Writing helps learning

[see: New York Times Article]

The following is a lovely endorsement of the value of writing, for remembering, and learning. Students are encouraged to write short essays of less than 500 words, in language devoid of jargon... "which a relative could understand".

Students were asked to write about concepts they were grappling with. The initiative was inspired by the discovery that there is no better way to master an idea than to write about it. Learning theorists now recognize that it is far better able to absorb information in some forms than others. Thus, children turn things into stories, and when they try to make sense of their life they use the storied version of their experience as the basis for further reflection. If they don't catch something in a narrative structure, it doesn't get remembered very well, and it doesn't seem to be accessible for further kinds of mulling over. Even well into adulthood, we find it easier to process information in narrative form than in more abstract forms like equations and graphs. Most effective of all are narratives that we construct ourselves.

In addition I quite like this comment: I write to discover what I think. Writing not only clarifies what you already know; it is also an astonishingly effective way to learn something new.