Welcome to the Importance of Writing!
Writing is probably the most overlooked habit in teens. We think it is only for authors who write books. We think it is only necessary to write well in school assignments, not for ourselves. And lastly, we think that writing is useless because why write when you can speak? All of these contribute to teenagers having the wrong interpretation of writing.
However, writing is not just for authors- it is used for CEOs’ to deliver speeches and write emails. It is for communication directors to communicate with others. It is used for advertising managers for them to advertise their products to their audience. And of course, many more jobs require writing. Writing is not just for teenagers to get good grades on their English assignments; it is for them to improve themselves, their thought process, and their minds. And lastly, while communicating verbally is an essential life skill, that doesn’t make writing any less vital. Speaking the first thing that comes out of your mind is a different action than putting meaning into each and every word and making those words flow together to create a powerful and impactful change.
Just to clarify, writing is not just putting together a whole story with fully developed characters, plot, sequence, and more. Writing is anything you do to take your ideas in your head and put onto a document or piece of paper. These include making to-do lists, writing quotes, reflecting upon your day, writing a story, and more. Each and every one of these is significant and has its own benefits.
Writing has the power to transform your life, no matter how small or big of a change it is for you. It can make you either more creative and imaginative, or more analytical and logical. It all depends on you and your writing. This blog will explore the importance of writing and what makes it so significant in today’s world.
Before I get started, I want to point out that writing shouldn’t be something you are “forced” to do. And, if it is, hopefully, it won’t be after you read this blog. Writing should be a way for you to express your feelings, regardless of whether you want to share it or not. So, without further ado, here is the importance of writing:
1. Credible and effective communication
By writing, you are not only improving your writing skills, but also your communication skills. When you are writing, you check for grammar and other sentence mistakes so that your writing is neat. This also means that when you speak, you will be able to check what you are going to say beforehand and make sure that it makes sense.
Another reason why writing makes you a better communicator is that when you are writing, you learn how to write things clearly and concisely. When writing a summary of a book, you do not write every single detail and event that happened. Instead, you sum it up into a paragraph that explains the book without telling everything that happened in it. By this, you learn to also use this skill when speaking. When you want to tell someone something, you will tell them in a clear and concise manner, not in a way that would bore the person.
“This is probably the most impactful reason why writing is important. If you can’t or don’t write, you probably find it more difficult to communicate with all sorts of people.” (https://www.inspiredforward.com)
2. Builds discipline
“Living a life of pleasure is simple. Everyone can “Netflix and chill.” It’s easy to “hang out” all the time. But those easy things will not give you inner satisfaction. The reason that we don’t do anything useful with our precious time is that we lack self-discipline. But when you write every day, you strengthen your discipline. You can use that better self-discipline to achieve virtually anything in life.” (medium.com)
If you decide that you are going to write every day, you need the discipline to actually do that. It is one thing to say that you will, but a whole other thing to actually build on that action. Imagine if you’re watching Netflix one night and you forgot that you had to write today. If you pause the episode and take out a paper and a pencil to write, you are building discipline. However, if you just say, “It’s fine if I skip writing for one day. I’ll just do it tomorrow.” you are not following through on your goal. Taking the time to write every day can be hard, especially if you have a busy life, but by writing, you are making your life less hectic; therefore, helping you in the long run.
3. Helps you think through problems
Great writers are great thinkers. As two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough said, “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” It’s through writing that we exercise our ability to think; they’re not mutually exclusive tasks.
Great writing requires observation, reflection, analysis, and an artful presentation of information, in addition to selecting information in the editing process. Critical thinking is the discipline of “actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing . . . information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.” By improving your writing, you can improve your thinking. It’s a wonderfully simple, but misunderstood, relationship.
Writing improves the thinking process and contributes to the development of critical thinking skills because an individual has to clearly state ideas and lay out arguments in such a way as to cultivate higher order thinking. When writers respond to complex problems, they have the opportunity to state all their ideas and explain how they would solve these problems. This is critical thinking in action.
grammarly.com
4. Improves mental health
“Most of us have very busy schedules as well as a fair bit of stress on our minds, and it’s not uncommon for these things to weigh on us when we actually have a few moments’ respite from non-stop responsibilities—like when we’re trying to sleep. Consider keeping a notepad or journal beside your bed, and allot 15-20 minutes every night to writing down your thoughts about the day. If there are things that are stressing you out, getting them down on paper to acknowledge them may help to alleviate the anxiety so you can get some rest. Alternatively, you can use that time to think about all the great things that happened to you over the course of the day, so that the last thoughts you have before drifting off are positive, constructive ones.” (lifehack.org)
5. Helps achieve goals
“Psychology professor Dr. Gail Matthews, at the Dominican University in California, led a study on goal-setting with nearly 270 participants. The results? You are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down.
Writing your goals down not only forces you to get clear on what, exactly, it is that you want to accomplish, but doing so plays a part in motivating you to complete the tasks necessary for your success. The process of putting your goals on paper will force you to strategize, to ask questions about your current progress, and to brainstorm your plan of attack.” (inc)
6. Become more organized
When you think of organized, you mostly think of color-coded folders, a neat desk and permanently aligned files. However, organization can also be used for your mind, for your thoughts and ideas. Writing is one way to organize your mind.
