Building A Strong Writing Practice: Does It All Start with Reading?

Like many faculty, I love teaching and learning. As lifelong learners, our hearts and minds often yearn for time to think. To read. To write.

We long for a leisurely afternoon to explore new ideas – time to finally pick up one of the books on the edge of our desk that we pre-ordered on Amazon, waited months to receive, and then set aside because life got in the way.  Between emails, class preparation, and grading papers, those books often remain untouched after just a chapter or two.

We know that reading sparks inspiration, leading to new ideas. And those ideas can be transformed into writing, which can evolve into research articles. Or thought pieces. Or LinkedIn posts that inspire our colleagues.

So, how do you prioritize reading – when there is so much else to do?

And what books do you have in your stack?

I have several books on my desk – some are halfway read, while others still have their spines unbroken:

• Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters, by Laura Vanderkam
• A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life, by Parker J. Palmer
• Sentipensante Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice, and Liberation, by Laura Rendon
• Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes, by Flower Darby (with James M. Lang)
• The Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Present and Uncertain Future, by Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt.

I’ve opened most of these books. Explored a few chapters. Underlined quotes that made me stop and think and consider my teaching practice. I’ve posted about the key ideas and imagined a world in which we integrate learning science and social intelligence and our own self-awareness into our teaching practice. I’ve taught about these ideas and longed to read, well, the rest of the book!

So, here’s the question I’m contemplating: Does a strong writing practice begin with a strong reading practice?

And if so, is it time to create an online Reading Circle where faculty can join together to create space (and accountability) to dive into these books that we want to read?

Who wants to join me?