Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions.

Carl Sagan 

American astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan emphasised the critical importance of writing when he stated, ‘Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of magic.’ 

As teachers, we aspire for our students to be competent, motivated and confident writers. Yet, the challenges we face in engaging our students in purposeful writing, in generating their enthusiasm for writing, and in developing their writing skills, are substantial. The social and private worlds of many of our young people are increasingly framed through written language that is instantaneous, often fragmented and conveyed in the moment as direct speech communicated via a digital platform. Text messaging, Instagram, Twitter, and other forms of social media have become the usual channels for constructing identities, forming relationships and interacting in a range of contexts. Immersed as they are in digital technology, many of our students are confident and capable when it comes to participating in everyday online communication. However, when it comes to the more complex and formal writing demands of the school curriculum, the situation is quite different. The academic context of school writing rewards written, literate and standard English as distinct from the more informal, spoken English dialect used in casual communication. Equipping students with the wide range of writing capabilities which allow them to succeed at school and work, is a responsibility which teachers take very seriously. 

Writing is a medium for thinking and making sense of experience. When we write, we write ourselves into meaning, discovering ideas and generating insights. We write to clarify, solve problems, shape and communicate our beliefs and perspectives, experiment, access the inner world of thoughts and emotions and conduct our transactions in the public, social and professional areas. Every act of writing is therefore potentially an act of creation. 

Terry Tempest Williams captures the importance of writing in the following reflection: 

“I write to make peace with the things I cannot control. I write to create red in a world that often appears black and white. I write to discover. I write to uncover. I write to meet my ghosts. I write to begin a dialogue. I write to imagine things differently and in imagining things differently perhaps the world will change. I write to honour beauty. I write to correspond with my friends. I write as a daily act of improvisation. I write because it creates my composure. I write against power and for democracy. I write myself out of my nightmares and into my dreams. I write in a solitude born out of community. I write to the questions that shatter my sleep. I write to the answers that keep me complacent. I write to remember. I write to forget…. I write as though I am whispering in the ear of the one I love.”

With advances in neuroscience over the last decades, we are gaining valuable insights into the role of writing in cognitive development and the benefits of and processes involved in the act of writing. Most interesting amongst these for teaching writing is the evidence that:

• Expressive writing has shown to reduce stress by 60%. This kind of writing may include, for example, journal writing, stories and reflections.
• Writing for 15 minutes, three times a week, has shown to improve sleep and have a positive impact on mental health.
• Regular expressive writing is linked to improved immune function, mood and general wellbeing.
• Writing regularly can assist in closing ‘mental tabs’ which lead to stress and neural overload.
• Writing by hand has been shown to improve understanding and the retention of information. Pen and paper writing sends unique sensory signals to the brain that build motor memory and imprint knowledge in the brain more effectively than through using a keyboard. So, thinking and memory are enhanced by pen and paper writing rather than keyboard writing. 

The act of writing regularly is therefore not only advantageous for students’ academic performance, but also of considerable potential benefit to an individual’s health and wellbeing. Thus, the formation of a community of teacher-writers and student-writers is an important part of the Mount Carmel literacy landscape.

Mrs Clare Murphy

English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach