Writing To Learn

In the heart of every homeschooling journey lies the quest for methods that not only educate but inspire. William Zinsser's "Writing to Learn" emerges as a beacon of guidance for families navigating this voyage. With a gentle yet persuasive voice, Zinsser introduces us to a teaching approach that goes beyond mere knowledge acquisition. It's about embarking on an adventure with our children, guiding them to express their thoughts, questions, and discoveries through the written word.At its core, "Writing to Learn" illuminates the profound connection between writing and understanding. Like a skilled gardener tending to seedlings, Zinsser teaches us how to nurture our children's ideas, allowing them to blossom into rich insights and knowledge. This book stands not just as a manual but as a companion, walking alongside homeschooling parents and their children, inspiring them to see writing not as a chore but as an exhilarating exploration.What makes this book resonate with homeschooling families is its alignment with the heart and soul of home education: the freedom to tailor learning to each child's unique curiosity and pace. Zinsser's approach, rich in encouragement and practical wisdom, fits seamlessly into the homeschooling ethos. It speaks directly to the heart, urging us to foster an environment where writing is a joyful journey of discovery, not a daunting destination.Beyond academic achievement, "Writing to Learn" gifts students with a skill for life. It teaches them to articulate their understanding and emotions, equipping them with the power to navigate the world with confidence and clarity. As homeschoolers, we cherish not just the academic growth of our children but their development as thoughtful, articulate individuals. Zinsser's masterpiece serves as a key tool in this noble endeavor.William Zinsser's "Writing to Learn" is more than a book; it's a treasure trove of inspiration for homeschooling families dedicated to cultivating lifelong learners. It encourages us to view writing as a natural extension of thinking and learning, beautifully woven into the fabric of our daily educational adventures. Embracing Zinsser's teachings, we can guide our children toward a love for writing that enriches their learning and lights up their paths to understanding. For those seeking to inspire a deeper connection with learning in their homeschool, Zinsser's wisdom is a guiding star.

I thought this was going to be a book about taking notes, or perhaps about writing essays as a tool for organizing thoughts. It’s actually more of a collection of excerpts of what the author considers to be examples of “good writing” from a variety of different fields (math; science, art, nature, etc.). As such it’s not as useful as I hoped, but it’s far more entertaining than I expected. For what it’s worth, I agreed with the author’s choice of excerpts: they were all excellent and well-written.

Among the useful things I took away from this Zinsser text are the following:• “Writing is a form of thinking, whatever the subject…”• “Every discipline has a literature…”• “Clear writing is the logical arrangement of thought; a scientist who thinks clearly can write as well as the best writer…”• “Writing and thinking and learning were the same process..”• “Learning, he seemed to be saying, takes a multitude of forms; expect to find them in places where you least expect them…”• “Along the way I’ve also discovered that knowledge is not as compartmentalized as I thought it was. Hermes and the periodic table are equally its household gods, and writing is the key that opens the door…”• “Motivation is crucial to writing – students will write far more willingly if they write about subjects that interest them and that they have an aptitude for…”• “Writing is learned by imitation…”• “…the essence of writing is rewriting…”• “A piece of writing must be viewed as a constantly evolving organism…”• “Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts…”• “ Probably every subject is interesting if an avenue into it can be found that has humanity and that an ordinary person can follow…”• “… writing is linear and sequential…”• “Freedom, inefficiency, and prosperity are not infrequently found together and it is seldom easy to distinguish between the first two…” I find this observation that Zinsser took from The Birth of the Republic particularly reassuring in light of our contemporary ‘hair-on-fire’ news wherein everything is unprecedented and worse than we have ever known!• “Writing is a tool that enables people in every discipline to wrestle with facts and ideas. It’s a physical activity, unlike reading…”• “…the act of writing will summon from the buried past exactly what we need exactly when we need it. Memory intuition and chance associations will always generate a certain percentage of what any writer writes. The remainder is generated by reason.”• “…there are two kinds of writing: explanatory writing that transmits existing information or ideas… and exploratory writing that enables us to discover what we want to say…”Zinsser provides separate chapters with examples of clear, concise, and illuminating writing from a variety of different disciplines. His specific examples were not as important, to me, as the generic notion that good writing can explore and explain every discipline of thinking. I recommend this book to thinkers, whether they choose to become writers, or not.

For people who care about good writing, writing to learn is an admirable guide on how to write clearly about any subject ranging from art and music to physics and chemistry. Valuable book.

Agradable!

This is yet another excellent book on writing from William Zinsser. The first few chapters elaborate on the idea that writing and thinking go hand in hand, and the rest of the book proves his point of how clear thinking results in excellent writing, and vice versa, with plentiful examples of excellent writing by masters in their own fields, from teachers to artists.Anything that can be thought about can be written, and everything that is written deserves to be thought out well—this is the point that is beautifully exposed in this book.

the author shows several very interesting pieces of writing to illustrate the fact that it is always possible to write clearly and strongly about any topic. However well written the book iS and interesting the examples provided I I was expecting a guide on how to write about something you want to learn and this boOk offers only a few tips on this specific topic.

Haberme cruzado con este autor me ha cambiado: al fin tengo la mejor guía que podría desear para adentrarme en el mundo de la escritura.