A Writing Philosophy

I think my writing philosophy has much to do with the importance that people around me placed upon it. In my case, I had the good fortune to study with and be around people for whom reporting and publishing were paramount—even more importantly believed as my mentor did that publishing on one’s work should be undertaken promptly. I was, I believe, fortunate to have been encouraged even as an undergraduate to write and to think about publishing. Having been encouraged to read exhaustively has helped improve my writing many fold. Though we are professionally motivated to publish for a number of reasons, not the least of which is promotion and tenure, I have found that consistent writing has made me a better thinker. I have seen writing as an important part of my professional and personal development and something that I have always thought should always be contributing. For that reason, I have very rarely undertaken projects that I didn’t think would lead to better or more complete understandings of a problem. For that reason, I have rarely presented papers that I did not intend to see through to publication.