Have you ever been on the receiving end of a written communication that failed to clearly articulate the author’s meaning which led to a misunderstanding? Or perhaps, like me, you received a letter from a local business that was so filled with errors that your perspective of that business was tarnished forever? As a professor of mostly undergraduate students, it is rare that students are asked to dig deep into page upon page of an intense scientific study; however, they are required to offer supporting evidence for their ideas and opinions. And, I admit, that in the last few years, it has been necessary to review the components of a good paragraph; because, yes, it is even critical to communicate well when addressing sport and health topics.
As I read Tim Elmore’s and Andrew McPeak’s book entitled Marching Off the Map recently, one item of note stood out to me as describing well my desire for students to understand the importance of Writing Well and the authors explain the concept in better prose than I ever could. “Many [people] fail [at communication] because they lack the ability to construct arguments, build ideas, and distinguish essential information from non-essential information. Kids who learn analytic writing not only get better at writing, they get better at every subject…This ability to articulate ideas is the foundation on which other skills can be built-literally, inside the brain…it supports those skills in the same way that a keystone supports a foundation.”
It has been my experience that most students can easily navigate the information related to the topic of sports, but what is lacking, is the ability to articulate the concepts well and to share with the reader what experts on the topic have said. Because of this, I tend to focus more on the writing feedback rather than on the ideas presented about sports. The ideas will change as the sport industry and technology evolve, but the importance of being able to communicate ideas precisely and clearly will never be removed from our culture. This writing ability will be a key essential skill that will translate into many other areas of one’s career. Writing Well with supporting ideas from research will benefit all types of communication, whether you are composing an email to a supervisor or offering a presentation to a board of directors.
Building on Elmore and McPeak’s idea of developing writing as an essential skill, Gibson and Beitler take the idea that what we write, as Christ followers, should be approached from the perspective of developing a spiritual discipline. “A legal brief, a scientific article, an op-ed piece on local affairs, a short story, correspondence with a patient, a libretto: all of these genres can-and, in fact, should– be occasions for the practice of what we call ‘charitable writing.’” Framing these ideas in their book Charitable Writing,the authors opine that all writing should embody “the distinctive Christian understanding of love, which used to go by the name ‘charity’ in English. Adding, “More specifically, ‘charitable writing’ is writing that seeks to fulfill our Lord’s great ‘double commandment’ to love God and our neighbors…As we will see, Jesus frames the commandment so that it admits no exceptions: there is no activity, however mundane, to which the ‘law of love’ does not apply,” and this encompasses writing as well.
So, if I choose to accept the view that Writing Well is considered a spiritual discipline, then my approach to writing and requesting that students invest time in their own writing, should reframe the process to focus more on developing a Habit of Awareness that honors others. Being a Good Neighbor involves considering others when acquiring knowledge and writing about what we have learned. “Knowledge is a profoundly public affair. It grows as thinkers trade ideas in a variety of media-books, journals, blog posts, lectures, conferences, and so on. Humility, then, doesn’t just play out against the background of the all-knowing God. Its domain is also our relationships with fellow pursuers of truth-whether that is our friends, classmates, fellow church members, or colleagues in an academic discipline or professional field.”
So, regardless of what form my writing takes, even when it may be Mundane and Monotonous, I now have to consider it as an act of loving my Lord and loving others. That should transform my approach and set the standard much higher for Charitable Writing. Please feel free to share in the comments below a time when Writing Well greatly impacted you.
References:
Flourishing @ Life 