Critical Writitng

If we are to productively increase writing difficulty and exploration, we need also to design assignments to help students participate in critical reflection Learning momentsmoments of perplexity, disorientation, even chaos writes Stenberg, can lead, upon reflection and inquiry, to new pedagogical possibilities (66, my emphasis). Unless we directly ask for reflection related to writing difficulty, we risk creating only disorienting confusion, not the productive discomfort to which Anson refers. Brookfield argues further that teachers benefit from critical reflection in which we examine systemic power inequities and question assumptions about our processes (8). Reflective writing thus both supports the learning we aim for in difficult or exploratory assignments and helps teachers develop perspectives that will increase their success in the classroom. In other words, critically reflective assignments can ask students not just to connect theories or readings to what their experiences have been as writers, oranother stepto note how pedagogical theories help name their experiences, but also to use their experiences to create their own theories and thus to challenge theories about which theyve read or heard. While experts in a field can engage others perspectives through a kind of automatic reflectionin- action, novices need more explicit support in practicing this kind of inquiry and adaptation. Through directed reflection, students can see if and how a theory resonates with their actual experiences as writing-learners, and then learn how to translate that understanding into better practices or greater confidence. Critical reflective writing about difficult and exploratory writing assignments can help new teachers link personal constructs about writing with external theories. Teachers who become practiced at making this kind of move in one areahow writers perform and learncan expand their reflective practice into other areas. They can increase their awareness of their current theories and practices as writing teachers, their sense of participating in a conversation about such concepts, and their ability to see, desire, and create new approaches to teaching writing. Writing assignments that create difficulty, encourage exploration, and provide opportunity for directed practice in critical reflection thus reinforce one another in preparing teachers to participate fully and flexibly in the discipline of writing education.

Critical thinking and writing

Have you received feedback suggesting you need to be more critical in your assignments? Are you baffled when asked to write critically or to critically evaluate a theory or policy etc? If so, the following information/links will help you to understand how to approach this: in order to write more critically you need to develop your critical thinking skills and then apply these to your writing...

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking involves reading and writing critically. Reading critically means examining different points of view with an open and enquiring mind, evaluating your own position, and drawing conclusions as to whether a particular point of view is persuasive. Writing critically means presenting your conclusions in a clear and well-reasoned way to persuade others.

When you think critically, you:

analyse - break things down synthesise - bring parts together in a coherent way evaluate - make judgements, based on sound evidence

In todays information age, obtaining facts is hardly a challenge. In fact, students are surrounded by information: Through online databases, books, articles, newspapers, and more recently throughwebsites, blogs, and social networking interfaces, students have access to unprecedented amounts of information without ever leaving their study rooms. What remains a challenge, however, is the development of the skills that are needed to critique and process this easy-toobtain information. Critical thinking is described variously, as the capacity to work with complex ideas whereby a person can make effective provision of evidence to justify a reasonable judgement, as the shift of learners from absolute conceptions of knowledge towards contextual knowing and as an understanding of knowledge as constructed and related to its context (Moon 2008, 128).1 Previous research demonstrated that critical thinking skills can be developed through a number of activities, including simulation, optical illusion exercise (Hoefler 1994),

statistical data analysis (McBride 1996), classroom debates and guest speakers (Cohen 1993), multiple, short exercises (Atwater 1991), analysis briefs (Alex-Assensoh 2008), and electronic discussions (Greenlaw and DeLoach 2003). In the political science classroom, writing assignments and their potential contribution to the development of these skills receive relatively less attention than in other disciplines. A two-stage writing assignment, described in this article, may be an effective way to teach undergraduate students these skills. We particularly focus on writing assignments for two reasons: First, writing, as thought on paper,2 can provide a unique opportunity to develop critical thinking skills, and second, our experience with writing assignments is commonly shared among faculty from across the disciplines. Students rarely pay attention to the feedback that instructors give on graded papers that leads to student repetition of the same mistakes. We advocate a carefully designed writing assignment that provides not only a unique opportunity for students to hone their critical thinking skills, but also provides students with incentive to pay attention to an instructors feedback. The assignment, used in an introductory level comparative politics course, requires students to appl abstract theories to concrete cases and consists of two papers: a draft and a final. Although essentially asking the same question as in the draft paper, the final paper requires far more than simple editing, which is a common and limited revision practice among novice academic writers (Sommers 1980). Instead, the final paper instructions set higher standards and require additional steps. These steps include students conducting research to incorporate additional sources into the revision and writing a postscript that reflects on their learning processes. In this article, we describe the rationale, objectives, and stages of this writing assignment; explain its rubric; and provide sample paragraphs and postscripts written by students. Critical thinking involves a set of strategies to help students develop reflective analysis and evaluation of interpretations or explanations, including ones own, to decide what to believe or what to do (Fisher 2001). It assumes an inquiry and hypothesisbased approach to ideas as well as thinking that is open to revision. Despite associations with negativity or mere complaint,

critical thinking actually focuses on the rational and demonstrable. Associated with higher-order thinking, critical thinkinginvolves knowledge transformation (Scardamalia and Bereiter 1987) rather than the kind of knowledge-telling associated with production of lists or other memorized recitals of information. As such, critical thinking skills are among those that undergraduates are expected to master during their college education, regardless of discipline (Greenlaw and DeLoach 2003). Acquiring critical thinking skills requires intellectual selfdiscipline that produces skillful and reflexive thinking. Of themany critical thinking instruments available for measuring critical thinking in college students, we chose the most traditional and commonly usedWatson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal to develop our two-stage writing assignment.3 TheWatson-Glaser Appraisal identifies five levels of intellectual activity that are essential to critical thinking: 1. Inference: The ability to derive logical conclusions from the premises of varied approaches. 2. Recognition of Assumptions: The ability to recognize assumptions and presuppositions implicit in the approaches.

