Writing as thinking

“Writing is Thinking” is a philosophical approach to academic and nonfiction writing, based on the work of Verlyn Klinkenborg and Toril Moi. They teach us to tend to our sentences. They show us how this work is fundamental to thinking clearly and communicating clearly. As Klinkenborg puts it, “Your job as a writer is making sentences.” And he identifies the crux of the issue: “There are innumerable ways to write badly. The usual way is making sentences that don’t say what you think they do. What can the reader possibly believe? Your sentences or you?”

The sentence is central for two crucial reasons. First, we only know what we are saying when we put our ideas into sentences (when we in fact say or write them). Writing is thinking, and thinking without writing is often vague and amorphous. This unclarity is exposed and can be addressed when it shows up in a sentence that needs revision. Revising is thinking: working to express exactly the idea you mean and no other.