Janet Emig, Writing as a Mode of Learning (College Composition and Communication, pp. 122-128, Vol. 28, No. 2) (May, 1977).

In this short essay, Janet Emig beautifully articulates all the ways that writing is learning. Most tellingly, she concludes her essay with what can be seen, through the eyes of 2026 faculty, as a foreshadowing of the importance of students learning to write their ideas (even though, of course, Professor Emig had no inking that AI was coming).

Here is her conclusion:

This essay represents a first effort to

make a certain kind of case for writing-

specifically, to show its unique value for

learning. It is at once over-elaborate and

under specific. Too much of the formu-

lation is in the off-putting jargon of the

learning theorist, when my own predi-

lection would have been to emulate

George Kelly and to avoid terms like re-

inforcement and feedback since their use

implies that I live inside a certain para-

digm about learning I don’t truly in-

habit. Yet I hope that the essay will start

a crucial line of inquiry; for unless the

losses to learners of not writing are com-

pellingly described and substantiated by

experimental and speculative research,

writing itself as a central academic pro-

cess may not long endure.

Enjoy this very smart essay.