3. Deductions: The ability to judge whether propositions made by the approaches can be logically drawn from the evidence. 4. Interpretation:The ability to judge whether the conclusions and arguments made by the approaches can be logically drawn. 5. Evaluation of Arguments: The ability to distinguish relevant, strong, and weak arguments. As this instrument suggests, critical thinkers engage in inferential analysis and in both recognition and evaluation of differing approaches and perspectives. Critical thinkers also demonstrate the ability to tease out the assumptions of the varied approaches and then stake an informed claim or make a judgment about the approaches based on available information and a deliberate process that is both analytic and synthetic. At the same time, critical thinkers also recognize that their claims are provisional or subject to revision based on new information. Obtaining these skills is important for college students, in general,andpolitical science students, in particular: Specifically, the political sciencelower-division undergraduate must acquire these skills to evaluate texts, assess media reports, and construct better arguments, among the many central objectives of the political science curriculum. In short, college

students need to develop these skills to think, write, and communicate effectively. WRITING IS CRUCIAL IN CULTIVATING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS We have long heard about the declining writing skills of students, a predicament periodically documented in the reports and statistics of public and nonprofit educational institutions alike, such as the Department of Educations Institute of Education Sciences, The Consortium for the Study of Writing in College, and the National Commission onWriting in Americas Schools and Colleges (Addison and McGee 2010; Baglione 2008). These reports confirm what the education, business, and policy-making circles have long articulated, which is that the quality of writing must be improved if students are to succeed in college and in life (The National Commission onWriting 2003, 7). Despite its articulated importance over the past years, however, the quality of writing continues to pose significant challenges to educators. In a political science classroom, students poor writing skills are revealed in a number of ways. These include such problems as 1. Weakly constructed and substantiated arguments

2. Less-than-careful reading of the instructions 3. Lack of precision 4. Lack of a clear and sustained line of thought 5. Difficulty with utilizing evidence to substantiate or challenge an argument 6. Weak or absent evaluation of the assumptions of the theory at hand 7. Lack of organized, convincing, rich, and elaborate responses to the question at hand 8. An inability or unwillingness to integrate the feedback that instructors provide on drafts The act of writing, by itself, however, may offer an important opportunity for learning. In fact, writing has been posited as a unique mode of learning (Emig 1977). Case studies and student self-reports also suggest that writing is among the strategies students http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPSC%2FPSC45_02%2FS1049096511002 137a.pdf&code=993f2c0a20d6d4136dc05fe2f918880a

What is critical writing http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/writ ing/writing-resources/critical-writing

filed under: Communicating your research, Resources, Writing

Study guide It is common for feedback on student writing to focus on the need to engage more critically with the source material. Typical comments from tutors are: too descriptive, or not enough critical analysis. This Study Guide gives ideas for how to improve the level of critical analysis you demonstrate in your writing. Other Study Guides you may find useful are: What is Critical Reading? Using Paragraphs and The Art of Editing.

What is critical writing?

The most characteristic features of critical writing are:

a clear and confident refusal to accept the conclusions of other writers without evaluating the arguments and evidence that they provide; a balanced presentation of reasons why the conclusions of other writers may be accepted or may need to be treated with caution; a clear presentation of your own evidence and argument, leading to your conclusion; and a recognition of the limitations in your own evidence, argument, and conclusion.

What is descriptive writing?

The most characteristic features of descriptive writing are that it will describe something, but will not go beyond an account of what appears to be there. A certain amount of descriptive writing is needed to establish for example:

the setting of the research; a general description of a piece of literature, or art; the list of measurements taken; the timing of the research; an account of the biographical details of a key figure in the discipline; or a brief summary of the history leading up to an event or decision.

The difference between descriptive writing and critical writing

With descriptive writing you are not developing argument; you are merely setting the background within which an argument can be developed. You are representing the situation as it stands, without presenting any analysis or discussion.

Descriptive writing is relatively simple. There is also the trap that it can be easy to use many, many words from your word limit, simply providing description. In providing only description, you are presenting but not transforming information; you are reporting ideas but not taking them forward in any way. An assignment using only descriptive writing would therefore gain few marks. With critical writing you are participating in the academic debate. This is more challenging and risky. You need to weigh up the evidence and arguments of others, and to contribute your own. You will need to:

consider the quality of the evidence and argument you have read; identify key positive and negative aspects you can comment upon; assess their relevance and usefulness to the debate that you are engaging in for your assignment; and identify how best they can be woven into the argument that you are developing.

A much higher level of skill is clearly needed for critical writing than for descriptive writing, and this is reflected in the higher marks it is given.

Finding your academic voice

When you engage in critical writing you are developing your own academic voice within your subject. Wellington et al. (2005 p.84) offer some suggestions for distinguishing between the academic and the non-academic voice. They suggest that the academic voice will involve:

healthy scepticism but not cynicism; confidence but not cockiness or arrogance; judgement which is critical but not dismissive; opinions without being opinionated; careful evaluation of published work not serial shooting at random targets; being fair: assessing fairly the strengths and weaknesses of other peoples ideas and writing without prejudice; and making judgements on the basis of considerable thought and all the available evidence as opposed to assertions without reason.

Wellington J., Bathmaker A., Hunt C., McCulloch G. and Sikes P. (2005). Succeeding with your doctorate. London: Sage. Try to get into the habit of writing critically, by making sure that you read critically, and that you include critique in your writing.

Stringing together of quotes

It can be tempting to string together quotes to support an argument, feeling that the more quotes you include, the stronger your argument. It is important, however, to remember that you also

need to interpret the quotes to the reader, and to explain their relevance, discuss their validity, and show how they relate to other evidence.

