The Saturday Morning Post: Reading, Writing, Learning

Soda Springs, Idaho 

At college I took an advanced writing class that was taught in a format of reading primary sources, writing about the issue, re-reading the sources, and revising the writing. The theme for the semester was learning theory, and we read a variety of points of view of how people learn, how to teach.  Writing about them, comparing them, agreeing and disagreeing with the concepts.  I learned a bit about teaching and learning and a whole lot more about how to develop thoughts and write.  The topic was a good fit for me, serious non-fiction, more theory than facts.  Here I am decades later still wringing new understanding out of the experience. I have to say, that class changed me. 

I was not an enthusiastic reader growing up.  In my 20's I was working in field offices, with long periods of boredom, and intense periods of profitable work.  I started reading to fill the hours when nothing was happening, but we had to be there for when it did happen.  A couple of books a month probably on average.  I wish I had kept a list of everything I have read.  I started doing so a few years ago.  

I am on pace for more than a book a week this year.  I have already finished 45 books, have two I am reading at the moment and several more on my Kindle waiting to start (and a couple of print books waiting.) Even books that I don't like, usually have something to offer.  

I have known since elementary school that my writing needed improvement.  I worked on it in college, and it was better, but it was still a struggle.  About a dozen years ago, I decided to work on it.  I read a few books (probably more than a few, when I dive into a question, I usually read enough to earn a degree in it.) One recurring idea was that to write better, write more.  Part of the reason I committed to blogging daily, is it forces me to create a few coherent (well mostly so) pages of text each week.  

And my writing, at least from my perspective has become better.  It is easier, faster, and clearer.  Even my spelling has improved.  

Three of us in the office have co-authored a 138 page soon to be released book. Doing an edit and read through, I realized I can tell who wrote what parts of it.  I learned that I am not the only one whose brain writes in particular patterns.  We are melding it together in a single text.  

Three simple take aways,

Read voraciously, 

Write more, the more you write the better and easier it is,

Keep learning, and by reading and writing you will keep learning.