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the first title that I wrote for this
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lecture was four benefits of improving
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your essay writing but as I was working
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through it I realized that this
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undersold the importance of what I was
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talking about so I'm going with this
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more grandiose title in this lecture I'm
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going to talk about the benefits of
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improving your essay writing skills and
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I'm going to start with the most obvious
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benefits the ones that are most pressing
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in people's minds when they come looking
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for help with their writing and then
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expand outward to benefits that are a
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bit more abstract but arguably much more
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important because they have to do with
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the role that deep reading and deep
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writing have played in building the
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modern world as we know it that's where
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I'll connect the skills involved in
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essay writing to my grandiose title and
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why it is that good Writers Do indeed
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rule the world the first benefit of
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improving your essay writing skills and
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the most obvious is that essay writing
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is required in high school and college
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and good essay writing skills translate
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into better grades greater success in
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school overall and everything that
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follows from that the fact is that most
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students don't have strong essay writing
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skills and they get penalized for this
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over and over again as they move through
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the school system students only have a
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few classes where they're given focused
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instruction in essay writing if they
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ever get any at all but they're often
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required to write essays in many classes
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and the essay requirements become much
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more demanding as they move through high
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school and into college I think we
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seriously underestimate the long run
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Downstream cost of not being able to
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write essays with good essay writing
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skills academic opportunities open up
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smart kids who can't write often avoid
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the advanced placement classes in high
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school which can derail their academic
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aspirations right from the outset with
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good writing skills students will feel
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more confident taking these advanced
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placement courses they're consequently
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more likely to attend college or
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university they're more likely to
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graduate with a degree go on to a
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post-graduate academic or professional
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program and eventually enter the
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workforce and land a job that is
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professionally reward boing and pays a
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living wage now none of this is news of
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course it's what every student is told
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over and over what's less often disuss
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is how writing skills can benefit people
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who are already in the workforce it's
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true once you get out of school you
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probably won't be asked to write formal
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academic essays but the skills required
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to write a good academic essay translate
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into other skills that are important for
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professional advancement in many work
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environments essay writing skills
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translate into General writing
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communication skills that can improve
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how you write anything from emails to
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Memos to reports to working company
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documents to press releases and Company
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blog posts to mission statements and
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policy recommendations and training
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manuals and advertising copy and
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performance reviews the list of
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situations where a job might require
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writing skills is practically endless
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Beyond merely being able to write good
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effective writing skills that can
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communicate complex ideas and arguments
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in a clear and compelling way is
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incredibly valuable for professional
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advancement why because that kind of big
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picture thinking and communication and
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decision-making is what people in higher
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positions are paid to do in many fields
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and professions at some point good
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writing and communication skills become
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a requirement for advancing any further
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in the field at the very least they open
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up opportunities that won't be available
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to workers who don't have these skills
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so it's a serious mistake to think that
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you'll stop being punished for your poor
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writing skills once you've left school
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because in most cases you won't your
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prospects will continue to be limited in
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ways that others with better writing
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skills will not but the benefits don't
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stop there from a personal SL life
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success perspective good writing skills
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can help you to be a better advocate for
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the causes and goals that matter to you
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because good writing skills especially
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argumentative writing skills will
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translate into good persuasion and
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communication skills generally
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think about the woman who writes a
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letter to the editor of the local
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newspaper about a safety concern in the
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park or the man who stands up in a town
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hall meeting and gives a forceful
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argument about how the city needs to
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support local schools or the teen who
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lobbies for better relations between the
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police and the community or the parents
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who want their children to really
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understand why they hold the values they
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do this is about being an effective
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advocate for the beliefs and values that
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are most important to you good writing
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skills translate into good communication
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skills and good communication skills
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translate into personal empowerment and
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greater ability to Advocate effectively
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for what you believe in now I'm going to
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jump up another level and talk about a
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more abstract but also more profound
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benefit of learning how to write well
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the expression I use for this is
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swimming in the deep end what do I mean
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by the deep end well it's a metaphor
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obviously but I'm using it in the same
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way that we often talk about deep
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thinking versus shallow thinking or
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being a deep reader versus a shallow
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reader a deep thinker is someone who can
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get their mind around complex and
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potentially abstract Concepts who can
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follow a chain of reasoning that employs
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those Concepts and who can construct
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chains of reasoning that employ those
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Concepts shallower thinkers are less
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able to think using abstractions less
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able to follow longer chains of
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reasoning and less able to construct
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such change for themselves a deep reader
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is someone who can read and understand a
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text that contains this kind of depth a
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text that is intended to lead the reader
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through a series of potentially complex
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or abstract ideas that have a logical
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structure and that are organized to
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communicate a larger point this kind of
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reading is much more demanding than just
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understanding The Words and sentences
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being used this kind of reading requires
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an ability to focus and attend to the