Strategic use of paragraphs

There are several ways in which you can use the paragraph to enhance your critical writing. You can use paragraphs to make a clear and visual separation between descriptive writing and critical analysis, by switching to a new paragraph when you move from description to critical writing, and vice versa. This can help in:

emphasising to the reader that you are including both description and critical analysis, by providing a visual representation of their separation; and pushing you to produce the necessary critical writing, especially if you find that your description paragraphs are always longer, or more frequent, than your critical analysis paragraphs.

A paragraph break can provide a brief pause for your readers within a longer argument; giving them the opportunity to make sure they are keeping up with your reasoning. Paragraphs that are overly long can require readers to hold too much in their mind at once, resulting in their having to re-read the material until they can identify the point you are making. You can also use paragraphs to push yourself to include critical writing alongside descriptive writing or referencing, by considering each paragraph almost as an essay in miniature. Within each paragraph you would:

introduce the point you want to make; make the point, with supporting evidence; reflect critically on the point.

If its worth including, its worth telling us why

A certain amount of descriptive writing is essential, particularly in the earlier parts of the essay or assignment or dissertation. Beyond that, however, there is a danger that too much descriptive writing will use up valuable words from your word limit, and reduce the space you have for the critical writing that will get you higher marks. A useful habit to get into is to make sure that, if you describe some evidence relevant to your argument, you need then to explain to the reader why it is relevant. The logic of your explanation contributes to the critical component of your writing. So, a sentence or two might describe and reference the evidence, but this is not enough in itself. The next few sentences need to explain what this evidence contributes to the argument you are making. This may feel like duplication at first, or that you are explaining something that is obvious, but it is your responsibility to ensure that the relevance of the evidence is explained to the reader; you should not simply assume that the reader will be following the same logic as you, or will just work out the relevance of the quote or data you have described.

Line of argument
So far this Study Guide has considered the detail of what you write. The other key element in critical writing is the overall structure of your piece of writing. For maximum effectiveness, your writing needs to have a line, or lines of argument running through it from the Introduction to the Conclusion. Just as you have used paragraphs on a micro scale to present your critical writing, so you need to consider the ordering of those paragraphs within the overall structure. The aim is to lead your readers carefully through the thread of your argument, to a well-supported conclusion.

Example of effective critical writing

The text below is an example of good critical writing, and is based on essay material supplied by University of Leicesters School of Psychology. The author refers to the available evidence, but also evaluates the validity of that evidence, and assesses what contribution it can realistically make to the debate.
There are a number of inherent methodological difficulties in evaluating treatment efficacy in this area, and this has contributed to controversy within the research literature surrounding treatment outcomes for this group of offenders (Marshall, 1997). Firstly, while there is no doubt that the primary criterion of treatment success is a reduction in the rate of re-offending (Marshall et al., 1999), reconviction data does not, in isolation, provide a realistic representation of actual levels of re-offending by this group. It is well established that there is a discrepancy between re-offending and reconviction rates: the latter underestimating the number of offences committed (Grubin, 1999). Indeed, a significant proportion of offences committed by offenders are either unreported, or do not result in the offender being convicted (Abel et al., 1987).

You can see how the author is considering the available evidence, but also the limitations on that evidence, and will be taking all of this into account in drawing conclusions.

Checklist for an overall review of your writing

It is always worth taking a critical look at your own writing before submitting it for assessment. The kinds of questions that might be useful to ask at that stage are:
What is the balance between descriptive and critical writing?

While a certain amount of description is necessary to set the context for your analysis, the main characteristic of academic writing is its critical element. A useful way to check this balance in your own writing is to use two coloured pens and to mark in the margin whether the lines are descriptive or critical. The balance will change at different points, but you need to make sure there is enough of the colour that represents critical writing.

Why should the reader be convinced by what Ive just written?

Remember that, just as you are asking Why should I believe what Ive just read?, the readers of your work will be asking the same question of your writing. A critical read through your own writing may reveal gaps in your logic, which you can rectify before you submit it for the critique of others.
Is my conclusion trailed and supported sufficiently well by my preceding analysis and argument?

Check out the conclusions that you have drawn, then locate and check the supporting evidence you provide earlier on. This is a good way of making sure you havent forgotten to include a crucial piece of evidence. It is also a way of checking that, when your reader comes to the end of your writing, the conclusions make sense, rather than being a surprise, or an unconvincing leap of logic.
Have I included any unsubstantiated statements?

Sometimes a generalised, sweeping statement can slip through: the kind of statement that might be acceptable on conversation, but not in academic writing. There are three main ways of dealing with such statements:

present the evidence to support the statement re-phrase the statement to sound more cautious e.g.: it could be argued or this suggests that remove the statement

Critical reading
http://www.csuohio.edu/academic/writingcenter/critread.html means that a reader applies certain processes, models, questions, and theories that result in enhanced clarity and comprehension. There is more involved, both in effort and understanding,

in a critical reading than in a mere "skimming" of the text. What is the difference? If a reader "skims" the text, superficial characteristics and information are as far as the reader goes. A critical reading gets at "deep structure" (if there is such a thing apart from the superficial text!), that is, logical consistency, tone, organization, and a number of other very important sounding terms. What does it take to be a critical reader? There are a variety of answers available to this question; here are some suggested steps: 1. Prepare to become part of the writer's audience. After all, authors design texts for specific audiences, and becoming a member of the target audience makes it easier to get at the author's purpose. Learn about the author, the history of the author and the text, the author's anticipated audience; read introductions and notes. 2. Prepare to read with an open mind. Critical readers seek knowledge; they do not "rewrite" a work to suit their own personalities. Your task as an enlightened critical reader is to read what is on the page, giving the writer a fair chance to develop ideas and allowing yourself to reflect thoughtfully, objectively, on the text. 3. Consider the title. This may seem obvious, but the title may provide clues to the writer's attitude, goals, personal viewpoint, or approach. 4. Read slowly. Again, this appears obvious, but it is a factor in a "close reading." By slowing down, you will make more connections within the text. 5. Use the dictionary and other appropriate reference works. If there is a word in the text that is not clear or difficult to define in context: look it up. Every word is important, and if part of the text is thick with technical terms, it is doubly important to know how the author is using them. 6. Make notes. Jot down marginal notes, underline and highlight, write down ideas in a notebook, do whatever works for your own personal taste. Note for yourself the main ideas, the thesis, the author's main points to support the theory. Writing while reading aids your memory in many ways, especially by making a link that is unclear in the text concrete in your own writing. 7. Keep a reading journal

