Essay writing is the beginning of understanding

[coberst]

Essay writing is the beginning of understanding

Knowing is like day breaking, understanding is like lightening striking.

Comprehension is the payoff for struggle. There is a hierarchy of comprehension. Like a pyramid with the base being awareness, followed by consciousness (awareness plus attention) then comes knowledge with understanding at the pinnacle of the pyramid.

Reading is the key to knowing and essay writing is the canvas for creating understanding.

Of all the creatures perhaps humans are the only ones who fail to live up to their potential. Obesity is the evidence of a lack of physical endeavor and boredom is the consequence of a lazy brain.

“Reading is fundamental.” Essay writing is the art and science of creation.

We can take any issue that might enrage any one of us and we can discover that the root cause of it is the fact that we the citizens are not doing our job. In a liberal democracy wherein the sovereignty rests on the shoulders of the citizen any outrage committed by that society can ultimately be traced back to the lack of enlightenment by the citizen.

Enlightened does not equal informed. Information flows over us in a daily deluge but consciousness is the missing catalyst for action. Our daily dose of information might be compared to our drive to work each morning. We are deluged with information reaching our perception on our drive to work and very little of that information becomes an object of consciousness.

Humans are pattern recognition creatures. We survive by the patterns of which we are conscious. To be an enlightened citizen is to be a citizen who has rationally organized a matrix of pattern detecting systems.

We have in our genes some pattern detecting systems. When hiking in the woods I am occasionally stopped in my tracks with a deep chill by some kind of form or movement. Among this infinite amount of movement and pattern one particular set penetrates my consciousness. We have evolved with this detection system so as to survive the predators.

I think that if we make the intellectual effort to understand some domain of knowledge and perhaps take the additional effort to write out our understanding of that matter, our essay will serve as our pattern for recognition for matters pertinent to that domain.

I consider that writing an essay is a major means for reaching an understanding of a domain of knowledge.

I think that these forums offer a great opportunity for practicing our writing skills. Do you agree? Is writing part of your learning process?

[jay_shark]

Wonderful post .

For me I enjoy posting to keep my skills sharp . I also take a lot of pleasure in teaching someone something they don't already know .

[ilyasik]

very interesting and musing post!
i think that not only this forum is great to keep up or practise your writing.
sometimes i write my thoughts of an issue, save it and after one year or something like this, i read it again.
just wonderful to see if your writing skills improved or not! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

(in this forum i try to improve my english :P)

[chezlaw]

To really understand something teach it to others.

or better still program a computer to do it.

chez

[PairTheBoard]

Now you're talking. At least you're talking about talking. But it's a start.

PairTheBoard

[John Feeney]

Agreed. Writing forces you to shore up the holes in our knowledge and forces you to learn -- that is if you care about what you write. I used to use posting here to add to and clarify my understanding of poker. Writing the book I did had that effect too.

Now I maintain a blog on a couple of environmental topics. I'm not an expert on those subjects, but learn more with every post. This wouldn't happen if it were just the usual blog providing links to others' articles with a sentence or two of commentary. But by making the effort mostly to write original essays I immerse myself in the material in question and force myself to grapple with it. On the other end, I come out a little more enlightened.

[coberst]

[ QUOTE ]
To really understand something teach it to others.

or better still program a computer to do it.

chez

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen, Brother/Sister. You are right on the mark.

[coberst]

[ QUOTE ]
Agreed. Writing forces you to shore up the holes in our knowledge and forces you to learn -- that is if you care about what you write. I used to use posting here to add to and clarify my understanding of poker. Writing the book I did had that effect too.

Now I maintain a blog on a couple of environmental topics. I'm not an expert on those subjects, but learn more with every post. This wouldn't happen if it were just the usual blog providing links to others' articles with a sentence or two of commentary. But by making the effort mostly to write original essays I immerse myself in the material in question and force myself to grapple with it. On the other end, I come out a little more enlightened.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have thought about writing a blog but the big question that stops me is "how do you find anyone that is interested in reading a blog about important ideas beyond the usual emotional politics and religion?

[John Feeney]

[ QUOTE ]
I have thought about writing a blog but the big question that stops me is "how do you find anyone that is interested in reading a blog about important ideas beyond the usual emotional politics and religion?

[/ QUOTE ]

Good question. Well, some people are content to blog without many readers. They just like it. But with a blog like mine, because I believe it's important to get its message out, I aim for as many readers as possible. In that regard, I have one advantage: Despite the blog's focus being on the most urgent issues of our time, IMO, it is one of only about two blogs out there with an emphasis on precisely those topics. So I've been able to fill a void to some degree, and develop a modest base of readers.

Even then, the topics are among those people don't like to hear about so I have to "evangelize" the blog, letting various relevant organizations know about it, commenting on related blogs and political and environmental sites, etc. In theory, if you just keep providing solid content, readership will gradually grow. The challenge, though, is that the higher traffic blogs tend toward cutsey writing on empty, human interest topics or toward tech stuff. So more serious blogs have to fight for a different contingent of readers. They do seem to be out there, but it takes a real investment of time and effort to reach them.