It’s easier to see thought patterns after you write them down. This lets you figure out which thoughts to keep in your brain, and they’re more organized as a result. If you’ve ever felt like your thoughts are all over the place, try writing them down.
David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, is famous for saying that your head is a terrible office. We actually can’t store more than four action items in our heads at any point. This means if your to-do list is 30 items long, you’ve already forgotten the last 26. Writing your to-dos is a good first step to actually getting things done. You should just never try to use your brain as the primary list.
Sometimes an idea makes little sense until you can see it in words. It also helps when you’re trying to explain your idea to another person—if they can see it written down, it goes a long way for understanding.
inspiredforward.com
7. Wake-up call for your brain
Have you ever hauled yourself to work and then sat there for a couple of hours, waiting for your brain to warm up enough so you could be articulate and productive? That’s a massive waste of time, especially since anything you’d be forced to tackle during that warm-up would be tepid at best.
Instead, consider hitting the ground running by sitting down with a writing assignment while you’re sipping your coffee/tea/wheatgrass smoothie. You can either list a bunch of topics on slips of paper and just pull one from a jar to write about each day, or subscribe to one of the numerous mailing lists that can deliver a subject to your inbox every morning. Figment is great for that, but all you need to do is a quick Google search for “daily writing prompts” and you’ll have no shortage of topics to scrawl about. Getting the gears spinning so early in the morning shakes your brain-meat into good working order, and by the time you roll into the office, you’ll be sharp, focused, and ready to plough your way through anything that lands on your desk.
lifehack.org
8. Vocabulary expansion
Have you even experienced a time when you were writing something and thought you had the perfect word for it until you couldn’t remember what the word actually is? If you have, you know what a negative experience that is. However, why do you think that happened? Well, that’s because you haven’t used that word in a long time.
Of course words are going to vanish from your memory if you don’t use them! So, in order to keep your vocabulary sharp, one thing you can do is write more! By writing, you are keeping your brain active (especially the part of the brain that remembers words.) If you keep using those words, they will be in your brain and you won’t ever have to experience that horrible feeling of having the word at the tip of your tounge but not being able to remember it.
9. Self-improvement
Writing gives each and one of us an opportunity to reflect upon ourselves, so that we can become a better person every following day. It helps you visualize your future, whether the time span is for the next week or the next 5 years.
Ultimately, writing helps us think better, and perhaps even be smarter. Similar to dreams, writing allows us a way to collect our otherwise scattered thoughts and ideas, and channel them into a single beam of information. It opens up a new dimension for the mind to move into and, consequently, creates a space for unparalleled expression and imagination.
It sounds like the rambling, inflated poetry previously warned about, but there’s some science to the idea that writing makes us smarter. The caveat is that studies show old fashioned pen to paper writing is what leads to improved cognitive ability, whereas typing didn’t have the same results. However, it’d be hard to argue against the idea that writing of any kind is sure to enhance the way you perceive the world around you.
huffpost.com
10. Influences society
Books, textbooks, blogs, journals, speeches- all of these things were in a form of writing. If you think about it, there would be no history if people hadn’t written things down. So, it comes to the conclusion that society has been influenced by writing in the past, is being influenced by writing in the past, and will continue to be influenced by writing in the future.
By writing, you are sharing your story, whether that story is one that you created in you head, or your own. Just by making a list, you are sharing a little bit about yourself. It all depends on what you use that writing for. Never write negatively about youself or another, and always use your words carefully. Unlike talking, you can take back those words, but they would never be permanently erased from the paper.
The Takeaway
Writing is and always has been an important part of society. For example, the Declaration of Independence, journals, books, and much more. Nobody would put words on paper for no reason. All the words work together to serve a purpose, whether that is for personal use or community. So, here are 10 ways that prove that writing is important and vital for every one of us, regardless of our age or personality:
- Credible and effective communication
- Builds discipline
- Helps you think through problems
- Improves mental health
- Helps achieve goals
- Become more organized
- Wake-up call for your brain
- Vocabulary expansion
- Self-improvement
- Influences society
If you are now interested in writing and want to start making it a habit, I highly recommend this product: All About Me: The Story of Your Life: Guided Journal. “Do you want to know yourself better? Self-discovery and self-revelation aren’t easy. With simple but provocative questions about wishes and fears, memories and beliefs, secrets and dreams, All About Me will reveal everything you ever wanted to know about yourself but never thought—or dared—to ask. Whether you fill it in or answer questions out loud, this is the perfect gift for your friends, your family, your loved one . . . and you.“
Also, be sure to check out this video on why writing is important!
I am not asking you to start writing a 500 page story or 10 page essay of a specific topic. I am only encouraging you to take some time to open a notebook or journal and fill up however many pages with words. It is up to you for how long you want to reflect and write- it can be from 10 minutes to as long as an hour. And, you can fill up from 1 page to however many you want to. Don’t think of writing as a task, instead think of it as a way to improve upon yourself and reflect so that you can become a better person tomorrow and the days after. If you keep writing consistently, who knows, maybe you could become the next J.K. Rowling!