In addition to note-taking, it is often helpful to regularly record your responses and thoughts in a more permanent place that is yours to consult. By developing a habit of reading and writing in conjunction, both skills will improve. Critical reading involves using logical and rhetorical skills. Identifying the author's thesis is a good place to start, but to grasp how the author intends to support it is a difficult task. More often than not an author will make a claim (most commonly in the form of the thesis) and support it in the body of the text. The support for the author's claim is in the evidence provided to suggest that the author's intended argument is sound, or reasonably acceptable. What ties these two together is a series of logical links that convinces the reader of the coherence of the author's argument: this is the warrant. If the author's premise is not supportable, a critical reading will uncover the lapses in the text that show it to be unsound.

7 CRITICAL READING STRATEGIES

1. Previewing: Learning about a text before really reading it. Previewing enables readers to get a sense of what the text is about and how it is organized before reading it closely. This simple strategy includes seeing what you can learn from the headnotes or other introductory material, skimming to get an overview of the content and organization, and identifying the rhetorical situation. 2. Contextualizing: Placing a text in its historical, biographical, and cultural contexts. When you read a text, you read it through the lens of your own experience. Your understanding of the words on the page and their significance is informed by what you have come to know and value from living in a particular time and place. But the texts you read were all written in the past, sometimes in a radically different time and place. To read critically, you need to contextualize, to recognize the differences between your contemporary values and attitudes and those represented in the text. 3. Questioning to understand and remember: Asking questions about the content. As students, you are accustomed (I hope) to teachers asking you questions about your reading. These questions are designed to help you understand a reading and respond to it more fully, and often this technique works. When you need to understand and use new information though it is most beneficial if you write the questions, as you read the text for the first time. With this strategy, you can write questions any time, but in difficult academic readings, you will understand the material better and remember it longer if you write a question for

every paragraph or brief section. Each question should focus on a main idea, not on illustrations or details, and each should be expressed in your own words, not just copied from parts of the paragraph. 4. Reflecting on challenges to your beliefs and values: Examining your personal responses. The reading that you do for this class might challenge your attitudes, your unconsciously held beliefs, or your positions on current issues. As you read a text for the first time, mark an X in the margin at each point where you feel a personal challenge to your attitudes, beliefs, or status. Make a brief note in the margin about what you feel or about what in the text created the challenge. Now look again at the places you marked in the text where you felt personally challenged. What patterns do you see? 5. Outlining and summarizing: Identifying the main ideas and restating them in your own words. Outlining and summarizing are especially helpful strategies for understanding the content and structure of a reading selection. Whereas outlining reveals the basic structure of the text, summarizing synopsizes a selection's main argument in brief. Outlining may be part of the annotating process, or it may be done separately (as it is in this class). The key to both outlining and summarizing is being able to distinguish between the main ideas and the supporting ideas and examples. The main ideas form the backbone, the strand that holds the various parts and pieces of the text together. Outlining the main ideas helps you to discover this structure. When you make an outline, don't use the text's exact words. Summarizing begins with outlining, but instead of merely listing the main ideas, a summary recomposes them to form a new text. Whereas outlining depends on a close analysis of each paragraph, summarizing also requires creative synthesis. Putting ideas together again -- in your own words and in a condensed form -shows how reading critically can lead to deeper understanding of any text. 6. Evaluating an argument: Testing the logic of a text as well as its credibility and emotional impact. All writers make assertions that they want you to accept as true. As a critical reader, you should not accept anything on face value but to recognize every assertion as an argument that must be carefully evaluated. An argument has two essential parts: a claim and support. The claim asserts a conclusion -- an idea, an opinion, a judgment, or a point of view -- that the writer wants you to accept. The support includes reasons (shared beliefs, assumptions, and values) and evidence (facts, examples, statistics, and authorities) that give readers the basis for accepting the conclusion. When you assess an argument, you are concerned

with the process of reasoning as well as its truthfulness (these are not the same thing). At the most basic level, in order for an argument to be acceptable, the support must be appropriate to the claim and the statements must be consistent with one another. 7. Comparing and contrasting related readings: Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to understand them better.
Many of the authors we read are concerned with the same issues or questions, but approach how to discuss them in different ways. Fitting a text into an ongoing dialectic helps increase understanding of why an author approached a particular issue or question in the way he or she did.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:krBmvDZo6gMJ:www.evergreen.edu/writingcenter/han douts/science/critreading.pdf+strategyes+for+critical+reading&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgjGE_GNrdEiA4wU-kVX4AdQoTrUf7NKJcgE7IootqGSvNqNDj4jFU9Ct_7K0muI4iuYcHBANz18HrPXgWMfDkwOC_x0BxQJKAe0G3SAZwa_nVa_RrrsY3TFNr8CxlytVYds&sig=AHIEtbQD-Z_c-pi7oATmWyqOjhwsQknz4w

