing is used to convey ideas; and finally, writing endures over time.

Writing is a skill set
One of the difficulties teachers have in talking about writing is our use of the simple word writing to convey what is actually a complex activity. By using the word writing, we invite confusion with the act of putting pen or pencil to paper or fingers to the keyboard and forming letters into words. These are the physical motions of writing, but they are not the substance of it. A quick side note here: Members of the media have recently taken to criticizing one another by referring to those journalists who do not do the true work of journalism as typists. This seems a fitting distinction for writers to make as well. Are you doing the work of writing, or are you merely typing?

I’m not sure what the solution to this particular semantic problem is. I’m not suggesting we stop using the word writing to indicate what we do or are trying to teach. I do think, however, that we need to be more aware of the pitfalls of the word and strive to articulate and understand the skill set of writing. Which brings us back to the original claim that writing is a set of skills not a singular skill. So what are these skills?

There are many of them, actually: planning the writing project, organizing your ideas, crafting your sentences for maximum clarity and appeal, proofing your writing to ensure it doesn’t contain grammatical errors that might obscure your meaning or make your work look sloppy.

The most important skill, by far, though, is thinking. Writing begins with thinking or analysis. In fact, writing can be an aid to the act of thinking. The two acts are intertwined. Though not all thinking is done in writing, all good writing involves thinking. If you don’t know the subject matter you’re writing about, you have nothing meaningful to say about it. If you don’t know the reason you’re writing, you won’t know what to say about the subject. If you don’t know the audience for whom you’re writing, you won’t know how to phrase your writing. In short, if you’re writing without thinking, you’re definitely just typing.

Writing Conveys Ideas
Thus we return to the second assertion we made a moment ago, that writing is used to convey ideas: writing is communication. Communication is critical to our survival. Without communication, progress stops cold. When we cannot share our ideas and observations with one another, we are doomed, not only to a cold and lonely emotional and intellectual existence, but we are further doomed to a world in which learning – survival itself – is confined only to our own experience of what we can observe. You don’t think learning is a matter of survival? How could you survive if you never learned what foods you can eat or which are poison to you or how to gather the proper foods? Without learning, you’re toast. And without communication, you’d have to learn everything by trial and error. You think school is tough? In the world without communication, one error may be all you get.

“Yes,” says the observant student, “but we can share ideas by talking, so why is writing so important?”

Writing Endures
This intelligent question brings us to our third assertion that writing is lasting: writing endures. There is a corollary to this assertion as well. Not only does writing endure, but because it endures, it also propagates. Through speech alone, our world continues to be limited, though certainly expanded from a world in which only observation can teach us anything, but writing can be transmitted to other people in other places all over the world.

Speech can travel only so far and lasts but a moment. Once the spoken word has faded away, only memory can ensure that the thoughts communicated with speech are transferred. Now many cultures have used oral history to pass down the wisdom of the culture. However, those cultures tend to remain rather insular by comparison to cultures that can spread their word in writing.

So what?
“OK,” says the savvy student, “writing is a skill set that lets me convey my ideas in a way that lasts. So what? I still don’t get why it’s so important. Why should I care about grammar and thesis statements and all that stuff my English teachers are trying to get me to do? What’s so important about that? My friends don’t care if my e-mails and text messages are grammatically correct or have thesis statements, why should I?”

To you, I say, you’re probably right. Most of your friends probably don’t care about those things. They are willing to spend the time to figure out what you meant to say even if you weren’t clear about it. And you may not care whether they understand what you mean. So, perhaps what you’re e-mailing about isn’t so important that it needs to be very clear and grammatically correct. Perhaps it is not so intellectually deep as to require a great deal of organization or a focus like a thesis statement. So for those types of written communications, don’t sweat the details.

Demonstrating your value
However, there are other situations – like school or in the business world – and other audiences – like teachers and business professionals – for whom those things will matter. And they will matter, not because the people involved are being pedantic or trying to make your life difficult. Those things will matter because the subject matter is important or complex enough to require real skill to effectively articulate what you are trying to communicate. Or because time is of the essence for your reader. Or simply because paying attention to the details of good writing shows that you have the kind of discipline and professionalism that are prized in your career field.

The bottom line is this: your friends value you for a variety of reasons, but in the professional world your value is tied to your brain.

You are only valuable to your employer to the extent that you can solve problems and produce results. Your ability to think is your most valuable asset, and you will often be asked to convey your ideas in writing. If those ideas don’t make sense, if they are not clearly presented, your bosses will move on. They don’t have the time to try to figure out what you meant to say, and they are unlikely to trust that you can produce the kind of results they want if your writing shows that you don’t pay attention to detail and don’t care about the quality of your work.

Your ability to think and to clearly convey your thoughts is very important. Since writing is the single most durable and transmittable way to convey your thoughts, writing well becomes a very important skill set for you to possess. As for your teachers, their job is to help you develop those skills. They demand success from you because they know that someday your livelihood will depend on it.

Next week, I hope to post the first of our interviews with actual business professionals. In many ways, that should be a good introduction to the practical importance of writing. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to leave your comments and questions.