Why you should write
"Writing is a sophisticated form of thinking" - Dr. Jordan B. Peterson (University of Toronto)
What is the point of writing? Most of the people who are not professional writers will give you an answer that will describe writing as a means to an end. Either you write to get a good grade, or because your boss insists on it. And this is the perception of writing today unless you are a professional or an aficionado.
One thing that, for some reason, is constantly overlooked and definitely under-promoted is that writing will teach you how to think. It will force you to structure your thoughts, review and rethink everything. It will teach you to articulate. It is a workout for your thinking.
People who know how to think are more than well equipped for this world. You know the type. That's a person you can't get into an argument with without being thoroughly prepared. They will beat you on your own ground. It's because they know how to think. The skill of thinking is the most powerful weapon there is. If you acquire that skill (and it is acquirable through practice) doors will start to open.
Forbes published an interesting article last year commenting on PayScale survey. PayScale surveyed 63,924 managers and 14,167 recent graduates on skills managers see lacking in new graduates. One of the most shocking results was that 60% of managers claim the new graduates they see taking jobs within their organizations do not have the critical thinking and problem-solving skills. That is a surprisingly big percentage, you will agree.
Additionally, 56% of managers said recent grads do not pay attention to detail and 46% said the young workers would do well to hone their communication skills.
Practicing writing will help you become better organized, patient and observant to detail. You cannot write an essay, a report or a story without thinking about what you are writing. You will think about how each paragraph is connected to the one before or how solid the storyline is. You'll think back if the points you were trying to make were actually achieved and, in the end, if it all makes sense. While going through those (and much more) processes you are exercising (critical) thinking.
Furthermore, writing has been recognized for some time now as a strong therapeutical tool. It makes people less anxious and happier. Recent studies have shown that even terminally ill people experience physical benefits from therapeutical writing.
In a more recent study, presented in a conference paper and submitted for publication, Pennebaker, Keith Petrie, Ph.D., and others at the University of Auckland in New Zealand found a similar pattern among HIV/AIDS patients. The researchers asked 37 patients in four 30-minute sessions to write about negative life experiences or about their daily schedules. Afterward, patients who wrote about life experiences measured higher on CD4 lymphocyte counts--a gauge of immune functioning--than did controls, though the boost to CD4 lymphocytes had disappeared three months later.
Although writing about stressful situations causes a temporary sadness and anxiety it helps in the long run. The reason for that is a "simple" act of organizing your anxious feelings. Writing makes you think about those feelings, it makes you draw more specific causal conclusions. Most of the time we only think that we think about things. We glance over the issues and consider them thought of, and that's especially the case with stressful and traumatic memories.
Since writing is so important and therapeutical why aren't we taught better on that skill? Why aren't the benefits being promoted on every corner? Imagine the world of thinkers! The quality of life would improve drastically, for sure. How many bad things would the society be able to prevent?
Dr. Peterson brought up an interesting thought in one of his lectures: maybe they don't want the competition.