http://www.uefap.com/writing/function/crit.htm

Developing Skills in Critical Writing

The key to mature writing is learning to write critically. Without criticism, texts that you read have no life beyond that of the author. Without criticism, you also have no distance from the text by which you give life to yourself as a thinker. Why is this the case? I'm sure that all of you have heard someone assert views with which you strongly concur or which you strongly oppose. If she/he does not attend to the nuances of her/his views and proposes ideas without attending to possible exceptions to them or problematic aspects of them, we soon turn away from her/him and dismiss her/his views. If we are sympathetic toward the position being asserted, we find that merely having our own views confirmed is of little interest. By analogy, most of us do not spend hours looking in a mirror: we look in a mirror to get our bearings for the day; then we go on about our business. Hearing or reading words that only mirror our own thoughts leads to the same result: we turn away to go on to more interesting activities. In sum, even if we are sympathetic toward the views

expressed, only if an author exercises a capacity to call into question her own ideas do we find ourselves engaged by her words. We want to think further than we have previously about ideas with which we have sympathy. On the other hand, if we read an article with which we very much disagree but which does not even hint of our views, we are similarly disinterested. Such writing has the aura of propaganda: we quickly say, "that author hasn't even thought about this point or observed this problem; why should I listen to her? By contrast, an article that approaches a topic critically, acknowledging our position even while disagreeing with it, captures our attention. We find ourselves thinking about the author's words long after we finish reading the article. We continue the conversation in our own heads, giving life to the author's ideas and life to ourselves. But what is critical thinking? What does it look like? To be critical is not to be "negative" or even to "disagree." Rather, critical thinking refers to a process of reflecting deeply: in thinking critically we try to shed greater light on an idea, unpack its implicit assumptions, and build through distancing and recapitulation a larger, constructive view. The essence of criticism consists not of disagreement with the text, but of distance from the text. Achieving distance from the text does not require you to position yourself as an equal to the author. Rather, you may ask of yourself only that you stay one step ahead of your reader. There are many time-honored strategies for critical writing. I would like you to work on each of these this semester. In my comments to you on your writing, I may recommend strategies that you may find particularly helpful.
Starting an ongoing conversation with authors this semester:

You may want to think of how each of your prcis or essay assignments may function as a kind of outline for a larger project. Keep in the back of your mind a vision of these projects that reminds you that, if you were able to write a 15-page paper on the text, your prcis or essay would function as a skeleton of that paper. Another way to push yourself to develop your critical skills into a sustained argument is to try to carry over ideas discussed in one prcis or essay assignment into the next one. If you can maintain a critical train of thought from one week to the next, by summoning in your mind an agenda of your own making through which you will read the texts, you may be able to get a greater depth in your criticism. Generating a series of questions that may be

asked of each author we read in this course can help you to formulate such a critical agenda.

Using the "Compare and contrast" approach:

Often, the greatest concern I have about your prcis or essay assignments is the absence of your voice. Juxtaposed to your summary of the text should be your own reflections. While you are entertaining a few of your own ideas, you will want to strengthen your own voice. For each reading, you will want to ponder several questions. What are the strengths of the argument? What are the weaknesses? Do you agree with the author or disagree? Why or why not? One way to find your critical voice is to compare and contrast two or more of the authors. Construct a conversation in which they talk to each other. As you manipulate their voices, you will find your own voice as referee emerging. Because the authors are experts at sustaining a critical voice, when you latch on to one of them as a partner in conversation with another author, you will find yourself able to sustain your own voice longer than if you speak alone to an author. Writing a page or more of your own reflections may be awkward for you at first; however, by pushing yourself to do this, you will making the necessary preparations for writing subsequent essays that will prove satisfying to you.

Trying a give and take of argumentation:

One way to push yourself to develop critical skills is to offer a narrower range of critical comments and expand on them. After you make a comment criticizing an author, imagine how she might respond. Summarize her response for your reader ("the author might respond to my point by saying ..."). Then, follow up with a further rebuttal of your own ("But, notwithstanding the author's response, I continue to assert that ..... because ....). Also, when you make an observation or claim, always check for the follow-up sentence. "I claim 'x'" should always be followed with a "because of 'y'" sentence. Moreover, if you consider your critical reflections to be a conversation with an author, you will find yourself asking the author some questions. If you pose some of your criticisms in the form of questions (and imagine a series of responses from the author and follow-up questions by you), you will find yourself moving to a deeper and more nuanced level of engagement with the texts.

Of key importance in dwelling on these questions will be sustained attention to 2-3 of them. For example, were you to write on Sartre, you might says "I think 'x' about Sartres view of 'y." Follow this up with several sentences unpacking why you think this: "I think 'x' about Sartres view of 'y' because ....." Then, imagine how Sartre would respond to your assertion. Would he affirm your comments or disagree with them? Note his imagined views for your reader, and then follow up with your own response. By staging such a conversation, you will find yourself moving toward greater depths and breadth of engagement with the text that you are exploring.

Talking to an author in your prcis or essay :

In adopting a critical voice, you will explicitly share observations with your reader. What aspects of an author's position do you find compelling? Why? What are some weaknesses in her writing? If you don't find any weaknesses, imagine an imaginary critic who would find weaknesses. What would they say? How would you and the author defend yourselves against these criticisms? Why does it matter whether an author is persuasive in her analysis? If you are chatting with a skeptical friend about a chapter in a book that you have read, what do you want to hold up as valuable to your reader? Why? To find your own view, you will want to focus on the "why" word. After summarizing an author's views, determine whether you are in sympathy with them or not. What is persuasive and compelling? What is not? Either way, ask yourself "why?" Why does what she says matter? Why should we care about it? Why should we agree or disagree? Why is there more to be said on the subject? Why, if she has said it all, do you believe that she has said it all?
Have authors talk to each other in your prcis or essay :

Consider one classic approach to finding your own voice. Moderate an imaginary conversation between two authors. Because you are the creator of that conversation, in choosing what the authors say to each other (what you find of particular value) for them to express, you are likely to find your own voice joining in on the conversation. Finding that voice, you can elaborate on it and magnify it.

