That's the purpose of the course. All of the design studios are different from any other discipline or profession at the University because we're teaching students how to put all their information together. The method of design is based on the individual. One's method of thinking is also given, but one can learn how to refine it in school. So I'm not teaching somebody how to think, but how to apply their thinking.
Writing is part of it.
Most of them don't know how they design. The few that do know how to design don't know what to put down on paper, so I got a lot of rambling. But at least the writing forced them to think about their design process. I use writing to get the students loosened up and thinking about how they think by trying to express just that. The second way is much more structured in terms of learning how to gather information correctly, determining what kind of information is needed by asking the right questions, or even by planning ahead where to go so they can ask the right questions.