Learning How to Think

AS JOHN EASTWOOD WILL TELL YOU, writing isn’t just about expressing thoughts – it’s about learning how to think. That’s why Eastwood, in conjunction with colleague Ron Sheese, developed a second-year course called Writing in Psychology.

Here, students learn that to express ideas in clear and compelling language, you must first connect deeply with those ideas. “It’s a real eye-opener for students when they see how writing actually helps them to figure things out,” says Eastwood, an associate professor of clinical psychology. Students also learn to see revision and editing as an important part of that process, and not a mere correcting of errors.

In psychology, “writing isn’t considered a traditional part of training as it might be in English or journalism,” says Julie Conder, an assistant lecturer who recently began teaching the course.

But in an evidence-based discipline like psychology, she says it’s absolutely essential to learn how to construct a solid argument in written form.

For his part, Ron Sheese applauds the creation of discipline-specific writing courses. The former director of York’s Centre for Academic Writing acknowledges that the skills taught in this course are transferable between disciplines: “from our point of view, writing really improves if you work on it within a context that you care about.”