Writing is Thinking by Shuhua Lu

Shuhua Lu
Professor Bai
English 2F
May 4th
Writing is thinking
Words have a life of their own. Edward Schlossberg, a famous author, said that the skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. As for me, writing itself is a process of thinking.
Writing also represents the different culture. In America, thesis statement is always the last sentence in the first paragraph. However, in China, people can write thesis statement in second, even last paragraph. I believe that the different culture background cause that kind of difference. American is open and direct. In contrast, Chinese is implicit and modest. Therefore, American like saying or writing whatever they like in the very beginning. On the contrary, Chinese will think a lot before they say or write something. For example, a Chinese and an American want to borrow some money from friends with exactly same reason. However, they will use very different way to say. The American will say:”can you lend me some money? I have to pay the rent.” The Chinese will say that:”you know what, I have to pay rent tomorrow, and I will be paid for my work next week. So, can you lend me some money?” It is easy to find that kind of difference in writing. It is the different way of thinking in different culture background.
As an International student, writing English becomes more difficult. I will always think about not only the good content but also how to choose the best words and write the correct grammar. Like a lot of students, the hardest thing for me is to revise my paper. I do not like to read the essay I wrote. It makes me feel awful. Basically, it cost me 5 hours to write a five-page paper. Then, I spend another five hours on improving it. However, I change only a few things, which makes me crazy. I consider that writing is a process of thinking. The reason why revise is so hard is that thinking one thing again and again always gets people to upset.
When I look back my whole writing courses, two essays make great impressions on me. The first one was the second essay I wrote last semester. In that essay, the professor asked us to analyze the meaning of the geography in the article. At the beginning, I through that was an intelligible article which consists of several simple stories, so I could not find any deep meaning of the geography. Then, I went to the writing center, and the assistant there really helped me a lot. He taught me how to dissect the article sentence by sentence. After all, I found a lot of sentences that I thought had no meaning actually had a great influence on the whole article. For instance, the assistant told me that geography is not only the study of the earth’s surface, but also the study of the earth and its features and of the distribution of life on the earth. Therefore, I found that the author talks about many of the specific native food and drinks, such as “rice-an’-peas,” pureed boiled green bananas and sorral, and Jamaica is a place always hot, even in the Christmas. She gets readers to know Jamaica is a special country that she used to live because of its climate, soil and food. Furthermore, it is easy to see that the author really loves her hometown because she can remember every detail clearly. I remember this essay clearly because it let me know how to analyze an article. Moreover, I found that I need to think in American way if I want to write English well.
The other easy that impress me is, of course, the research paper I wrote in this semester. When I knew I had to write a ten pages paper, I firmly believed it is an impossible task. However, with the help of professor Bai, the impossible happened. Although my research paper is not prefect, I learned much from the process. The professor taught us how to write it step by step.
I lacquired how to choose the topic, how to find the resources on the online database and how to write the work cited. I remember that I was really upset at the beginning. I chose lots of different topic, such us homosexuality, gender equality and different religious. I though these topic were too normal. Combining with my interests, I eventually, got a topic—evolution of American nation during 1789 to 1861. However, I was not sure whether this topic was up to the mustard. So, I sent an e-mail to the professor. The professor replied me immediately. She said that this topic would be fine, but I had to analyze the meaningful insights to the present society. Finally, I found the topic. Through the research paper, I learn a lot. This is not an essay for the grade but a gain which will benefit me a lot for my future academic career.
Writing is a process of thinking. We write down whatever we like in order to memorize the life. It is meaningful.