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/lit/ - Literature


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17096010 No.17096010 [Reply] [Original]

Why bother writing an essay?

Most of the time, students write essays only because they are required to do so by a
classroom instructor. Thus, students come to believe that essays are important primarily to
demonstrate their knowledge to a teacher or professor. This is simply, and dangerously,
wrong (even though such writing for demonstration may be practically necessary).
The primary reason to write an essay is so that the writer can formulate and
organize an informed, coherent and sophisticated set of ideas about something
important.
Why is it important to bother with developing sophisticated ideas, in turn? It’s because
there is no difference between doing so and thinking, for starters. It is important to think
because action based on thinking is likely to be far less painful and more productive than
action based upon ignorance. So, if you want to have a life characterized by competence,
productivity, security, originality and engagement rather than one that is nasty, brutish and
short, you need to think carefully about important issues. There is no better way to do so
than to write. This is because writing extends your memory, facilitates editing and clarifies
your thinking.
You can write down more than you can easily remember, so that your capacity to consider
a number of ideas at the same time is broadened. Furthermore, once those ideas are
written down, you can move them around and change them, word by word, sentence by
sentence, and paragraph by paragraph. You can also reject ideas that appear substandard,
after you consider them more carefully. If you reject substandard ideas, then all that you
will have left will be good ideas. You can keep those, and use them. Then you will have
good, original ideas at your fingertips, and you will be able to organize and communicate
them.
Consider your success over the course of a lifetime. Here is something to think about: the
person who can formulate and communicate the best argument almost always wins. If you
want a job, you have to make a case for yourself. If you want a raise, you have to convince
someone that you deserve it. If you are trying to convince someone of the validity of your
idea, you have to debate its merits successfully, particularly if there are others with other
competing ideas.
If you sharpen your capacity to think and to communicate as a consequence of writing, you
are better armed. The pen is mightier than the sword, as the saying goes. This is no cheap
cliché. Ideas change the world, particularly when they are written. The Romans built
buildings, and the Romans and the buildings are both gone. The Jews wrote a book, and
they are still here, and so is the book. So it turns out that words may well last longer than
stone, and have more impact than whole empires.

>> No.17096012

>>17096010
If you learn to write and to edit, you will also be able to tell the difference between good
ideas, intelligently presented, and bad ideas put forth by murky and unskilled thinkers.
That means that you will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff (look it up). Then you
can be properly influenced by profound and solid ideas instead of falling prey to foolish
fads and whims and ideologies, which can range in their danger from trivial to mortal.
Those who can think and communicate are simply more powerful than those who cannot,
and powerful in the good way, the way that means “able to do a wide range of things
competently and efficiently.” Furthermore, the further up the ladder of competence you
climb, with your well-formulated thoughts, the more important thinking and
communicating become. At the very top of the most complex hierarchies (law, medicine,
academia, business, theology, politics) nothing is more necessary and valuable. If you can
think and communicate, you can also defend yourself, and your friends and family, when
that becomes necessary, and it will become necessary at various points in your life.
Finally, it is useful to note that your mind is organized verbally, at the highest and most
abstract levels. Thus, if you learn to think, through writing, then you will develop a wellorganized, efficient mind – and one that is well-founded and certain. This also means that
you will be healthier, mentally and physically, as lack of clarity and ignorance means
unnecessary stress. Unnecessary stress makes your body react more to what could
otherwise be treated as trivial affairs. This makes for excess energy expenditure, and more
rapid aging (along with all the negative health-related consequences of aging).
So, unless you want to stay an ignorant, unhealthy lightweight, learn to write (and to think
and communicate). Otherwise those who can will ride roughshod over you and push you
out of the way. Your life will be harder, at the bottom of the dominance hierarchies that you
will inevitably inhabit, and you will get old fast.
Don’t ever underestimate the power of words. Without them, we would still be living in
trees. So when you are writing an essay, you are harnessing the full might of culture to your
life. That is why you write an essay (even if it has been assigned). Forget that, and you are
doing something stupid, trivial and dull. Remember it, and you are conquering the
unknown.

>> No.17096967

>>17096010
>>17096012
I agree, and I think for the reasons you brought up, most people should keep some sort of diary for their daily thoughts, as simple as they may be. These written thoughts can be grown over the course of time, so a simple idea composed in a sentence may grow into a much more complex and substantial piece of writing. For the most part, I agree with your essay on essays.

>> No.17097022

>>17096967
thanks for reading!

