The Benefits of Writing 10: Perspective Taking and Points of View

If things stay as they are now, our students will grow up and graduate into a contentious, fractious, angry, polarized society. People aren’t listening to each other. People live in their internet filter bubbles and hear only the voices that affirm their points of view. They see this culture now. Some of them participate in it.

If things stay as they are now, many of our students will only know one way to interact with people who disagree with them: by writing “argumentative” essays that present facts and text evidence and try to prove the other side wrong. I know that this is not the paradigm for argumentative writing in all classrooms, but I’m afraid it is the paradigm in many. Students are taught to “win” arguments and debates by proving they are right using reasons and evidence.

Here’s the problem with this model: It doesn’t work. As many studies have shown, good reasons are actually more likely to make your opponent dig in, defend their turf, and muster all of their intelligence to prove that you are the one who is actually wrong.

Jay Heinrichs, author of the often-used-in-classes Thank You For Arguing, makes the case that what we think of as argument – winning by proving the other side wrong and “defeating” them – is actually fighting. And fighting doesn’t get you what you want. What we want is agreement, not for people to dig in and further prolong the fighting. He also wrote a little book about rhetoric called How to Argue with a Cat. In it, he says that the first rule of argument is to “be agreeable.” In our current climate, you might think the first rule of argument is to knock the other person down and throw sand in their eyes. But he says that the first rule is to be agreeable and part of being agreeable, in my view, is to show that you understand the other person. Until you feel listened to and understood, you are unlikely to listen yourself.

To really persuade someone, you need to show them you understand their point of view. In Alan Jacob’s excellent little book How to Think, he quotes author Robin Sloan’s account of a Long Now Foundation debate. In Long Now Foundation debates, you are not allowed to respond to the person you are debating with until you have restated their argument in your own words – but to your opponent’s satisfaction. In other words, you can’t respond until the other side feels really listened to. Can we make this a required feature for all public debate forums?

Argument is not about knocking the other side down. It is about understanding the other side and trying to win them over to your side. Sometimes it’s hard to persuade people that argument is actually about agreement.

Argument is not the only writing that requires perspective taking. I am of the opinion that we don’t let our students write fiction enough. Many of them love doing it, and asking them to do it gets them thinking, even if the stories themselves are not yet publishable. The point isn’t to write publishable stuff – it’s to create and think while creating.

Reading literary fiction has been shown to increase empathy. I think writing fiction requires that students put themselves in the shoes of their characters. If you don’t, your characters won’t seem believable. Writing fiction is, by its very nature, and exercise in perspective-taking, point of view, and empathy.

And why are these perspective-taking experiences so beneficial for students? Obviously, perspective-taking makes your arguments more likely to win people over, as opposed to simply winning, which seldom really works. Obviously, perspective-taking makes your fiction more believable and involving.

When they write arguments, I try to get my students to write down the perspective of the opposing view, to really understand it. The people holding those views are the people whose minds you are trying to change. Unlike Bradley in the strip above, you need to try not to see them as idiots, if only for a few moments. When my students write fiction, I ask them to consider each character – their goals, their fears, and why they each think they are on the side of right. Even the villains.

But perspective-taking is a skill that extends far beyond writing. Perspective-taking can be good for relationships, both professional and personal. It can help us to expand our own limited view points. It can help us to grow as people. It can make us better friends, significant others, and parents. It can even make us… better enemies.

As a culture, we seem to be setting for belittling each other, engaging in meme wars, and fighting. I understand that some people’s perspectives may seem so repulsive that we don’t feel we can possibly engage with them, but more often than not, if we try to be agreeable, try to take on the opposing side’s perspective, we are more likely to persuade them.

Perspective-taking can alter your way of seeing the world. We need to share that with our students.

Images via www.mrfitz.com. Created by David Lee Finkle

How do you get students to think about their opposing sides or put themselves into the shoes of fictional characters? You can connect with me on Twitter @DLFinkle or engage on Facebook at facebook.com/movingwriters to continue the conversation.  

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