Write book by avrdreamer, licensed by creative commmons from Flickr.
People say:
Writing makes you happier.
Write the goals down, and you will make it.
Writing is an essential communication skill, in any sense.
Well, I agree the last one at least, though opening a blog and write on the keyboard may not be qualified for the first two reasons (aka write with a water-fountain pen?). There are many reasons why someone wants to achieve high quality writing, and here are the few reasons I want to embrace:
Career-wise:
At this late stage of PhD program, I am researching for handful post-doc directions from campus career panels. Be it a coincidence or not, a common skill that was emphasized is: writing. Do you like writing? Do you write well? Given the time/location constraint, can you persuade someone in 300 words at the other side of the screen? Can you write professionally versus "sup/nm"-like text? No matter where I am moving on to: marketing and communication, patent law, consulting, education, or even academia, writing effectively/professionally is something sitting behind, never changes its merits.
Communication-wise:
What you dress projects your self image, along the same route: what you write (or how you write) exposes your inner self. Therefore every email, every letter, every essay, or even Christmas card you write, are projecting your inner self to the world to some extent. What kind of person you want to develop into? What kind of inner image you want to show through? You may have millions of novel ideas and/or deep thoughts, but expressing them with a K10 writing level- that's not sexy.
On the other hand, sitting down and writing not only allow you to have deep introspection for what you want to say, but also push you through the intellectual process that you won't proactively experience. Communicate with yourself, and Know Thy Self.
Knowledge-wise:
The best way to learn anything is to mimic first, digest in your own way, rebuild the system, and add more value to make it better. I am a traditional bookworm. While reading is always fun and relaxing, to really grasp the gist from an amazing book/blog/essay rather than just relying on the unreliable memory, write down comments and summaries is a good way to go.
In short, to write effectively/professionally is beneficial and crucial in career seeking, deeper and solid communication as well as knowledge grasping.
In the next post, I would explain how this blog will help to develop your writing skills.
Chelsea
"On the other hand, sitting down and writing not only allow you to have deep introspection for what you want to say, but also push you through the intellectual process that you won't proactively experience. Communicate with yourself, and Know Thy Self."
ReplyDeleteYou have very deep understanding of writing. I can't agree more!!!