English instructors explain tangible benefits of writing
Tom Zimmerman writing to the prompt, “We Used Our Words We Used What Words We Had” by Franny Choi. Abigail Gibb | The Washtenaw Voice
Sasha Hatinger
Staff Writer
Writing can be viewed in many ways. Whether it be a form of self-expression or used as a coping skill, writing often has many benefits to one’s mental health.
How writing impacts the human mind
“I often write to find out what I’m thinking. So, I think it’s a mirror of what we’re thinking,” said Maryam Barrie, English and writing instructor at Washtenaw Community College.
Expressing feelings or deep inner thoughts with the action of pen to paper or fingertips to keyboard allows for deeper reflection. The intense emotions and passions are no longer being stifled and pushed away. Articulating the most intimate parts of life initiates better understanding and self-observation.
“Even if the topic isn’t personal, there’s usually some glimmer of self-knowledge that’s available… if you’re alert to what you’re writing. When it’s a journal or something like that, it’s easy to see the connection between, ‘this is what I thought and this is what I wrote,’ and it was cathartic, or it was frustrating – or whatever it was,” said Barrie.
Healing through writing
Having an avenue to release difficulties, fear, trauma, etc. promotes healing and has a plethora of overall health benefits. In an article on Harvard Business Review’s website, written by Deborah Seigel-Acevedo, the process of how to properly ‘write to heal’ is explained.
“The most healing writing, according to researchers, must follow a set of creative parameters. And most importantly, it can be just for you. It must contain concrete, authentic, explicit detail. The writer must link feelings to events — on the page. Such writing allows a person to tell a complete, complex, coherent story, with a beginning, middle, and end. In the telling, such writing transforms the writer from a victim into something more powerful: a narrator with the power to observe. In short, when we write to express and make sense, we reclaim some measure of agency,” said Siegel-Acevedo.
Self-expression through writing leads to self-evaluation. Looking at how the actions of others and/or our actions led to how we reacted to situations and processed them is important in the method of moving forward. Writing allows that process to express itself naturally and authentically.
“For many people who’ve experienced trauma, there are gaps in our memory… or you get so far and then a door shuts on the memory, and you can’t go further. Writing can help us sneak open that door or pull out the situation in a way that will help us understand what was so frightening about it, or traumatic, or why we responded the way we did to the trauma that we experienced,” said Barrie.
The solution within writing
Writing can be private and personal – or it can be shared with others to build connections. The connection between feelings, emotions, experiences, and reactions can be worked through in a healthy way through writing it out.
“Traumas get into our wiring and through storytelling, we can unravel it, ” said Barrie.
Deciding to use writing as a process to heal is powerful – it is encouraged, and it is supported.
WCC’s Writing Center director and English instructor, Tom Zimmerman sends a warm invitation to “anyone reading the article,” to submit their personal work for publication.
Zimmerman recalled the WCC poetry club’s first anthology publication, released around 2006.
“I would encourage anyone reading this article that is interested in writing or visual art to come to me (in) the Writing Center, and talk to me because I might have some opportunities for them to get their work published,” said Zimmerman. Adding, there were four separate anthologies published last semester, fall of 2024.
For students interested in submitting their work, simply email Zimmerman your inoffensive works of art, or visit the poetry club’s website at: https://wccpoetryclub.wordpress.com/. The club’s upcoming anthology, Revolutionary Love, is set to be released on February 26th in the Bailey Library.
“Whether you’re writing a short story, or a poem, or keeping a journal–whatever you’re doing, if you’re expressing yourself, there’s a value in that,” said Barrie.
