As important as it is for us to appreciate the written word, we also can’t forget to utilize and practice it. After high school, it seems that many of us, including myself for a while, forgot the importance of writing.

Up until high school, most of us were forced to take English classes, and those usually involved something many people hate — writing. For the most part, I’ve been the outlier in this population of people as I have enjoyed engaging in writing both in and out of school.

But when I came to college, I let my skills slip up until junior year, because writing had not been a major part of my personal academic career. I got lazy about my writing skills after I realized I only needed to take one English course to fulfill an advanced composition requirement. 

This year, however, I realized something was missing — the ability to express my creativity. I knew my advanced composition class, although challenging, wasn’t enough to fill the void of creativity and freedom that was missing in my writing. Although coursework in every major and minor offered here are both difficult and time-consuming in their own way, they don’t all offer the challenge of writing, and if they do, the writing is often through a very structured path.

I’m not saying academic writing should be discouraged, but rather, different forms of writing — opinion pieces, short stories, poetry, or even journaling — provide rewards you wouldn’t receive from writing technical papers alone.

Academic writing is a great way to practice explaining your ideas in a concise fashion and helps develop technical writing skills you might need for a future career in a field where you’ll have to constantly report your findings in written form.

Creative writing can help you develop a stronger, more elaborative vocabulary, let off steam, or just allow you to express yourself in a unique manner.

Whether it’s for a creative writing class outside of your curriculum requirements or for a newspaper or magazine, everybody should write.

It doesn’t matter if your writing is published or not. 

There are benefits to writing something that is meaningful to you, and there are also benefits in knowing that your writing could be met with the scrutiny of the public.

In my case, writing weekly columns for The Daily Illini with the looming threat of the public eye has been more beneficial to me rather than being a limitation. This is not necessarily because I am overtly concerned with how my opinions and writing will be judged, but more because it makes me acutely aware of the fact that I have a voice, and it will be heard. This realization has driven me to write some very passionate pieces in hopes of impacting at least one individual and maybe sparking some discussion.

When you write something and know people are going to see it, you might develop a couple of fans, and you might attract some haters as well. This shouldn’t hinder you from going ahead and sharing your work. In fact, it should provide motivation.

Positive comments on a piece are of course a self-esteem boost, but negative comments are where true colors show, and, in my opinion, matter more. Receiving a negative comment on a piece you published shows that people aren’t just hearing your voice, but also listening to it and acknowledging it as well. Even if everybody doesn’t agree with your views, you are still promoting productive dialogue about an issue, and to know your writing has influenced someone in some way is gratifying, to say the least.

Although I think everybody should have a goal of publishing at least one piece of writing, there are still plenty of benefits that aren’t overshadowed when you just write for yourself.  

Even if your writing isn’t going to be critiqued or praised by the public, the act of writing is no less important. 

As mentioned before, one of the benefits of journaling or writing creatively can be a cathartic release from negative emotions rather than allowing them to build up. Sometimes, talking to somebody or just trying to let your bad mood pass isn’t effective, and writing about it can be helpful.

You don’t need somebody to tell you that your writing is great. If you write a creative writing piece or develop a strong argument for something you believe in but decide to keep to yourself, it is still a rewarding experience to have completed something that is meaningful to you. The reward of writing can be as simple as taking pride in a piece of work that you put time and thought into.

Either way you decide to do it, writing is a unique way to push yourself. It allows you to think with a new perspective and create a logical argument you wouldn’t have ever come to if you hadn’t put in the time to think about it. 

Regardless of whether or not anyone will see your work, the value of the writing experience comes from challenging yourself to develop a meaningful piece of work beyond academia.

Sehar is a junior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Nimatod.