Why We Write

Here’s a suggestion from someone who’s done a lot of writing and a lot of thinking about writing. No, I’m not perfect (that doesn’t even exist), and I have a lifetime of learning ahead of me. This is just something that’s helped me, so I thought I’d share. Instead of focusing so much on what to write, try to think about why to write. Before you roll your eyes, hear me out. I’m not just talking about the broad philosophical question of why we compose texts in the first place (though you should think about that if you haven’t yet). What I’m referring to here is closer to a specific text, and I’m suggesting you take this all the way to the sentence level.

Each piece of communication, no matter how small, always has a purpose. The shirt I’m wearing is a small piece of communication, and it tells people a tiny bit about me, who I am, or what I like. I picked it from the store because I thought it would reflect those things (even if I wasn’t consciously thinking that at the time). It’s an expression with a purpose to share my personality with others, but it’s not alone. People learn about me through a lot of different things, more than just my shirt and clothes, like my posture, my facial expressions, tone of voice, behavior, and of course my words. All these together combine to make up others’ understanding of me, and that’s a little like sentences do for a reader. Every sentence has a specific purpose, like your shirt or your left shoe, that contributes to a larger purpose.

Often when we write, it’s easy to focus on what we should be saying rather than the driving purpose behind the writing, and although you might end up with a pretty good essay without ever thinking about it, it’s hard to improve as a writer without it. In high school most of us are given a variety of formulas and frames to apply to writing, patterns that tell us how to construct an essay, what to say and where. These formulas are a great place to start and help us develop critical thinking skills, if that is, we take the time to think about why we use them in the first place, what concepts are they trying to teach us, and how we can apply those to the increasingly unique writing challenges we face in college (and beyond). Self-reflection is key to growing as a writer (and as a person I think). The more we reflect on the why behind each sentence, the easier it is to identify our goals and meet them, especially when you’re trying to write something new and unfamiliar. Understanding the purpose that each sentence is meant to fulfill is a great skill because you can apply it to any writing task in any situation. At least, it has helped me critique myself and improve, and I hope it helps you too! 

David Hardison, FCC WRC Tutor, Student and Instructor at CSU Fresno