Writing for a fellow student:

Recall that a paper is always written for a reader other than your professor. When I write, I like to imagine someone who is less familiar (though not wholly unfamiliar) with the text I am discussing. You may wish to imagine a fellow student who is looking to you for advice. What will you say to her or him? If one of our texts is like a pair of shoes, you can imagine telling your reader that "these are shoes I've never seen before, I think that we (the reader and I) should look at them more closely." Now, imagine if your reader says, "these are the strangest shoes I've ever seen. I don't like them and I don't know why you would want us to keep looking at them." If your reader said such a thing, what points would you want to underline for your reader? What do you want your reader to look at again? Why would you want a reader to take an author seriously? Because you are one step ahead of that student, you can provide guidance.

Agreeing with an author against a fellow student:

As an alternative strategy for enhancing your critical voice, you may want to write for a skeptical reader. Rather than go one-on-one with a text (explaining why you disagree with an author) or opposing one author to another (the compare and contrast approach), on occasion you may want to argue with your reader. If your reader (imagine a fellow student in class) is wholly unsympathetic toward a text and doesn't see any worth in it, you may find a critical position in defending that text against your reader.

critical reading strategieshttp://writing.umn.edu/sws/quickhelp/process/reading.html

Reading effectively requires approaching texts with a critical eye: evaluating what you read for not just what it says, but how and why it says it. Effective reading is central to both effective research (when you evaluate sources) and effective writing (when you understand how what you read is written, you can work to incorporate those techniques into your own writing). Being an effective reader also means being able to evaluate your own practices, working to develop your critical reading skills.

Identify what youre reading for.

Knowing why youre reading a given text can help you organize both your reading and how you can use what you read. Before you read a text, ask and answer the following kinds of questions: Are you reading only for general content? For data? For specific information or for general thematic concerns? For arguments that support or contest your thesis in a writing assignment? For information that you know youll need for an assignment, or for information to get you thinking about what youll need?

Allow enough time to read, and take your time.

Reading critically is not a fast process. Many students do not set aside enough study time for reading (and rereading), and read everything either too quickly or at the same speed. If you know what youre reading for, you can better distinguish information that can be skimmed from that which should be more closely examined, and make better use of your reading time. Preview or survey the text before detailed reading begins, looking for clues related to its purpose, its relevance, its difficulty, and how it connects with ideas or information you already know. Be willing to struggle with the text in order to understand itbut dont get hung up on single, tough details in first readings. Rather, hold confusing passages in mental suspension, and continue to read with the idea that what seems difficult to understand now may be cleared up as you go along.

Remember that re-reading is a part of effective critical reading.

Just as having more than one conversation with another person leads to closer understanding, conducting a number of readings leads to a richer and more meaningful relationship with, and understanding of, a text. If your first reading is for basic information and evaluation, subsequent readings can take on different levels of focus (on style and tone, on details, on examples, on intellectual or ideological tradition, etc.). In re-reading, work to separate parts of arguments (e.g., thesis idea, evidence, preview, counterarguments) and to understand how these parts work to support the authors thesis.

Engage with the text to get the most out of it.

Read with a pen or pencil, highlighting key statements, parts, or pointseven those you find confusing. Also, make note of words or terms you dont understand so you can look them up later. Note where and how the text relates to lectures or discussions, as well as general or specific questions you might wish to ask your instructor in class or office hours. Record your own questions, points of agreement or disagreement, references to related ideas, and points at which ideas match up with each other. In other words, work to enter into a dialogue with the text, mark it up, and make it your own.

Ask yourself if you can explain both what the text says and what it does.

In other words, can you both provide a summary of key claims and theses and understand its purpose, what this text seeks to do (to report or state facts, to contest a certain idea, to persuade, to open new inquiries, etc.)? Keep in mind that all texts filter realitydistort, persuade, and arrive at different conclusions and that all texts are trying to change your view in some way.

Attempt to understand how each writers background and purposes influence what they write.

Reading a text critically requires that you ask questions about the writers authority and agenda. You may need to put yourself in the authors shoes and recognize that those shoes fit a certain way of thinking. Work to determine and understand an authors context, purpose, and intended audience.

Work to understand your own strategies and improve them.

Ask yourself questions about how you read: Do you read too quickly or slowly? Do you tend to lose your focus? Can you scan for key information or ideas? Consider the characteristics of effective reading above, in relation to those practices and strategies you already employ, to get a sense of your current reading strategies and how they might be improved

The development of reading and writing skills in a foreign language (FL) has a central role in the FL curriculum. The importance of these abilities is even stronger in upper-level courses where reading and writing are assigned in combination, as in the case of reading-to-write tasks. In these tasks students are asked to read articles or literary selections and to react and respond to them in an insightful and critical manner (Horowitz 1986; Spack 1988; Flower el al. 1990; Kem and Schultz 1992). The complexity involved in these skills as well as the web of processes that readers/writers orchestrate have been unveiled by researchers in both first (L1) and second/foreign languages (L2/FL) who seek an understanding of the cognition of reading-towrite acts. In this article a review is presented of the most influential work done on the process of reading-to-write in the last two decades. Also, reference is made to the impact that research on writing process and reading process has made on the FL profession. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Reading-Writing-PostgraduatesSkills/dp/1412902223#reader_1412902223

What is critical thinking? http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally.
It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following :

understand the logical connections between ideas identify, construct and evaluate arguments detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning solve problems systematically identify the relevance and importance of ideas reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values

Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A critical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how to make use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform himself. Critical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can use critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social institutions. Some people believe that critical thinking hinders creativity because it requires following the rules of logic and rationality, but creativity might require breaking rules. This is a misconception. Critical thinking is quite compatible with thinking "out-of-the-box", challenging consensus and purusing less popular approaches. If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas.