>> No.17098451

>>17096010
>The Romans built
>buildings, and the Romans and the buildings are both gone. The Jews wrote a book, and
>they are still here, and so is the book.

Because as we all know the Romans never wrote anything.

>> No.17098489

>>17096010
>>17096012
Thank you for posting, I enjoyed reading this
>>17098451
Nothing good anyway. Roman literature is just a knockoff of Greek literature.

>> No.17098916

>>17096012
I enjoyed reading this a lot. Going to go write an essay for university now hahaha

>> No.17098952

Looks like you copypasted from Google Docs, was it?

>> No.17099935

>>17098451
I see what you mean, but it really is only a minor point to illustrate the importance of writing. Also, the book the Jews wrote has been far more influential than what the Romans wrote

>> No.17100601

>>17098916
good luck!

>> No.17101490

>>17096010
quality writing, op. thanks for posting meaningful content

>> No.17101530

>>17098952
>>17101490
I'm sure a teacher once made us read this little lecture but I can't for the life of me remember who wrote it. Or maybe I read it here before, idk

>> No.17101560
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17101560

>>17096010
Ok, this is epic. Good essay OP and this inspired me to get better at writing.

>> No.17101696
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17101696

>>17096010
What is a good way to become better at writing? I have thought about choosing a news article and after reading through it I write some sort of small essay on it. Is this good idea or are there better ways?

>> No.17102037

bump, epic thead op.

>> No.17102894

bump

>> No.17104258

good thread

>> No.17105176
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17105176

>Therein
>Whereupon
>Thereafter
>Heretofore
>Inasmuch

>> No.17105198

>>17096010
>required to do so
>classroom instructor
>Thus
>primarily
>simply, ... wrong (even though ...)
>primary
>formulate
>in turn
>It's
>doing so and thinking
>likely to be far less painful
For you.

>> No.17105288

I have a list of essays I think would be fun to write and have outlined several. Hauntology and the New Deal is one example. If I saw that article in print somewhere I would want to read it immediately so why not just write it myself?

>> No.17105313

>>17096010
>>17096012
I vehemently dislike something about this but am unable to pin down precisely what it is. My hatred for it is unable to be named and labeled by me, which is itself a testament to its effectiveness as writing; an effectiveness, that is, which should be judged on the same terms as cancer's ability to overwhelm and destroy the health of a life, or the skill at which a destroyer unknits creation. If I had to muster my full powers of rationality to give form to this aberration, it would be to say that it is the juvenile striving after the mature; the seeking of truth by the truthless, the misguided sincerity of the unjustifiably sincere.

>> No.17105332

>>17105313
It's pretty simple for me
>second person
>written as if by an administrator with a BA in "education"

>> No.17106138
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17106138

This is just coping for the weak. Your spaghetti arms cant do anything against me. I will break your stupid pen like its nothing. Gym is the true way of life, much mightier than the pen.

>> No.17106204

>>17099935
>Also, the book the Jews wrote has been far more influential than what the Romans wrote
The fanfic sequel was even more influential than the original.

>> No.17106276

Sounds like something Peterson would say. On that account, you're post is "based"

>> No.17106287

>>17106276
Kek wait it really is a Peterson quote

>> No.17106317

>>17105313
his post gay and condescending, and your post is gay and self-indulgent

>> No.17106861

>>17106287
lmao you figured it out. I wanted to see what /lit/'s reaction to Peterson were if they didn't know that it was written by Peterson. It's part of his "How to Write a Paper" that he gives to his students.
https://jordanbpeterson.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Essay_Writing_Guide.docx

>> No.17106868

>>17106204
which was also written by Jews

>> No.17107650

>>17106861
Not really a reaction to Peterson so much as the fact that most people are retarded when it comes to essays/critical analysis. I doubt most people read past the title because it pretty much explains everything. Is he wrong or something?

>> No.17107743

>>17101696
Reading essayists and aphorists are an efficient way, and ought to be standard for newfags. If you can’t be concise, self-editing will never become automatic in composition (much less style).

>>17105313
>>17105332
This. Summary judgement of quality of thought can be levied at a glance, but OP begs the question

>> No.17108710

>>17106138
is that the great khali? I always genuinely believed that he crushed Mysterio's head. to this day I wonder how rey managed to fake a nosebleed onstage

>> No.17108799

>>17096010
>Why bother writing an essay?
To correct an irresponsible youtuber with a large following.

>> No.17109091
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17109091

>>17106861
I don't call myself the Peterson shill for nothing