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flow of ideas that the text is conveying
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without distraction for an extended
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period of time deep reading requires
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both a focused immersion in the
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conceptual World created by the text and
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an ability to understand and engage with
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the logical flow of ideas that is
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present in the structure of the text now
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notice how I just talked about a focused
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immersion in the conceptual world of the
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text and a logical flow of ideas these
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water metaphors are very natural at
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least to me so what's a shallow reader
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well a shallower reader is someone who
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has more difficulty understanding more
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abstract Concepts a harder time
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following chains of reasoning that use
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those Concepts and in general a harder
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time staying focused and immersed in the
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conceptual world of a text long enough
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to extract the deeper argument or
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narrative that you can only access by
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attending to the flow of ideas and
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letting the narrative play itself out
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for me when I think about deep reading I
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have this image of being able to dive
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deep enough underwater where the most
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exotic and interesting ideas and
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Concepts live and stay underwater long
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enough to experience what exotic
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creatures the flow of the current will
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bring and where it will carry us a
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shallow reader can't dive as deep or
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stay underwater as long and so they
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can't access the flow of ideas in the
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way that the Deep reader can now we've
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talked about deep thinking and deep
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reading obviously there's a relationship
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deep reading requires deep thinking you
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can't successfully access a deep text
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without thinking deeply yourself but
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we're leaving something out who wrote
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that deep text to begin with let's call
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this skill deep writing deep writing is
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the ability to construct a text that
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expresses deep thinking and that by its
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nature is only accessible by Deep
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reading the Deep writer creates the
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world of exotic ideas chooses their
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Arrangement and orchestrates their flow
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it's a profoundly creative act but the
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creative work of the deep writer is only
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accessible to the Deep reader now I'm
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going to say two things that I think are
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very important the first has to do with
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the relationship between the three types
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of cognitive activity that I've just
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described deep thinking deep reading and
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deep writing are not independent skills
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they're different modes of the same
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underlying cognitive skill set and they
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develop best when you devote time to
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exercising each of the modes if I want
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to develop my capacity for deep thinking
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I can study logic and learn new
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vocabularies but I can't get very far
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unless I work on trying to understand
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deep texts and and one of the best ways
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to develop your capacity for deep
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thinking and deep reading is to work on
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your deep writing skills by learning how
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to organize your thoughts into
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paragraphs and structure those
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paragraphs into a larger narrative or
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argument you're developing your ability
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to structure your own thoughts and to
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read deeper texts so that's another very
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important benefit of working on your
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writing skills it will help you develop
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the capacity to access deeper texts and
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literally to think deeper thoughts but
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I'm not done yet because I haven't said
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very much about why being able to access
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these deeper texts is important I mean
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who cares right it seems like a lot of
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work and for what so you can impress
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people at cocktail parties with how
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literate you are how big your vocabulary
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is well for me here's the most important
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reason why developing these skills is
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important it's important because the
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modern world as we know it is a product
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of deep reading and deep writing and the
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technologies that democratized these
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skills and made them available to every
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one rather than a small Elite all of the
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major Innovations in Science History law
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politics economics and religion that
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formed the basis of our modern
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industrial Democratic technological
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culture were conceived and communicated
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by people who had these skills written
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texts functioned as the warehouse of
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historical memory they were the mode by
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which new ideas were contributed to
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ongoing dialogues that spanned
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continents in centuries and it's through
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the writing of these texts that
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innovators were worked out their new
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ideas shared them with others and
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ultimately created the institutions that
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made these ideas a reality so when I say
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that learning how to write helps us to
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learn to swim in the deep end I mean
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that it makes it possible for us as
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individuals and collectively as a
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society to unlock learn from and
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contribute to this tremendous historical
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Legacy so like I said at the beginning I
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had titled this video four benefits of
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improving your essay writing and here's
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a summary of the four benefit benefits
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I've tried to show that beyond the
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obvious benefits of getting better
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grades in school there are a lot of
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Downstream benefits that may not be as
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obvious the last point about the
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connection between deep reading deep
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writing and our ability to access and
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contribute to the greatest achievements
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of the modern world is the most abstract
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but also in my view the most important
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benefit my goal on structuring this
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course is to present the key principles
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of essay writing in a way that will not
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only help you write better essays but
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also help you understand and appreciate
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these more abstract connections between
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deep reading deep writing and deep
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thinking now before we move on I want to
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address a possible misconception about
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what I've been trying to say here I'm
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not saying that people who can't read or
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don't read much can't be deep thinkers
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or that the only way to access or
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contribute to the content of a deep text
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is through reading it doesn't follow for
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example that people with dyslexia who
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have difficulties with reading can't
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swim in the deep end as I've turned it
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or can't contribute to the legacy of
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human wisdom and Innovation that I've
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also been talking about they obviously
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can and do there are plenty of brilliant
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authors and scientists who are dyslexic
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we don't want to confuse the cognitive
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activities associated with deep reading
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and deep writing with the superficial
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mechanics of visual symbol processing
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fluency in Reading is not a requirement
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for any of the activities I've been
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talking about I just wanted to make that
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clear before moving on
