Essay writing is the beginning of understanding

[RandomPscho]

"Understanding some of the information" still falls under the category of knowing rather than actual understanding.

I could also take the same root, but that one person cannot understand everything within a given topic. There is just too much information, unless the topic is extremely narrow. Writing the essay will make them understand more than not writing, but they still won't understand everything.

Plus, I would say communication and practice rather than just writing. You can gain a much better understand of something by talking in depth about the topic with another person. You can become and amazing teacher by actually teacher, not writing about teaching.

EDIT: When saying much better above, I am not comparing it to writing an essay, but to not doing anything other than research.