Why Thinking Through Writing Is Useful
After reading William Hazlitt, “On the Pleasure of Hating”, and Mattew Salesses, “To Grieve Is to Carry Another Time”, I realized that an exploratory essay is similar to journaling in a dairy. Both pieces of writing allow the writer to deeply connect with their internal self by reanalyzing their experiences and thoughts to come to a clearer interpretation. This process can be beneficial to anyone who is struggling with overflowing thoughts, overthinking a subject or event, and/or feeling overwhelmed.
Sometimes I find myself in these situations and I journal to release the pent-up energy rather than suppressing them. For example, my last journal entry was about the effects of urban crime on kids who live in the city. I couldn’t stop thinking about the topic since growing up in DC I have been exposed to gun violence, domestic violence, drug abuse, etc., at an early age to the point I believed it to be the norm. I wondered if other young people felt the same way and to what extent my theory is true. Journalling my personal experiences and thoughts about the social issue was not only liberating, but also helped me find a topic for my class assignment. It influenced me to write a research paper on the impact of urban crime on children’s quality of life and how it largely connects to a vicious cycle for a school assignment. So, journaling can be viewed as an exploratory essay without the research discussion, while an exploratory essay is both the research discussion and personal experience.
Read more: Why Thinking Through Writing Is Useful
Loved this! Such amazing work 🙂