Writing to Learn

I have been reading a book by the late William Zinsser called Writing to Learn. I had read a bulk of it years back, but decided to pick it up again. A major point that I am discovering (which I didn't really get before) is that to write clearly you do have to think through issues. And by thinking through issues, you do get to understand the material much better.

I should have known this because I sometimes do an exercise I learned from Dr. James Pennabaker, a professor at the Univ. of Texas, Austin. The exercise is to write for 10 minutes on a topic you've studied, and not to worry about spelling, syntax, or flow. He said this is a great way to learn material, much better than the usual method of reading material over and over again.

It's all still quite surprising to me.


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