Writing is more than speech written down in another sense. Although saying it first and then
writing it down may be the way in which children first learn to write, they very quickly discover
that the two modes of communication are organized on different principles. This is partly
because, unlike face-to-face oral interaction, writing is monologic in its production; it is also
because what can be taken to be shared information among co-present interlocutors must be
made more fully explicit for readers distant in time and space, particularly if those readers are
unknown to the writer. This leads to the second main reason for focusing on writing: In order to
make one’s meaning clear for others, one must first make it clear for oneself. Writing is thus
potentially a powerful means of developing one’s own understanding of the topic about which
one is writing.