On Writing as Thinking 

How do you use writing to aid your thinking in your professional/intellectual/scholarly/research practice?


Amanda Simson
Albert Nerken School of Engineering

February 2025
Issue 1

I think that often, when we don’t understand things, we don’t notice.

Our brain skips over the complex issues in our work and instead concentrates on the areas we understand well. I think these gaps in understanding can be seen by close reading our own writing. When I review a draft manuscript, I am looking for these areas found in obscure and poorly worded transitions, big words, and ineffective citations. For me, this is where the interesting stuff to think about is probably hiding. For me, a draft manuscript is therefore a brainstorming activity. I think that in engineering education, people think of writing as “communicating your ideas to a larger audience” but I don’t think that we teach how it can be used effectively for self-reflection and figuring out our ideas in the first place. (I also don’t think students realize that when they use jargony obscure writing that professors notice and know this is where they haven’t done their homework). I have found that the highlights of my research papers have come out of discussions (withmy co-authors or just myself) about the areas of tension, and simply, poor writing, that I dug into from my first draft.