Importance
Critical thinking is a domain-general thinking skill. The ability to think clearly and rationally is important whatever we choose to do. If you work in education, research, finance, management or the legal profession, then critical thinking is obviously important. But critical thinking skills are not restricted to a

particular subject area. Being able to think well and solve problems systematically is an asset for any career.

Critical thinking enhances language and presentation skills. Thinking clearly and systematically can improve the way we express our ideas. In learning how to analyse the logical structure of texts, critical thinking also improves comprehension abilities. Critical thinking promotes creativity. To come up with a creative solution to a problem involves not just having new ideas. It must also be the case that the new ideas being generated are useful and relevant to the task at hand. Critical thinking plays a crucial role in evaluating new ideas, selecting the best ones and modifying them if necessary

How to improve

Critical thinking is a meta-thinking skill. It requires thinking about thinking. We have to reflect on the good principles of reasoning and make a conscious effort to internalize them and apply them in daily life. This is notoriously hard to do and often requires a long period of training. The mastery of critical thinking is similar to the mastery of many other skills. There are three important components: theory, practice, and attitude.
C04.1 Theory

If we want to think correctly, we need to follow the correct rules of reasoning. Knowledge of theory includes knowledge of these rules. These are the basic principles of critical thinking, such as the laws of logic, and the methods of scientific reasoning, etc. Also, it would be useful to know something about what not to do if we want to reason correctly. This means we should have some basic knowledge of the mistakes that people make. First, this requires some knowledge of typical fallacies. Second, psychologists have discovered persistent biases and limitations in human reasoning. An awareness of these empirical findings will alert us to potential problems.
C04.2 Practice

However, merely knowing the principles that distinguish good and bad reasoning is not enough. We might study in the classroom about how to swim, and learn about the basic theory, such as the fact that one should not breathe under water. But unless we can apply such theoretical knowledge through constant practice, we might not actually be able to swim. Similarly, to be good at critical thinking skills it is necessary to internalize the theoretical principles so that we can actually apply them in daily life. There are at least two ways One is to

do lots of good-quality exercises. Exercises include not just exercises in classrooms and tutorials. They also include exercises in the form of discussion and debates with other people in our daily life. The other method is to think more deeply about the principles that we have acquired. In the human mind, memory and understanding are acquired through making connections between ideas.
C04.3 Attitudes

Good critical thinking skills require not just knowledge and practice. Persistent practice can bring about improvements only if one has the right kind of motivation and attitude. The following attitudes are not uncommon, but they will not help you improve your thinking :

I prefer being given the correct answers rather than figuring them out myself. I don't like to think a lot about my decisions as I rely only on gut feelings. I don't usually review the mistakes I have made. I don't like to be criticized.

To improve one's thinking one must recognize that the importance of reflecting on the reasons for belief and action. One must also be willing to engage in debate, to make mistakes, to break old habits, and to deal with linguistic complexities and abstract concepts. See also our next tutorial about the teaching of critical thinking.

WHAT IS GOOD CRITICAL THINKING?

Good critical thinking meets the criteria of these intellectual values:

Clarity Accuracy Precision Consistency Relevance

HOW DO WE THINK CRITICALLY?

1. We Begin With the Right Approach

Reason: We base our thinking in logic, not feelings. Self-Awareness: We pay attention to our own and others assumptions, biases and perspectives. Integrity: We care about doing our intellectual work honestly and accurately rather than about being right. Discipline: We put effort into doing our work comprehensively and precisely. Open-mindedness: We consider alternatives and other points of view.

2. We Look Deeper and Farther

There are countless ways in which we look deeper and farther when thinking critically. For example, we look deeper when we make inferences about an arguments hidden assumptions and values. We look farther when we connect a study to theories in our discipline. We always think about the implications and importance of what we find.

3. We Ask Complex Questions

We develop and pose questions that help us look deeper and more broadly and that require a variety of thinking processes to answer. We generate specific, complex questions based on what exactly we are thinking about, starting with basic critical inquiry:

Who is the implied audience? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this? What are the different possible solutions to this problem and which seems most effective? What is the nature of the relationship between this and that? What exactly is the logical flaw in this reasoning? Is this really relevant to that? If not, where does the connection break down? What are the underlying assumptions and values?

4. We Answer Questions Using a Variety of Thinking Processes

Analysis: breaking something into parts to better understand the parts and the whole (identifying, classifying, categorizing, comparing)

Synthesis: making connections between the parts and the whole to see the pattern of relationships (organizing, connecting, designing, predicting)

Interpretation: examining the connection (s) between the parts and the whole to make inferences about the implications and meanings of the pattern(s) (associating, inferring, decoding)

Evaluation: forming judgments about meanings, qualities and values (justifying, critiquing, verifying, deciding)

5. We Reflect on How We Are Answering the Questions

Throughout the process, we ask ourselves questions such as: Is that clear or is there still some confusion I need to clarify? Is that really true? Do I need to be more specific or detailed? How is that connected to the central focus? Am I thinking about this in a complex enough way or should I go deeper and further in my thinking? Do I need to consider a bigger framework or a different point of view?

Critical thinking includes a complex combination of skills. Among the main characteristics are the following:
Rationality We are thinking critically when we rely on reason rather than emotion, require evidence, ignore no known evidence, and follow evidence where it leads, and are concerned more with finding the best explanation than being right analyzing apparent confusion and asking questions.

Self-awareness We are thinking critically when we weigh the influences of motives and bias, and recognize our own assumptions, prejudices, biases, or point of view.

Honesty We are thinking critically when we recognize emotional impulses, selfish motives, nefarious purposes, or other modes of self-deception. Open-mindedness We are thinking critically when we evaluate all reasonable inferences

consider a variety of possible viewpoints or perspectives, remain open to alternative interpretations accept a new explanation, model, or paradigm because it explains the evidence better, is simpler, or has fewer inconsistencies or covers more data accept new priorities in response to a reevaluation of the evidence or reassessment of our real interests, and do not reject unpopular views out of hand.

Discipline We are thinking critically when we are precise, meticulous, comprehensive, and exhaustive resist manipulation and irrational appeals, and avoid snap judgments.

Judgment We are thinking critically when we In sum, Critical thinkers are by nature skeptical. They approach texts with the same skepticism and suspicion as they approach spoken remarks. Critical thinkers are active, not passive. They ask questions and analyze. They consciously apply tactics and strategies to uncover meaning or assure their understanding. Critical thinkers do not take an egotistical view of the world. They are open to new ideas and perspectives. They are willing to challenge their beliefs and investigate competing evidence. recognize the relevance and/or merit of alternative assumptions and perspectives recognize the extent and weight of evidence

Critical thinking enables us to recognize a wide range of subjective analyses of otherwise objective data, and to evaluate how well each analysis might meet our needs. Facts may be facts, but how we interpret them may vary. By contrast, passive, non-critical thinkers take a simplistic view of the world. They see things in black and white, as either-or, rather than recognizing a variety of possible understanding. They see questions as yes or no with no subtleties. They fail to see linkages and complexities. They fail to recognize related elements.

Non-critical thinkers take an egotistical view of the world They take their facts as the only relevant ones. They take their own perspective as the only sensible one. They take their goal as the only valid one.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Guided Reading at the Junior Level 1. Before Reading a. Access prior knowledge b. Build background and introduce genre, title and author c. Ask for predictions based on the cover of the text d. Access concepts, images and vocabulary in the readers memories that are related to the story e. Begin a graphic organizer f. Do a Book Walk i. Scan through the text and examine any illustrations ii. Look at the format of the book (pages, chapters, titles, table of contents, index, etc.) iii. Introduce and discuss key vocabulary in the title 2. During Reading a. Each group member reads a selected portion of the text silently b. Teacher directs the students reading by suggesting what they might look for in each paragraph c. Teacher selects appropriate reading strategies and focus questions 3. After Reading a. Reflect on reading strategies b. Discuss characters, setting, plot, genre as a group c. Discuss vocabulary d. Teach mini-lessons based on the needs of those in the group e. Develop reading skills and strategies f. Responding and Extending: i. Build comprehension by discussing the text in more depth (explore theme, character development, make connections) ii. Respond to the text in writing, orally, visually, dramatically iii. Compare earlier predictions to actual events in the text iv. Complete the graphic organizer(teaching language and literacy M. Huges)

Teaching Reading
Traditionally, the purpose of learning to read in a language has been to have access to the literature written in that language. In language instruction, reading materials have traditionally been chosen from literary texts that represent "higher" forms of culture. Burnes assumes that students learn to read a language by studying its vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, not by actually reading it. The reading of authentic materials is limited to the works of great authors and reserved for upper level students who have developed the language skills needed to read them. The communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a different understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be used in instruction. When the goal of instruction is communicative competence, everyday materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel and tourism Web sites become appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is one way communicative competence is developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus become essential parts of language teaching at every level.
Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension

Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts. The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. A person who needs to know whether she can afford to eat at a particular restaurant needs to comprehend the pricing information provided on the menu, but does not need to recognize the name of every appetizer listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the words the poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main idea and supporting details. However, a person using a scientific article to support an opinion needs to know the vocabulary that is used, understand the facts and cause-effect sequences that are presented, and recognize ideas that are presented as hypotheses and givens. Reading research shows that good readers

Read extensively Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading Are motivated Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall Read for a purpose; reading serves a function

Reading as a Process

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is. Reader knowledge, skills, and strategies include

Linguistic competence: the ability to recognize the elements of the writing system; knowledge of vocabulary; knowledge of how words are structured into sentences Discourse competence: knowledge of discourse markers and how they connect parts of the text to one another Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge about different types of texts and their usual structure and content Strategic competence: the ability to use top-down strategies (see Strategies for Developing Reading Skills for descriptions), as well as knowledge of the language (a bottom-up strategy)

The purpose(s) for reading and the type of text determine the specific knowledge, skills, and strategies that readers need to apply to achieve comprehension. Reading comprehension is thus much more than decoding. Reading comprehension results when the reader knows which skills and strategies are appropriate for the type of text, and understands how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose. (Reading in the beginning and intermediate college foreign language class by Heidi Byrnes) in Modules for the professional preparation of teaching assistants in foreign languages (Grace Stovall Burkart, ed.; Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998)

Reading Process
http://fulbright.state.gov/uploads/bd/77/bd7738d6dc910ad45a7a73bade7353e1/TeachingReading--Vocabulary.pdf Background Knowledge (schema theory) is the general knowledge of the world that a reader has when they read.

printed page.

Readers understand what they read because they see the word or phrases as representations of ideas associated with concepts, information, knowledge, experience, emotions, culture, etc. already stored in memories. Readers are limited by the amount of information they are able to receive, process, and remember at a given time. Readers select the most productive cues in determining what the writers message meant

Bottopm-up Reading an older, and now considered outdated, view was that reading takes place by matching sounds and letters; or stated in terms of more sophisticated terminology, reading was considered a process of manipulating phoneme-grapheme relationships, as described by structural linguist Bloomfield 1933: 500). The approaches to reading which are part of some childrens first- language experience in terms of recognizing letters, memorizing names of the letters in the alphabet, and sounding out simple words which is (phonics method ) are part of the traditional, conventional view of what reading is all about. An aspect of this view was that reading is a passive activity, with writing as the active counterpart. Basically the model fostered practices in reading instruction which built up learners